So what, you ask? So, exactly one year later the Tigers sent Martin and pitcher Al Cicotte to the Indians for relievers Ray Narleski and Don Mossi, and shortstop Ossie Alvarez.

Not the most exciting stuff but, hey, at least it’s about two trades that actually materialized.

His best overall season was 1984: .280, 18 HR, 92 RBI and 15 triples. For the Tigers he simply kept centerfield warm for, ahem, Milt Cuyler.

The Portland, Ark. native hit .255 in two Detroit seasons with a total of 20 homers. He retired after the 1991 season at the surprisingly young age of 31.

He walked just two and struck out eight as the Tigers beat the Yankees 5-0 — and Rogers slew a personal postseason dragon — to take a two-games-to-one lead in the American League Division Series.

A look through the Tigers history book reveals that they’ve been quite busy on October 6 — when they make the postseason, that is. So, I thought we’d take a look and see if there’s some historical star alignment happening ahead of Game 163. Here’s a deeper look at how the Tigers have performed (or not) in the franchise’s postseason appearances from 1907 through 1987:

• 1987 American League Championship Series - The Tigers and Twins began the series on Oct. 7. And many of us are wishing it never had.

• 1984 ALCS – A day after completing a sweep of the Royals, the Tigers relaxed and awaited their World Series opponent.

• 1972 ALCS - The last gasp of the ‘68 club began on Oct. 7 in Oakland.

• 1968 World Series Game 4 - Mayo Smith’s club got creamed by the Cardinals at Tiger Stadium, 10-1. Denny McLain took the loss and Bob Gibson cruised. The Cards went up three games to one and, well, we all know what happened next.

• 1945 World Series Game 4 - Detroit beat the Cubs 4-1 at Wrigley Field behind Dizzy Trout, knotting series at two games apiece.

• 1940 World Series Game 5 - At Briggs Stadium the Tigers beat the Reds 8-0. Bobo Newsom got the complete-game win, allowing just three singles, none after the fourth. Hank Greenberg had three hits including a home run and drove in four.

• 1935 World Series Game 5 – The Cubs defeated the Tigers and Schoolboy Rowe 3-1 at Wrigley. Tigers player/manager Mickey Cochrane and his rightfielder, Pete Fox, each had two hits in the loss.

• 1934 World Series Game 4 - Elden Auker beat the Cardinals at Sportsman’s Park, 10-4. Greenberg had a monster day going 4 for 5 with a pair of doubles and four RBI.

As for the Tigers’ earliest postseason appearances: The 1909 World Series didn’t get under way until Oct. 8 at Forbes Field. The 1908 Series started on Oct. 10 at Bennett Park, and the 1907 Series began on Oct. 8 at West Side Grounds.

Add it up, and the Tigers are 4-2 on this date in history.

What’s it all mean for today? Hey, we just report the facts.

In the first six games one thing was constant: the team that scored first would go on to lose. The Blue Jays, with the season in the balance, would take their chances and welcome an early lead off Tigers starter Frank Tanana.

Instead, the Tigers struck first. Larry Herndon led off the Detroit third inning with a home run off Blue Jays starter Jimmy Key. A strong wind gust nudged the ball over Bell’s outstretched glove and into the lower deck in left. The Tigers led 1-0 on Herndon’s first homer since Aug. 18.

“Luckily, I just got enough,” Herndon said to Tommy George of the Free Press. “I saw Bell go back and it looked like he had a chance to catch it. I looked at Bell all the way. And then when I heard and saw the crowd reaction behind the fence, I knew it was out.”

Key gave his team every opportunity to get back into the game. He blanked Detroit – allowing only a single by Lou Whitaker and three walks – over the next five innings. As the shadows crept across the Tiger Stadium infield, Tanana faced – and escaped – a number of threats. In the eighth, the Blue Jays placed a runner at third with only one out and the heart of the order coming to bat. Tanana got Juan Beniquez to line to right and then Jesse Barfield grounded out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the eighth, Key struck out the side and finished the game giving up only three hits. He could now only watch as his teammates worked to muster some offense against Tanana.

