Archive for the 'Blast from the Past' Category

This is Part 2 in our series on the Tigers and Blue Jays’ pennant fight in 1987. Part 1 appeared yesterday.

American League East Standings
September 24, 1987

Team
Record
Pct.
GB

Toronto
93 – 59
.612
–

Detroit
92-59
.609
.5

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 [...]

Over the next week, we’ll watch the Tigers and Twins play head-to-head to decide the American League Central.

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 [...]

From Baseball-Reference.com:
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, [...]

On this date in 1970, Tigers catcher (and current third base coach) Gene Lamont hit a home run in his first big-league at bat in a 10-1 loss to the Red Sox at Fenway Park. The left-handed hitting Lamont hit his shot off Boston’s Cal Koonce, capping a 2-for-3 night.
Lamont, the Tigers’ first-round pick [...]

… Jim Northrup goes 6-for-6, the first six-hit game for the Tigers since June 24, 1962*, as the Tigers beat the A’s, 5-3.
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 [...]

Dan Dickerson was quick to point out that Justin Verlander’s shutout on Thursday was the first by a Tigers pitcher at Fenway Park since Doyle Alexander blanked the Red Sox in 1987. (Thanks to a tip from Fungo contributor Doug Hill, we went scrambling for the details.)

The Tigers were a half-game out of first place [...]

As the trade-deadline hysteria gains steam, let’s look back on this date in 2002 when the Tigers made another non-blockbuster for three prospects that amounted to bupkis.
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 [...]

My brother and I attended the 1984 ALCS Game 3 Clincher versus the Royals at Tiger Stadium (seated in straightaway centerfield in the lower-deck bleachers) but this was before we had a VCR (remember those?) and I never got to see it replayed.
Twenty-five years later, it’s iTunes to the rescue.
I stumbled on the game [...]

Yeah, so Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney ruined our night tonight. We’re used to that. Take heart. The Tigers still cling to first place.
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 [...]

On this date in 2005, the Tigers traded reliever/troublemaker Ugueth Urbina and infielder Ramon Martinez to the Phillies for infielder Placido Polanco. We all know how that traded worked out.
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 [...]