My 25 Favorite Detroit Tigers- Lance Parrish

I have been a fan of the Detroit Tigers since the Summer of 1984. I am lucky enough to vividly remember my baseball team winning a World Series title. Since every year the team itself asks me who my Tiger is I decided to write about my favorite 25 Tigers since I became a fan...at eight years old...This has less to do with performance as it does with whatever intangible qualities Tigers' players have...I mean this is the town that loved Brandon Inge and Don Kelly...and no neither one of those players will make my list...With all of that being said...

#15 Catcher Lance Parrish

Lance Parrish the big wheel. To be perfectly honest he should be higher up the list but the way he left the team as a player, the two times he was let go by the organization as a coach has left me a little bitter. Parish was the first defection of the 1984 team,...the first guy to leave as a free agent and when you are a kid you just don't know that baseball is a business for the owners and for the players...you just want your guys to play for your team forever. When Lance left I felt very betrayed...I wasn't use to my guys leaving...it was made worse because I spent my summers in Indiana, which is Chicago Cubs country, so I had to see Lance playing for the Philadelphia Phillies...and it made me mad.

The Detroit Tigers had Matt Nokes who was ready fro promotion to the big leagues, and they traded for Mike Heath in September of 1986 so there was no way Lance was coming back. Even though he deserved to get paid...we can effectively argue that Lance was one of the best catchers of the 1980's and for a year year run he just may have been the best catcher in all of baseball.

In 1983 and 1984 Lance was an All Star catcher and won Silver Slugger and Gold Glove awards at his position. In 1982 he was an all star and won a Silver Slugger. In 1986 we was an All Star for the fifth consecutive time and won a Golden Glove...after leaving the Tigers he would twice more be selected to the All Star Game. In all we are talking about someone who was an 8 time all star, won 3 golden gloves, and 6 Silver Slugger awards. This is where we start to see the discrimination in the Hall of Fame vote against the 1984 Tigers...Lance might not have been a totally legit Hall of Fame candidate but  his 1.7% of the vote in 2001 was a disgrace.

It is a little hard to pinpoint his best season wearing the Old English D...from 1982 to 1985 he hit more than 25 home runs each season eclipsing 30 twice...in the same time span he drove in more than 85 runs every year eclipsing 100 once and having 98 twice. Of course with big power comes a lot of strike outs...and he had more than 100 whiffs many times through out his career. However given his skills behind the plate and at the plate he is truly one of the greatest Tigers of all time. It is a complete travesty that the team has not retired his #13...

They did bring him back into the fold as Lance was named Manager of the Double A Erie Sea Wolves last year and coached Tigers prospects in the Arizona fall league last fall.

My Favorite Detroit Tigers

My 25 Favorite Detroit Tigers- Darrell Evans

I have been a fan of the Detroit Tigers since the Summer of 1984. I am lucky enough to vividly remember my baseball team winning a World Series title. Since every year the team itself asks me who my Tiger is I decided to write about my favorite 25 Tigers since I became a fan...at eight years old...This has less to do with performance as it does with whatever intangible qualities Tigers' players have...I mean this is the town that loved Brandon Inge and Don Kelly...and no neither one of those players will make my list...With all of that being said...

#16 Darrell Evans

Darrell Evans is important to the 1980's Detroit Tigers for a couple of reasons. The front office at the time did not believe in the free agent market, and the 1980's teams were a core of guys drafted in the 1970's and developed by the organization. The only really big free agent acquisition on those teams was Darrell Evans who signed with the team following the 1983 season. His addition along with the Spring Training acquisition of Dave Bergman allowed the team the flexibility to trade 3B Howard Johnson to the New York Mets for Pitcher Walt Terrell. That was a big move to solidify the starting rotation, and the Tigers were fine at the infield corners with Evans, Bergman, and super utility guy Tom Brookens.

Evans best season in Detroit was arguably 1985 where he hit 40 home runs  and drove in 94 runs. During the run to the 1987 Divisional title he hit 34 home runs and drove in 99 runs. He was a big bat in the middle of the Detroit order and a mainstay of the 1980's teams that really should have won at least one more World Series title.

My fondest memory of Evans is him standing on the stairs of the Detroit dugout as Larry Herndon made the final out of the 1984 World Series. Evans was one of the first players out of the dugout to celebrate the Tigers' championship in 16 years. More than that he was the big guy the guy I trusted as a kid to play adequate defense and get a big hit now and again. He always seemed to be to be the big silent type...of course that was before the days of big time talk radio and the Internet.

With all of that being said Evans is clearly not one of the Tigers' 1980s players who has been shunned by the Baseball Hall of Fame. The real problem with this team, in terms of Hall enshrinement is they had a lot of very good pieces. Sure, we can argue they had a few legit superstars...but for the most part those teams were built with pieces like Darrell Evans.

It taught me how sports teams should be built. A lesson further underscored by the 1980's Detroit Pistons and the 1990's Detroit Red Wings...those teams seemed more pure than the free agent laden rosters of the Dave Dombroski era...granted we are talking about two completely different era's of the sport we love but those 1980's squads were special.

My favorite Detroit Tigers

My 25 Favorite Detroit Tigers- Frank Tanana

I have been a fan of the Detroit Tigers since the Summer of 1984. I am lucky enough to vividly remember my baseball team winning a World Series title. Since every year the team itself asks me who my Tiger is I decided to write about my favorite 25 Tigers since I became a fan...at eight years old...This has less to do with performance as it does with whatever intangible qualities Tigers' players have...I mean this is the town that loved Brandon Inge and Don Kelly...and no neither one of those players will make my list...With all of that being said...