Cecil Fielder, who three years later would become a star with Detroit, led off the ninth inning with a strike out. The next hitter, Manny Lee, who was superb in replacing Tony Fernandez during the season’s final 10 days, battled with Tanana and fouled off five, full-count pitches. With the sixth, Lee grounded sharply to third for out number two.

The Blue Jays’ final hope rested on the bat of third baseman Garth Iorg, hitless in his previous three at bats. Iorg swung at the first pitch, a tantalizing curveball, and hit a slow roller between pitcher’s mound and first. Tanana scooped the ball, turned and softly underhanded it to first baseman Darrell Evans for the final out – clinching the Tigers second division championship in four years.

The Blue Jays could only watch as the Tigers celebrated a championship that, just a week earlier, appeared to be theirs.

“To lose that many one-run games, one play, one pitch, one hit turns ‘em all around,” Toronto manager Jimy Williams told the News’s Lynn Henning in a somber clubhouse afterward. “Especially one hit. We lost the first two and then, when you put nine eggs on the board, it’s tough to win.”

As the Blue Jays gathered their belongings and prepared for a long winter of questions and soul searching, the Tigers had more work ahead of them: the American League Championship Series against the Minnesota Twins.

Seven months earlier at their spring training home in Lakeland, Fla., the Tigers didn’t appear to have the ingredients required for a memorable season. At the time, Jack Morris said that the Tigers could win…but they’d have to do it with what they had. Hardly a stirring battle cry.

But when the final 10 days of the 1987 season arrived, the Tigers proved they had enough – plenty, in fact – to win the American League East title.

Final 1987 American League East Standings

]]> http://www.dailyfungo.com/2009/10/04/october-surprise-part-9-comeback-complete/feed/ 0 http://www.dailyfungo.com/2009/10/03/october-surprise-part-8-tigers-pull-ahead/ http://www.dailyfungo.com/2009/10/03/october-surprise-part-8-tigers-pull-ahead/#comments Sat, 03 Oct 2009 19:56:13 +0000 Mike McClary http://www.dailyfungo.com/?p=2850 On the next-to-last day of the 2009 season, with the Tigers’ fate still undecided, we continue our series on the Tigers’ and Blue Jays’ battle for the A.L. East crown on the next-to-last day of the 1987 season.

American League East Standings: October 3, 1987

In game two of the final series, Jack Morris and Mike Flanagan faced off on a bright and blustery Saturday afternoon.

As they had in Toronto nine days earlier, the two veteran pitchers sparkled. The Jays grabbed an early 1-0 lead. The Tigers countered with a Mike Heath single and Bill Madlock double to knot the game. Both teams scored in the fifth.

But over the next seven innings neither team scored. Morris pitched nine strong innings to Flanagan’s 11.

“I’ve been in this league eight years facing Flanagan, and I’ve never seen him better,” Tom Brookens said to the Free Press’s John Lowe.

Mike Henneman relieved Morris in the tenth and shut down the Jays. Jeff Musselman took over for Flanagan but couldn’t pick up where the starter had left off.

Lou Whitaker led off the twelfth with a single that stirred up the Toronto bullpen. Madlock singled too, then Kirk Gibson walked to load the bases. Blue Jays manager Jimy Williams quickly switched to the right-handed Mark Eichhorn to face Alan Trammell.

On Eichhorn’s third pitch, Trammell rifled a groundball through shortstop Manny Lee’s legs into left field. Jim Walewander, pinch running for Whitaker, scored the winning run and for the first time in more than two weeks the Tigers had sole possession of first place in the American League East.

Following the game, Morris, who appeared to be throwing his hardest in the ninth inning, was asked how he got stronger as the game progressed.

“Adrenaline,” Morris told Lowe. “You know it’s the end of the season. There’s no reason to save anything. You reach back and you find a little extra. I didn’t have great stuff early, but I had great concentration from the third inning on. I just wouldn’t give in.”

The Tigers had seized momentum. With a win on Sunday they could cap baseball’s most unlikely comeback in years and seal perhaps the worst collapse in recent memory.

Tomorrow: Tigers Clinch in a Nail-biter

Of all the scenarios facing the Tigers for the final weekend, one was the most cut and dried: sweep the Blue Jays, win the division.

