By Mark Wilson
October 5, 2014

So much for the Detroit Tigers being built to win a World Series.

Heck, as it turns out? The Tigers aren’t even built… to beat BUD NORRIS.

On a Sunday that will not go down in Motown sports lore, the city’s baseball franchise, 30 years removed from its last championship, failed miserably to drag the American League Divisional Series to a fourth game against Baltimore.

As Baltimore native Jim Schwartz was being carried out of Ford Field on his Bills’ defensive players shoulders for Buffalo’s 17-14 last second victory, the Tigers were just getting going with the Orioles in Game Three.

Schwartz isn’t even the HEAD coach of that Bills’ squad and yet there he was getting the Grand Ride.

Like he was the King of Upstate New York or something.

Fans couldn’t linger too long on the football team’s latest debacle because right across Brush Street, the Tigers were fighting for their playoff lives.

Though, I must say, it would have been HILARIOUS if the Bills’ guys would have continued walking Schwartz on their shoulders right over to Comerica Park.
THAT would have been funny.

A win over the O’s would be just the tonic this town needed to forget Dan Carpenter’s 58-yard field goal to seal the deal on a day Buffalo started a QB who had barely even played the last three seasons.

Thanks a lot, Kyle Orton. Lions are 3-and-2.

It was the Tigers turn to try and get to… 3.

They needed ONE first.

Baltimore entered play with a 2-games-to-none lead in the best of five series. Outrage over the way manager Brad Ausmus used his pitching staff all season wafted into the post-season and stunk up Camden Yards.

Even Boog Powell’s BBQ joint couldn’t replace the stench of those first two contests.

If you don’t remember Boog? Wikipedia him!

Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander failed to produce a victory by the Inner Harbor so now it was that trade deadline acquisition David Price’s turn.

DP14 was motoring right along into the sixth inning when that old Tigers’ nemesis Nelson Cruz got up to his old long ball tricks. He slammed one 342 feet to right field with Adam Jones aboard and it was 2-0 Orioles.
Yes, 2-0 because those hard charging Tiger hitters couldn’t figure out the legend that is… BUD NORRIS.

Granted, in his sixth MLB campaign, Norris is having a career year. 15-and-8 in the regular season with an ERA of 3.65. No Cy Young Awards are coming his way, but a good year nonetheless.

Norris had never pitched a post-season game. His first four and a half years were spent with the Houston Astros. Bud actually just missed playing with Ausmus by a few months.

Playing WITH Ausmus… not FOR him.

Norris made it into the seventh inning allowing just two hits, to Don Kelly and Alex Avila, and two walks. The first five in the Tigers’ order couldn’t figure him out.

Kinsler, Hunter, Cabrera and the two Martinez’s got nada vs. the mighty Bud.

Then, for a taste of more Sunday irony, O’s manager Buck Showalter called on his former Tiger left handed bullpen ace.

Hello, Andrew Miller.

You remember Andy!

He’s the guy the Tigers took sixth overall in the 2006 MLB Draft who ended up being a starter for Detroit in 2007.
In 2008, Miller was shipped to Florida (now Miami) in the big Cabrera trade. GM Dave Dombrowski got Dontrelle Willis as well to offset the loss of Miller.

We all know that the “D-Train” flamed out immediately while Cabrera has gone on to be… well, CABRERA.

NO ONE is saying THAT was a bad deal. Far from it.

But, there he was on a crisp October day on the mound at Comerica ready to pitch against the same dude he was traded for seven years earlier.

No doubt Andrew Miller had a “seven year itch” to dump his former team on their collective wallets.

It was right about then I fully expected Jim Schwartz to enter the ballpark like he owned the joint.

Didn’t happen.

What DID happen is that Miller went an inning and two/thirds allowing nothing.

Zippo.

After Joe Nathan replaced Price in the top of the ninth and didn’t implode, the game went to the bottom of the ninth still stuck at 2-0 thanks to Cruz’s record setting homer.

Showalter sent Zach Britton in to finish off the series.
The two Martinez’s, Victor and JD, went back to back on doubles avoiding the embarrassment of a Game 3 shutout but also giving the Tigers a legit chance to win or tie in the ninth.

Visions of an 18 inning marathon like the Giants and Nationals had Saturday night danced in my head.

Nope.

