TIGERS MUST WIN THE WORLD SERIES

By Mark Wilson
September 28, 2014

Don’t want to rain on your champagne parade this early after securing the fourth consecutive AL Central title. You go right ahead dumping bubbly on your head like baseball fans love to do.

Woo hoo! Yeah, baby! FOUR IN A ROW!

MLB loves its champagne, doesn’t it?

I’m surprised they haven’t marketed their OWN brand of sparkling wine by now.

After all, baseball is the ONLY sport to celebrate each section of success.

It mostly starts with either wrapping up a trip to the post-season or winning a division.

Bam! Grab the goggles, open the boxes and crack those corks. It’s time to spray endless bottles around grown people (and kids too) for a wildcard spot or beating out four other teams.

Yes, celebrate… beating out FOUR other teams. Hell, in the “old days” it could be just THREE other teams.

But, no problem. I’m no killjoy. Baseball is a long season. 162 games of grind ‘em out nine inning fun deserves to have some steam blown off. From spring training in February to the dog days of summer to the cooler nights of a pennant chase; it’s a toll-taking eight months.

The wildcard “play-in” game is so new I forget if the wildcard winner dumps MORE champagne.

I don’t wanna know.

In any event, then comes the divisional series. Win that… and you get to do the champagne dump again.

Woo hoo! “Go crazy, folks— go crazy,” in the immortal words of famed broadcaster Jack Buck.

On to the league championship series we go and yet even MORE champagne for winning THAT. Oh sure you just sprayed some of Napa’s finest about a week ago, but who’s counting?

Finally, it’s time for the World Series.

Win that and it’s champagne time… once more.

Woo hoo! You just won it ALL. Of course you get to celebrate with an alcohol shower.

Beer included.

Can you imagine them doing that in OTHER sports?

How about winning a playoff game in the NFL and doing the spray after each contest? Or, after each series in the NBA or NHL?

Red Wings fans would have been constantly drunk if the hockey team had put up plastic after a five game series victory over, uh… let’s say… Nashville!

Since Detroit has gone to the playoffs the last 23 seasons, by my calculations the Wings would have done no fewer than around 50 champagne celebrations.

FIFTY!

C’mon, you’d laugh if that happened.

Remember when the Pistons were good?

I know, it’s going on like seven years but yeah; they were good in the middle portion of the 2000’s; even won an NBA title in 2004.

The only time champagne flowed was when Chauncey, Ben, Rip and the gang held that gold ball when it was all over.

Baseball likes to do it about FOUR times in each individual season if you’re the eventual champion.

But, that’s not why you called.

It just so happens that the Tigers wrapped up a fourth straight trip to baseball’s Oktoberfest with a neatly packaged 3-0 shutout of the Minnesota Twins. David Price was awesome, Ian Kinsler had a big homer and Joe Nathan did his job.

Yep, even JOE NATHAN got in on the act by tossing a perfect ninth inning for one of the few times in 2014.

Didn’t matter what Kansas City did in Chicago because all the Tigers had to do was win. There would be NO game number 163 on the following Monday at Comerica Park.

The champagne got to see action on Sunday instead complete with a Kate Upton sighting in the clubhouse with her beau Justin Verlander.

Oh yeah, Kate Upton was doing the bubbly thing.

Woo hoo!!

Thanks to Instagram, Vine, Twitter and other social media, you can replay the jubilation over and over all the way until the Tigers open the post-season in Baltimore on Thursday.

First year Tigers’ manager Brad Ausmus even got in on the party minus the tears and emotion that Jim Leyland was so famous for. Ausmus was almost stoic compared to his predecessor.

“That’s for the players,” Ausmus told the soaked media.
Through all the trials and tribulations of a turbulent 2014, Ausmus led the Tigers to a fourth straight AL Central crown. They won 90 games in the process becoming the first Tigers’ group to have back to back 90 win campaigns since the 1983-84 unit of Sparky Anderson.

For history sake, the last time Detroit experienced THREE 90 win seasons in a row was 1967-69.

Something to shoot for next year.

This one is significant because all eyes have been on Ausmus since the team arrived in Lakeland.

His credentials for being named manager by GM Dave Dombrowski were a playing career as catcher and one season as Israeli National Team skipper.