Game one of the decisive series took place on a cold Friday night. A crowd of 45,167 witnessed a rematch of the previous Sunday, Doyle Alexander and Jim Clancy.

The Jays scored first in the top of the second on Manny Lee’s three-run homer to right-center. In the bottom of that same inning the Tigers scored two runs of their own on a Chet Lemon single and a home run by rookie outfielder Scott Lusader.

In the third, Detroit took the lead. Alan Trammell hit his 28th homer of the year. Then Darrell Evans walked, and Matt Nokes singled moving Evans to third. Evans scored when Chet Lemon grounded into a double play. The Tigers led 4-3.

Alexander gave the Tigers yet another strong outing. Despite throwing nearly 30 pitches in the first inning alone, he settled down to yield just three runs on seven hits over seven and two-thirds innings. Five double plays helped Alexander raise his record to 9-0 and Mike Henneman earn his seventh save.

“I struggled like a big dog tonight,” Alexander told the Free Press’s Joe Lapointe. “Mike Henneman is the reason we won the ball game. We wouldn’t be where we are without Mike Henneman.”

A week earlier the Tigers were reeling, watching their title hopes evaporate. Now Detroit was tied for first place with
two games remaining.

“We’re feeling good about ourselves,” Evans said to Lapointe.

Tomorrow: Morris and Flanagan Face Off

• Part 1 – Tigers and Jays Battle for ‘87 Division Title
• Part 2 – Showdown in Toronto, Game 1
• Part 3 – Game 2 Skips Away
• Part 4 – Bullpen Collapses in Game 3
• Part 5 – Setting the Bear Trap

The schedule makers left no time for the Tigers or Blue Jays to rest. Toronto remained home to host the Brewers while the Tigers prepared for another four-game series, this one against the sixth-place Orioles at Tiger Stadium.

Detroit split its series with Baltimore while Toronto, swept by Milwaukee, found itself in a full-fledged swoon. The Tigers’ win in the finale, combined with the Toronto off day, closed the Blue Jays’ lead to one game with three to play.

Up Next: Birds invade Detroit

• Part 1 – Tigers and Jays Battle for ‘87 Division Title
• Part 2 – Showdown in Toronto, Game 1
• Part 3 – Game 2 Skips Away
• Part 4 – Bullpen Collapses in Game 3

As the Tigers arrived at Exhibition Stadium for the series finale, they knew what was at stake. The chances of coming back from four-and-a-half game deficit in less than a week bordered on the absurd. If ever there were a must-win game, this was it.

The Tigers turned to Doyle Alexander to stop the bleeding. Toronto looked to right-hander Jim Clancy to bury the Tigers’ fading division title hopes.

Nelson Liriano led off the home half of the first with a single to right and promptly stole second. Eventual league MVP George Bell drove in Liriano for Toronto’s first run. Though he baffled the Jays for the next eight innings, Alexander and the Tigers trailed 1-0 heading into the top of the ninth.

As he had in game two, Blue Jays manager Jimy Williams called on Tom Henke to start the ninth and snuff out any chance of a Tigers comeback. Henke’s first assignment was Kirk Gibson. With two strikes, Gibson connected for a monstrous homer to right, knotting the game at one and giving the Tigers a flicker of hope.

Neither team scored in the tenth, but in the eleventh inning Darrell Evans blasted a home run — farther then Gibson’s — to give the Tigers their first lead of the game.

Alexander lasted into the eleventh, pitching his finest game of the season. Over 10.2 innings, he scattered six hits, allowing just four walks and striking out four.

The Tigers’ lead wouldn’t last. In the bottom half of the eleventh, an error by Alan Trammell and an RBI single by Jesse Barfield tied the game at two.

In the Tigers’ thirteenth, rookie Jim Walewander led off with a walk. Lou Whitaker’s sacrifice advanced Walewander to second. After an intentional walk to Evans, Gibson dropped a single into center scoring Walewander with the go-
ahead run.