Bryan Holaday struck out after failing to move over JD with a bunt and Britton walked Nick Castellanos intentionally. Gutsy call by Showalter.

Then again, maybe not that gutsy.

Hernan Perez was next up; pinch hitting for Andrew Romine. Perez had five major league at bats all season.

Sure enough, he grounded one to short where JJ Hardy flipped to Jon Schoop who fired to Steve Pearce and that… was that.

Inning ending… game ending… SEASON ending… double play.

Nice. 2-1 final.

Thanks for coming out Tiger fans! Hope you enjoyed trying to park while a Lions’ game was going on next door. And, how ‘bout that Lions game, huh!?
Jim Schwartz was still being carried off by the players all the way to Metro Airport.

The Baltimore Orioles, missing THREE key players most of the season and who hadn’t done “doodily squat” since the late 90’s, were on their way to the American League Championship Series.

Oh, and speaking of three’s, the O’s did the deed by knocking off the last THREE AL Cy Young Award winners.

Thanks a lot, Cy!

Detroit’s run of ALCS appearances ended at three in a row.

Funny how things align in sports sometimes.

While the Tigers haven’t WON a World Series since 1984, despite trips in 2006 and 2012, the Orioles haven’t won one since 1983; the last time they went to a World Series.

So, now the Orioles have the shot to win THEIR first title in three decades.

The Tigers continue the search.

What basically began with the trade of Prince Fielder to Texas for Kinsler back on November 20, 2013 effectively ended with that Perez double play ball.

In between was quite the little ride.

Ausmus was talked about all winter after Jim Leyland said adios to the Motor City although Leyland was here more than when he managed it seemed.

The loss of players like Peralta, Infante, Fister, Veras, Benoit and others replaced by the likes of Kinsler, Romine, Krol, Chamberlain and Nathan got the season underway.

Dombrowski changed short stops early when Alex Gonzalez busted after only nine games.

The constant “waiting” for Andy Dirks to come back from injury never materialized. Luckily, Rajai Davis was able to pick up the slack nicely.

The trade of Drew Smyly and Austin Jackson to secure the services of Price at the deadline gave Tigers’ fans hope.

A season-long rage against the Ausmus machine never relented.

Still, through it all, the Tigers won 90 games.

It was the first time they had popped a 90-spot in back to back seasons since 1983-84.

Thanks, Sparky.

Anderson took his opportunity in 1984 to bring a championship to the good people of Michigan. He had inferred he would do it within FIVE years of his managing tenure.

Sure enough, five years after his hiring, he won it all.

Ausmus made no such promises.

He didn’t have the luxury of Sparky. Anderson arrived a time when the core nucleus was young and impressionable. Ausmus came with enough in the chamber to believe a World Series title was almost a foregone conclusion.

As Jim Schwartz was being carried by his players through the streets of downtown Buffalo Sunday night, (PROVE it didn’t take place!), Ausmus was left to wonder WHY his team was “three and out” in the ALDS.

“You feel like you let the fans down and you feel like you let the organization down,” Ausmus told the media after the loss.

Yes YOU do.

“It’s disappointing.”

Always the Dartmouth graduate, the ex-Tiger catcher turned skipper stoically gave his final dissertation on the 2014 season.

Nelson Cruz summed up what the Orioles did like this to the media throng.

“If you tell me before the series we’re going to sweep, I don’t believe it.”

You ain’t the ONLY one, pal!
I picked the Orioles to win in four games.

Simply put, I thought the Tigers ego had grown significantly since that magical 2006 run to the fall classic.

Dombrowski felt he could make pretty significant moves and still get away with winning a crappy division and take some chances in the ALCS again. Maybe stumble over themselves and finally win that elusive World Series.

He would show the baseball world that he could be like the Cardinals and find an un-tested manager to lead his group to the Promised Land.

Problem is? The Tigers aren’t as good as the Cardinals.

Back in February, I wanted Dombrowski to try with all his might to sign Cruz. Oh sure, he had suffered through a 50 game suspension for PED’s which supposedly turned the Tigers off. But, unless Cruz is banned for life (which he wasn’t) that ideology is ridiculous.

Especially when Peralta came back to the team from exactly the SAME suspension.

Make no mistake, JD Martinez turned out to be an excellent scrap heap pick up from Houston. He provided enough pop behind Cabrera and V-Mart. One more BIG bat would have been nice, but that’s not why the Tigers winter vacation starts early.