Even I preferred to have Leyland hitting coach Lloyd McClendon as manager and he did a fine job in his first season leading the Seattle Mariners. Mac just missed out on the post-season on the final Sunday when the Oakland A’s beat out the M’s for a wildcard slot.

To say B.A. had a rough 2014 would be an understatement.

The Tigers got off to a great start, then they faltered, then Ausmus made a bad crack about hitting his wife, then they got good again, then they faltered and finally did enough to hold off the upstart Royals.

Phew! That was exhausting to type even if it was only four lines.

It was a season that saw the trade of Prince Fielder to Texas result in Kinsler’s glory. A season that saw the arrival of a trash-heap outfielder in J.D. Martinez become an integral piece to the hitting puzzle. Ditto Rajai Davis to that scenario. A season that saw the re-emergence of spectacular batsman, Victor Martinez and his 32 homers.

It was a season which saw Verlander make more news for his love affair with supermodel Upton rather than for his super pitching efforts.

It was a season which saw Dombrowski sign the veteran Nathan and then have to sign THREE more closers when Nathan struggled. Joakim Soria, Joel Hanrahan and Jim Johnson came on board as insurance for the 39-year old All-Star.

Hanrahan never made it back to the big leagues while Soria dealt with an injury and Johnson dealt with… finding himself.

It was a season in which shortstop became a position of weakness.

We got used to 20 years of Alan Trammell.

Jose Iglesias was ruled out early because of painful shin stress fractures. JULIO Iglesias would have played more this year.
Alex Gonzalez was a desperate move by Dombrowski and lasted all of nine games before his release. Believe me Alex, DD did you a favor.

By the end, Andrew Romine had secured the position over rookie Eugenio Suarez. Hernan Perez was a September call up who never really became part of the mix.

It was a season in which Nick Castellanos proved he could be a serviceable, if not spectacular, third baseman.

After just 18 at bats in 2013, Nicky C. played in 147 games with 577 plate appearances. His 31 doubles were a welcomed sight but 11 homers and 66 RBI probably won’t win him the Rookie of the Year Award.

139 strikeouts won’t help that cause either.

Speaking of K’s, it was a season in which Austin Jackson was a trade deadline casualty.

AJ got a standing ovation from the Comerica Park faithful when he was pulled from a game so that he could be dealt to Seattle and his old pal McClendon.

Even the staunchest of fans knew that to get a pitcher the caliber of David Price, Dombrowski had to give up SOMETHING.

Jackson was that something.

They also dumped his heavy strikeout bat in the process.

In five full MLB seasons, AJ has struck out a whopping 758 times. His fielding prowess aside, Jackson was a liability with those K’s.

To get Price in return was pure genius.

Even though DP14 didn’t light the world on fire, he had enough appearances in Motown to show how great he is. Price is a guy who can easily go at least eight innings each and every fifth day. The former Tampa Ray led the majors with 271 punch outs.

Detroit gets to keep him if they want in 2015 since he is an arbitration player. Big bonus.

It was a season which saw the continued talent of Max Scherzer.

The reigning Cy Young Award winner will be in the conversation again this fall. His 18 wins tied for the AL lead with Corey Kluber of the Indians and Jared Weaver of the Angels. He finished ninth in ERA (3.15), third in K’s (252) and his walks were low (63).

Personally I believe it’s between Felix Hernandez and Kluber but Max should get some solid votes.

How important is Scherzer to the Tigers?

Try this on for size.

Since June 23, 2012 Max’s record wearing that number 37 is an incredible 49-and-9.

49 wins… 9 losses.

Take some of that champagne and drink THAT in.

Not that you needed the breakdown of the time period because since Scherzer got here in 2010 from Arizona, his record overall is an amazing 82-and-35.

It’s why he’s going to make A LOT of money this off season in the free agent market.

Hello New York!

But, that’s for another day.

It was a season in which Verlander slipped sharply but regained some strength in September.

At one point in August, there were more “selfies” of a nude Justin and a nude Kate Upton than there were non-naked victories on his ledger. Her I-phone account may have been hacked but not as bad as JV’s TALENT seemed to have been hacked.

Don’t forget, the big extension Verlander signed doesn’t kick in until NEXT season. At that point, Mike Ilitch is going to owe his former ace right hander an inflated $28-million PER year through 2019 with a vesting option for 2020 when he’s 37 years old and probably not taking nude selfies with Upton anymore.