Unlike the previous three games, the Detroit bullpen delivered. Mike Henneman, Dickie Noles and Mark Thurmond combined to shut down the Jays for good in the bottom of the thirteenth and allowed the Tigers to escape Toronto just two-and-one-half games back.

In the clubhouse after the game, Gibson summed up the Tigers situation heading into the final week of the season. “Who knows,” he said to the media surrounding his locker. “We might be setting the biggest bear trap of all time.”

Tomorrow: Heading Home with Title Within Reach.

• Part 1 – Tigers and Jays Battle for ‘87 Division Title
• Part 2 – Showdown in Toronto, Game 1
• Part 3 – Game 2 Skips Away

If the Tigers suffered any ill effects from the previous two games, they certainly didn’t show it in the third game of the series.

Detroit pummeled Toronto’s ace Dave Steib, tagging the right-hander for six runs on four hits in just 2.1 innings. Matt Nokes drove in six runs in his first two at bats: a first-inning two-run homer and a grand slam in the third.

The Blue Jays were having nearly as much fun with Detroit starter Walt Terrell. In his 2.1 innings, the Blue Jays came up with four runs on seven hits. The Tigers attacked five additional Toronto hurlers for a 9-4 lead in the fifth inning. Toronto wouldn’t go away quietly, tacking on three more runs. Heading into the bottom half of the ninth Detroit clung to a 9-7 lead.

Jesse Barfield led off the bottom of the ninth with a bloop single off of Mike Henneman. The next batter, Willie Upshaw, nubbed a grounder to third for an infield hit. Henneman then hit Leach with a pitch to load the bases. The Tigers brought in Dickie Noles to face Juan Beniquez. The 16-year veteran worked the count full before lining the payoff pitch into left-centerfield scoring three runs and giving the Blue Jays their third come-from-behind win in as many games.

The Tigers were stunned. Again.

“This loss makes it all the more difficult for us, and it’s important that we win (Sunday),” third baseman Tom Brookens said to the Free Press’s John Lowe. “But we’ve always been the type of players who can put games behind us. It doesn’t bother us any more to lose a game late like this than another loss would.”

At the outset of the series, Toronto’s relief corps was universally considered a key advantage over Detroit. By Saturday evening, it was clear that the Tigers relievers were perhaps the club’s weakest link. And so far, it was the difference in the series.

Tomorrow: Setting the Bear Trap

Part 1 – October Surprise: Tigers and Jays Battle for ‘87 Division Title
Part 2 – Showdown in Toronto, Game 1

American League East Standings

September 25, 1987

Tigers left hander Frank Tanana had been in one divisional race in his 14-year career: in 1979 when he helped the California Angels win their first American League West title. In 1987, Tanana approached the twilight of his career but Toronto starter Jimmy Key’s best days were just dawning. Key had won 14 games in each of his first two years as a starter and in 1987 he would finish second in A.L. Cy Young voting, posting a 17-8 record and 2.76 ERA.

For the second straight night, the Tigers produced a two-run lead. In the Tigers’ second, Chet Lemon doubled and Darrell Evans singled him home. Later, in the sixth, Kirk Gibson bunted for a base hit and took second on Key’s wild throw to first. Larry Herndon followed with a single to left scoring Gibson and giving Tanana a two-run cushion.

Tanana pitched one of his best games of the season throwing seven scoreless innings, yielding just five hits and a walk. Key was equally masterful in his 8.1 innings pitched. He scattered nine hits, allowing only one earned run and walking a single hitter. Going into the ninth inning the Tigers maintained a 2-0 lead.

Whitt led of the ninth by flying out to center. The next batter, Jesse Barfield, singled off of reliever Dickie Noles. Anderson promptly lifted Noles for aging left-hander Willie Hernandez to face former-Tiger Rick Leach.

Leach wasted no time ripping a double to put runners on second and third with one out. The next batter, Manny Lee, tripled off Hernandez tying the game at two. Still with one out, Anderson brought in Mike Henneman, Detroit’s rookie closer. Henneman intentionally walked Willie Upshaw and then Liriano to load the bases. With the infield in, Lloyd Moseby hit a sharp grounder to Lou Whitaker. Whitaker passed up a risky second-to-first double play chance and threw home. The ball bounced past Mike Heath and allowed Lee to score the winning run.

“Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tram move to his left,” Whitaker told the Free Press’s John Lowe after the game. “The way we play together, I knew we had a chance to turn two, but we couldn’t take the chance.”

“Maybe I could have backed up and caught the ball with one foot on the back part of the plate,” Heath said to Lowe. “There possibly was time (to reposition himself at the plate), but at that point I just didn’t think about it. It just happened too quick. When I saw it down there, I tried to trap it. . . . and it just ate me up.”

Two games, two blown leads, two losses. Not what the Tigers had in mind. “I would not recommend this as a way to get ahead,” Anderson said to the Free Press’s Charlie Vincent.

Instead of tightening the pennant race, the Tigers were loosening their grip on postseason aspirations. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays had to feel more comfortable on their first-place perch.

Tomorrow: Another Heartbreaker

American League East Standings

September 24, 1987

At the outset of the first series the Tigers sat only a half-game out of first place. The game-one pitching match up featured two of baseball’s best in the 1980s: the Tigers’ Jack Morris and Jays lefty Mike Flanagan.

It didn’t take long for the complexion of the game, the series and perhaps the season to change dramatically. In the top of the third, with Bill Madlock on first, Kirk Gibson hit a routine double-play ball to second baseman Nelson Liriano. Liriano pivoted and threw to shortstop Tony Fernandez for the force at second; Madlock’s slide toppled Fernandez who fell to the artificial surface, breaking his elbow. (Shortly after Fernandez left the game the Blue Jays announced that he would need surgery and would be out for the remainder of the season.) Gibson reached first on the fielder’s choice.

After a Trammell fly out, Larry Herndon singled, moving Gibson to second. The next hitter, centerfielder Chet Lemon, drove in Gibson and advanced Herndon to third. A Flanagan wild pitch scored Herndon and gave Morris a 2-0 lead.

In the bottom half of the third, Toronto scored all the runs they’d need. Catcher Ernie Whitt smacked a two-run single tying the score at two. Jays’ third baseman Rance Mulliniks followed with a double off the top of the left field wall moving Whitt to third. Whitt scored – narrowly – on a wild pitch. The ball ricocheted off the backstop to catcher Mike Heath who tossed it to Morris covering home. Morris arrived ahead of Whitt but over-ran the plate and couldn’t recover in time to apply the tag. Toronto led 4-2.

Flanagan blanked the Tigers until the seventh when three straight singles by Lou Whitaker, Trammell and Gibson narrowed the deficit to 4-3. In the ninth, Toronto closer Tom Henke shut the Tigers down to notch his league-leading 34th save and give the Blue Jays an early lead in the series.

“I just didn’t do my job,” Morris told the Free Press’s John Lowe after the game. “My team gave me a two-run lead and I gave it right back. That’s not the way you’re supposed to pitch.”

Sparky Anderson refused to make too much of the loss. “Crucial?”, he said to Tom Gage of the Detroit News. “How the heck do I know if it’s crucial? I’ll let you know in another 10 days.”

With the injury to Fernandez, Toronto lost arguably its most important offensive player. For one night, though, the Jays were able to overcome it.

A game and a half ahead of the Tigers, Toronto had to like how the weekend had started. The Tigers would need to bounce back quickly.

Tomorrow: Game Two

While this plays out, let’s look back at the final two weekends of the 1987 season when the Tigers and Blue Jays squared off for seven heart-pounding, one-run games that would ultimately decide the American League East title.

Today, Part 1.

Entering the 1987 season, little was expected of the Detroit Tigers. Just three seasons removed from a wire-to-wire championship season, the Tigers were considered mere also-rans in a division filled with potent lineups, solid pitching and the defending League Champions, the Red Sox.

Adding to an already challenging divisional landscape, the Tigers faced life without their All Star catcher and cleanup hitter, Lance Parrish. The Big Wheel rejected the Tigers’ two-year, $2.4 million contract offer and instead signed a one-year $800,000 deal with the Philadelphia Phillies.