That damn bullpen is the reason why!

I’m too “Captain Obvious” to recant all the problems with the pen in 2014. If the bullpen was any more “wishy washy” it would have been… Mitt Romney.

Sorry, couldn’t help myself.

Like that infamous “box of chocolates” Forrest Gump, you never knew what you were going to get.

With all that said, how could the Tigers have been BUILT to win the World Series?

Just a couple of days ago I wrote a piece saying that the Tigers MUST win the World Series. There is nothing else left for them to do. Winning AL Central Division crowns is all well and good but quite frankly, dull and boring.

Been there and done that, huh?

You bet.

One of the worse things in sports is to get USED to winning. It makes you reach for bigger prey. Since there has been no baseball parade around here since the mid-Reagan administration, it almost behooves you to win as soon as you get good.

2006 would have been nice.

Leyland got out of town with a hero’s cheer. Just ask Schwartz about that this week.

The accolades still get buried under the specter of Leyland’s record in his two World Series appearances as Tigers’ manager. It’s really nothing to write home about.

1-and-8.

He won ONE game of the nine played in the ’06 and ’12 World Series.

Yet, there he was. Jim Leyland riding in the 2013 Thanksgiving Day grand marshal car down Woodward Avenue.

Try doing that NOW! No can do. The M-1 Rail project prevents it.

Winning the World Series was Ausmus’ charge and it’s not going to happen… at least not in 2014.

On the radio Sunday, I was asked if it was TIME for Ausmus to go. One year and OUT.

Uh, no.

The last thing Mike Ilitch or Dombrowski wants to do is start a managing carousel. Those begging for now-fired Twins skipper Ron Gardenhire are misguided. D.D. made his bed with Ausmus and he’ll lie in it.

Or is it… “lay” in it?

In either way, he’s going to sleep knowing that Brad Ausmus is his manager for 2015.

While he’s sleeping, he’ll think of the Kansas City Royals heading to their first ALCS since 1985. KC had no problem with dispatching the Angels in a similar three games.

It will PAIN him to see Ned Yost leading a team of youngsters with a far lower payroll against those upstart Orioles. Should be a fun series to watch.

Fun series unless you’re a Tigers’ peep.

One of those two IS going to the World Series with a real good chance to WIN it.

Dombrowski will be cranking up the process of re-tooling his team for spring training four months from now. Lots of decisions have to be made.

Max Scherzer and Victor are almost assuredly leaving for free agency. JD needs a new deal. Jose Iglesias will be looked at to return to short stop if his shins are fully healed.

And that bullpen!

Whoa!

Nathan is back whether you like or not unless DD can find a sucker… er, uh… I mean, trade partner to take his $10 million contract for ’15.

Joakim Soria? Chamberlain? Jim Johnson? Phil Coke? Huge question marks.

Price will be back because he is an arbitration case and not a free agent. Rick Porcello is in the same boat. They are both what baseball calls, “3rd year arb— super 2.” It means they’re going to make a LOT of money next season.

If/when Victor books, who replaces him? Is Alex Avila really the catcher for the future? What about Dirks? He still alive?

It’s going to be a very active off-season for Dombrowski.

Yes, the Tigers WERE NOT built for THIS World Series but it doesn’t mean they can’t get there in our lifetime.

Cabrera and Verlander are the two staples.

JV and his lovely girlfriend Kate Upton will be back for more naked selfie fun as Verlander’s big dollars extension kicks in. Miggy has one more year on his last deal before HIS mega-dollars extension kicks in 2016.

Like it or not, the ball club has to be built around those two. They are here for the long haul.

While the Lions’ disgusting loss to the Bills is fleeting and will be forgotten when they take the field at Minnesota next Sunday, this Tigers sweep will linger a while.

It’s not quite as bad as the 4-game debacle to the Giants in 2012 because THIS was only round one.

But, yeah… the Tigers are now 0-and-7 in their last seven post season tilts. Seven straight losses.

To be honest, that sucks.

The LIONS are supposed to be the team that sucks; not the Tigers since 2006.

All about perspective, people.

Which is why if you see Buffalo players carrying Jim Schwartz on their shoulders for no apparent reason this week, just ignore it.

He didn’t win a championship here either.