A good post season will go a long way in showing Tiger fans that Verlander’s pending deal is worth the cash.

That brings us to the BIGGER contract.

It was a season in which Miguel Cabrera had a huge power meltdown.

Maybe all the storms we had in Metro Detroit this summer affected Miggy.

For anyone else, a stat line that includes 52 doubles, 25 homers, 109 RBI, .315 average and .900 OPS, it would be reason for bragging. For Cabrera… it was nearly shocking.

Case in point. The 25 homers? 19 less than he had each of the past two seasons and the fewest in his career since the 12 he posted as a rookie in 2003.

His 116 strikeouts? Most since 2008; just like his 60 walks were his fewest since that same year.

The .900 OPS? FAR under his career average of .961.

Unlike Verlander, Miggy’s wild extension doesn’t kick in until… AFTER next year; in 2016.

From 2016 until he is 40 in 2023, Cabrera will make a total of $240-million. His salary escalates from $28-million in 2016 and ’17 to $30-million in 2018, ’19, ’20 and ’21 to $32-million in 2022 and ’23.

That doesn’t include the $22-million he is slated to make next year.

Yikes!

To be fair, at least for the moment, it looks like Miggy and JV are playing well enough right now to be key factors in this upcoming playoff. There will be plenty of time to worry about their money windfall later.

Back to the fourth straight division title.

Pop another champagne cork.

These divisional titles are all well and good. You can’t go to a World Series unless you make the playoffs; we all get that.

But now, it’s time to WIN one of these suckers.

Leyland got out of here having a World Series record of 1-and-8.

He got the one victory against the Cardinals in 2006 and then swept by the Giants in 2012.

1-and-8 isn’t very good.

Ilitch has spent all this dough (pizza pun intended) to bring him his elusive baseball championship. At least ONE if not multiples just like his hockey team’s FOUR Stanley Cups.

So far, so bad.

Baseball’s trophy, with all those flags, may be ugly but Ilitch wants one in his lifetime.

We just saw the ground breaking for “District Detroit” and the new hockey rink complex. THAT is going to be Ilitch’s focus and eventual legacy which I’ve said many times.

Time is running out to win a World Series.

Yeah great, the Tigers beat out KC, Cleveland, Chicago and Minnesota again. Four years in a row. Blah, blah. It’s getting to be old hat.

Just to show how underwhelming that is, consider the fact that of those five clubs in the AL Central only the White Sox have won a World Series since Minnesota did it in 1991.

There wasn’t even a central division when the Twins did it. They were still in the old American League West.

Since the central was created about 20 moons ago now, only the White Sox have represented with a world championship and that was in 2005.

Ya know, we never consider the Atlanta Braves when talking about the greatest “eras” in modern baseball lore.

Mostly you hear about the “Big Red Machine” of Sparky in Cincinnati in the mid-70’s after the A’s of the earlier 70’s and the Yankees of the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.

Why is that?

Because the Braves didn’t win more than one.

Oh, they won division titles… like every year. Plenty of them.

From 1991 until 2006, they won them ALL.

Bobby Cox, just inducted into the Hall of Fame, led Atlanta on a journey that included one of the best starting rotations in MLB history. Maddux, Smoltz, Glavine, Avery and others helped the state of Georgia claim a division crown for 15 straight seasons not including the lost strike year of 1994 when Bud Selig canceled the World Series early.

Of all those divisional triumphs, the Braves popped champagne on a World Series championship all of ONCE.

They won ONE title.

Heck, at least they won one. The Tigers are still looking for their first since 1984.

We just spent this season celebrating the 30th anniversary of that great Detroit wire-to-wire fascination. Before Sparky passed, he would tell you his biggest disappointment from his time in “The D” was that he didn’t win more than one.

Anderson knew that winning multiples puts you on a higher plateau just like his mid-70’s Reds.

Anyone can win one. They give one out every season.

Winning MORE than one with the same core group gives you added cache.

John Smoltz will echo those sentiments.

He firmly believes that his Braves should have a few rings on the fingers. Maybe even one for the thumb. He cherishes the ring he won in 1995 but Atlanta went to the classic FIVE times.

One is simply not enough which is why those 14 consecutive division titles is more a show of failure than it is of excellence.

Is it fair? No. Life isn’t fair. And in sports, it’s the way it is.