That’s why in the first weeks of the 1987 season the story in baseball was not the Detroit Tigers. Hardly. The Milwaukee Brewers’ 13-0 start captivated the baseball world. After 13 games the Tigers had a less-imposing 6-7 record. Twenty games into the season Milwaukee had stormed to 18-2, four games ahead of New York, followed by Toronto (12-8), Baltimore (9-11), Detroit (8-12) and Cleveland (6-14).

The Brewers, though, soon came back to earth. On May 1 the club sat atop the A.L. East with a 19-3 record. Fueled by a horrific stretch that saw the team lose 12 straight and 18 out of 20, Tom Trebelhorn’s team limped into June at 24-21 and would eventually finish seven games off the pace.

By the middle of May the Tigers’ record was a lackluster 11-19. But whereas Milwaukee’s season had imploded by Memorial Day, the 24-24 Tigers began showing signs of life.

The Tigers Find Their Groove

In June, things started clicking for the Tigers. The loss of Parrish was buffered unexpectedly by slugging catcher Matt Nokes called up from Triple-A Nashville in May. Detroit found more punch on the waiver wire on June 4, when the team signed four-time National League batting champion Bill Madlock who had been released by the Dodgers. Madlock, a career .306 hitter, brought an experienced and still-dangerous bat to a Detroit lineup lacking in right-handed pop.

After acquiring Madlock, the Tigers rolled to a 73-40 record, a .646 winning percentage. Along with shortstop Alan Trammell, who was crafting an MVP-caliber season, Madlock helped catapult the team into contention in the A.L. East.

By July 1, Detroit posted a 41-32 record and on August 1 they were 58-41, good for third place, just a game and a half behind the second-place Blue Jays and three games behind the Yankees.

Over the final two months of the season it became clear that the Tigers were in a three-team race, though the Yankees would eventually fade. But to compete with the pitching-rich Blue Jays, the team needed a B-12 injection for the rotation.

On August 12, the Tigers acquired veteran right-handed pitcher Doyle Alexander from the Atlanta Braves in a trade for minor league prospect John Smoltz.

In Alexander the Tigers had found a complementary arm to a seasoned rotation of Morris, Frank Tanana and Walt Terrell. Alexander posted a perfect 9-0 record in his 11 starts with Detroit.

Heading into the next-to-last weekend of the season, the Tigers and Blue Jays were cruising. Detroit had taken two of three from Boston at Fenway Park and Toronto had swept three in Baltimore.

Then the baseball world turned its attention toward Toronto and a series that could decide the division champion.

Tomorrow: The First Showdown — the Tigers and Jays in Toronto

On this date in 2002, Tigers lefty Andy Van Hekken, with a fastball topping out in the mid-80s, becomes the first American Leaguer to throw a complete game shutout in his debut since Mike Norris in 1975, and the first Tiger since Schoolboy Rowe in 1933. He stops Cleveland 4 – 0. The Holland, Mich., native was 5 – 0 at Toledo before his promotion.

The Tigers leadoff hitter that day? None other than Hiram Bocachica.

Lamont, the Tigers’ first-round pick (#13) in the 1965 amateur draft, played five seasons in the big leagues, all with Detroit.

He appeared in 23 games from 1970 through ‘72, 60 games in ‘74 and just four in his final season, 1975. (According to his bio on the Tigers Web site, Lamont spent the 1973 season in the Braves organization.) He played in the Tigers’ minor-league system through 1977.

Final career line:

• 87 games
• .233 average
• 4 HR
• 14 RBI
• 1 stolen base

Here’s how Lamont’s post-playing career came together, again from his bio on Tigers.com:

Prior to joining Jim Leyland’s coaching staff in Pittsburgh in 1986, he spent eight seasons (1978-85) as a manager in the Kansas City Royals organization.

If a guy’s not going to enjoy a long career in the majors, it’s nice to see them at least make a splash during their abbreviated stay.

P.S. On Sept. 2 three years later, the Tigers fired Billy Martin.

Northrup’s sixth hit is a homer over the roof in the bottom of the 13th to win the game.

*In that game, left-fielder Rocky Colavito tagged seven hits in 10 at bats of a 22-inning game against the Yankees. New York won 9-7. The Rock had just one RBI and one extra-base hit, a triple, for his effort.