It’s why we applaud the efforts of a San Antonio Spurs or LA Lakers or Red Wings or Patriots or Yankees when they are able to win so many times with basically the same gaggle of guys.

Derek Jeter is a great player heading to Cooperstown in five years but we applaud him because he was part of a nickel’s worth of championships in New York.

If Jeter had NEVER won a title?

He’d be Ernie Banks.

Even ONE wouldn’t have been enough.

So, here are the Tigers. Four division titles in their back pockets and nothing to show for it.

From the time divisional play began in 1969 until 2010, the Tigers won a total of three division flags. They did it with Billy Martin in 1972, when Al Kaline was still playing, and they did it with Sparky in 1984 and 1987.

Remember, when Detroit went to the Series in 2006, they did so as a wildcard.

In the last four years, the Tigers have won more divisions than they had in the previous 41 years COMBINED.

No question there is something to be said for that.

It sure beats the alternative.

2003 wasn’t that long ago. Tiger fans suffered through the misery of a record-setting 119 loss slate. There would be nights at Comerica you could drop a hot dog wrapper and hear it in the upper grandstands.

Actually, you might have been able to hear it at Elwood’s across the street.

After the ’87 division title, the Tigers were mostly insignificant in Sparky’s final eight seasons. Buddy Bell, Larry Parrish, Phil Garner, Luis Pujols and Alan Trammell all tried to right the ship but nothing worked.

Along came Leyland and voila!

Eight years of relevance ensued.

Ausmus was able to pick up the ball, while throwing away the ashtray, and keep it going. He won’t be manager of the year by any stretch; that will be reserved for the man he is playing in the ALDS, Buck Showalter with the Orioles.

But, he could have dropped the ball, NOT made the playoffs and imagine how fun the off season would have been.

He would have had built-in excuses.

The shortstop situation, Miggy’s power funk, JV’s slump, the injury to Anibal Sanchez, the drop off of Rick Porcello at the end and the wild closer issue.

No sweat. Easy schmeazy Mr. Peasy.

Instead, the team hung strong and held off the pesky Royals who made the playoffs for the first time since the mid-Reagan era.

Kansas City’s taste of the post season buffet will be just like the Tigers in ’06; as a wildcard.

They still haven’t won a division since 1985.

Oh, how precious those deals are.

Just travel 300 miles or so west and ask the Chicago Cubs. At least the Tigers have BEEN to the World Series. The Cubbies haven’t gone since 1945 when they played… Detroit.

Chicago did win divisions in 1984, ’89, 2003, ’07 and ’08.

No parades were held.
Leyland wasn’t shy about his time in Michigan. It haunts him that he didn’t do better in those two World Series. He’s been around a lot in 2014, but not in Ausmus’ way. He’d say the same thing today.

Not many believe the Tigers have enough to beat out the likes of the Angels or Baltimore. Even if they did, there is no way they can compete with the Dodgers or Washington out of the National League.

That’s the prevailing talk.

Maybe that plays in Ausmus’ favor.

So much was made about the Tigers’ starting staff; compared constantly to that Braves’ staff. That talk died down once Doug Fister was traded, to Washington ironically, and when Verlander started to tank.

It’s still formidable for sure.

Scherzer is a gem as is Price and it looks like JV is back for the moment. Who knows right now about Porcello and what Sanchez can provide from the pen.

Kyle Lobstein anyone?

As for the rest of that group including Chamberlain, Coke, Albuquerque, Hardy, the closers and whoever hangs on the playoff roster, well… it’s been a crapshoot all season. No reason to believe it will change now.
All we know is that it begins Thursday in Camden Yards.

Baltimore will be jacked. They hadn’t won a division since 1997 when they rolled through the AL East this year. Showalter had enough injury and adversity to last a lifetime so his winning the east by 12 games is nothing short of remarkable.

If the Tigers can get past the Orioles then they’ll pop more corks, spray more champagne and get ready for another trip to the ALCS.

We’ve been there… done that.

This year they MUST win the World Series or this act will just get older.

The train could be pulling into the station for the final time.

Too bad Tiger fanatics don’t bandy together and say, screw it… we’re not popping any corks until we win it ALL!

Nah, what fun would that be right?

Plus, champagne suppliers across the country would be hurting.

Woo hoo! Another baseball playoff is upon us. Keep that bubbly on ice. You never know when you might need it to celebrate something REALLY special.