The Tigers were a half-game out of first place on Sept. 23, 1987, for the finale of a three-game series against Boston. Alexander, who blanked the Red Sox a week earlier, 3-0 at Tiger Stadium, faced off with lefty Bruce Hurst and was untouchable. He allowed singles to the first two batters he faced – Ellis Burks and Marty Barrett – and a two-out walk to Spike Owen in the second and that was it.

Alexander got two runs in the second and one each in the fifth and sixth. Tom Brookens drove in a pair and Alan Trammell knocked home one in the win. (The fourth run was scored on an error.) The Tigers moved on to Toronto for a grueling four-game series for ages against the Blue Jays.

You’ve got to love Baseball-Reference.com; I know I sure do.

Detroit traded righty Brian Moehler and infielder Matt Boone to Cincinnati for infielder David Espinosa and two players to be named. The Reds sent Noochie Varner and Jorge Cordova to the Tigers to complete the deal. As a Red, Moehler went 2-4 with a 6.02 ERA.

Moehler, now 37, was a fan favorite and, of course, the Tigers’ starting pitcher for the first-ever game at Comerica Park. After some arm trouble, there were some doubts that his career would last, but it has. In fact, he’s won 34 games since leaving Detroit. After leaving Cincy, Moehler pitched for Houston, Florida and he’s now back in Houston. This year he’s 7-9 with a 4.92 ERA.

Twenty-five years later, it’s iTunes to the rescue.

I stumbled on the game as a download from the iTunes Store for a mere $1.99. (!)

You’ll find a boatload of games available for that price in the “Baseball’s Best” section. If you’re going to buy the ‘84 game, scroll to Item #87. For whatever reason, the games are not in chronological order.

Do yourself a favor and buy it if only to enjoy Al Michaels‘ afro and the beauty of Howard Cosell interviewing Willie Wilson about his drug-related suspension that included early parts of the ‘84 season.

One technical note: You don’t need an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPod with video to view the game; you can watch the game on your computer in iTunes.

Doesn’t do much for you? Me either.

So instead of cursing the Tigers bullpen, let’s travel back 30 years to July 12, 1979 and revisit Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park, courtesy of Joe LaPointe’s article in yesterday’s New York Times.

Unlike the commonplace pyrotechnics of Zumaya/Rodney, this doubleheader included the on-field destruction of disco albums between games. Then things got, well, unruly. As Alan Trammell sums it up:

“The outfielders were definitely a little scared and Ronnie (LeFlore) wasn’t usually afraid of anything.”

The thing I remember most about that game was watching Sox owner Bill Veeck limp out on the field with his wooden leg — I had no idea he lost an appendage — to beg the rock-and-rollers to get off the field (and keep their rainchecks!). And I can still hear George Kell trying to describe the action without falling into a “kids-these-days” rant. (Or did he? Does anyone else remember?)

Even Dave Dombrowski, then a 22-year-old gopher for White Sox GM Roland Hemond, had a role in keeping the peace.

Oh, as for the games, the Tigers swept the double-dip 4-1 in the opener and then won the nightcap in a 9-0 forfeit. The victories brought the Tigers within 14 games of the division lead.

What are your memories of Disco Demolition Night?

In his five-ish seasons in Detroit, Polanco has been merely a machine: .313 average, .357 OBP, playing in about 140 games a year, hitting .529 in the ALCS to win the MVP, consecutive errorless-games streak at second base, and so on.

As for Urbina, he pitched in 56 games for the Phillies posting a 4-3 record with a 4.13 ERA. He managed to notch a single save before turning to a life of crime — and who could blame him? He was scraping by on the more than $25 million he’d earned in his 11 seasons. He’ll be in a Venezuelan clink for another 12 years. Give or take.

Also, a bevy of notable births occurred on June 8, not the least of which is my daughter. Friends of the Fungo Doug Hill and Ian Casselberry (he of the resplendent BlessYouBoys.com) also celebrate birthdays today. Then there are the Tigers-related celebrations, Kevin Ritz and Dave Mlicki and Matt Perisho.