#17 Pitcher Frank Tanana

The one draw back about being a sports writer is that I always have to write about sports without being part of the story. I have worked in sports along time now, for teams and organizations and always I have to write as a observer...stuck behind the fourth wall. As a sports fan I do not have that limitation. Even though Frank Tanana was a big part of my Detroit Tigers fandom when I was a kid, the reason he makes this list is for something that happened much later.

Growing up where I did and being involved with youth sports we always heard about the legendary things Tanana did as a kid playing on the same fields we happened to be playing on. Frank grew up around here, and being sports idiots we immortalized the things he had done, even though we now realize that many of those feats were likely embellished. Frank returned to the Detroit suburbs once his playing days were over and that is where out paths crossed.

I was working for a guy who owned a few chain restaurants. In hopes of getting a promotion I gave up one of my days off to cover a shift in another one of his franchises and I began chit chatting with one of the old timer customers there. We would go on and on about the current state of the Tigers and baseball as a whole and after the third or fourth time that happened by boss was like, 'you do know who that is right?' I had no damn idea who it was just an old timer who knew a lot about baseball and was fun to talk too...when he told me it was Frank Tanana I was floored. One because I didn't recognize him and two because this guy was so cool to me...just another sports fan talking crap like anybody else. It was cool and among all the other cool things I got to do while working there (mostly smoking cigars with Darren McCarty in the cigar store next door) it ranks among my favorite.

It is hard to believe that there was a time when the Detroit Tigers did not really play on the free agent market. The 1980's teams were built around a young group of talent drafted by the team and when other pieces were needed the team would trade for them. That is how Frank came to town at the trade deadline during the 1985 season. Frank was a workhorse of sorts a part of the starting rotation that also included Jack Morris, Dan Petry, and Walt Terrell.

My Uncles told me that at one point in his career Tanana had been a fireballer and that seems to be true as he led the AL in strike outs and in ERA in two different seasons in the 1970's. He was also selected to three straight all star games...by the time he came to the Tigers he seemed like more of a junk ball pitcher but he was effective. He was the Kenny Rogers of his day but on a staff that really didn't need a veteran presence.

He pitched in Detroit until 1992 and his greatest accomplishment has to be the complete game shutout of the Toronto Blue Jays in the final game of the 1987 regular season that captured the AL East crown for the team. However, he like most of the '87 pitching staff failed to perform in the 1987 post season.

My Favorite Detroit Tigers

My 25 Favorite Detroit Tigers- Larry Herndon

I have been a fan of the Detroit Tigers since the Summer of 1984. I am lucky enough to vividly remember my baseball team winning a World Series title. Since every year the team itself asks me who my Tiger is I decided to write about my favorite 25 Tigers since I became a fan...at eight years old...This has less to do with performance as it does with whatever intangible qualities Tigers' players have...I mean this is the town that loved Brandon Inge and Don Kelly...and no neither one of those players will make my list...With all of that being said...

#18 Outfielder Larry Herndon

If I asked you to name the biggest home runs in the history of this team...and I mean of the current cross section of fans...most of you would say Magglio Ordonez's home run in the 2006 ALCS. People my age who have been fans of this team for a long time would likely say Kirk Gibson's shot in the 1984 World Series...however there is one that gets over looked. One that we always forget about...one home run by a guy who had his best year in 1987...

Larry Herndon's Home Run in game #162 of the 1987 regular season won the team its second division title. He sent a very talented roster back to the post season...and yet he rarely gets mentioned in the conversation of biggest home runs by players wearing the old English D. IN fact many of the great moments of my generation were accomplished by Larry Herndon.

It was Herndon who made the final out of the 1984 World Series catching a fly ball in left off the bat of Tony Gwynn. It was Herndon, who's home run in game one of that series sent the message that the Tigers were out to dominate the San Diego Padres. Herndon was a mainstay at the corner outfield spots for the 1980's and while he was never the best player on the team he was often the difference for a team that should have one at least one more World Series title.

He did not have a huge bat, but he was steady...he was reliable and we can see that by his post season batting average of .333. He was never selected to be an All Star, but he contribute and was the guy who got things done at their most critical moments. His legacy for the Detroit Tigers should be more celebrated. He was one of those guys that just did his job, and did it quite well. He was one of those guys who came up to bat in big situations and delivered. He was the guy who squeezed his glove around the last World Series title this team won.

My 25 Favorite Tigers 

My 25 Favorite Detroit Tigers- Doyle Alexander

I have been a fan of the Detroit Tigers since the Summer of 1984. I am lucky enough to vividly remember my baseball team winning a World Series title. Since every year the team itself asks me who my Tiger is I decided to write about my favorite 25 Tigers since I became a fan...at eight years old...This has less to do with performance as it does with whatever intangible qualities Tigers' players have...I mean this is the town that loved Brandon Inge and Don Kelly...and no neither one of those players will make my list...With all of that being said...

#19 Pitcher Doyle Alexander

To be perfectly honest had the 1987 Detroit Tigers won the World Series Doyle might be way higher...now considering what the Tigers gave up to give him maybe he shouldn't be on the list at all. However, I know for a fact that without him the 1987 Tigers would not have made the playoffs...when we take the time to look up his post season numbers maybe they should have left him off the post season roster...however the failure of this team in the 1987 ALCS was a total collapse of the entire roster...Given how the season played out we should have saw it coming.

1987 was not like 1984 the Tigers battled the entire season to eventually win the AL East...on the last day of the season. At the trading deadline they dealt a unknown prospect named John Smoltz to Atlanta for Doyle Alexander. Doyle would go 9-0 down the stretch and had a 1.53 ERA. Everyone of us, old time sports fans, would trade our soul for a World Series title...the Tigers dealt a guy that would become one of the best pitchers of the next generation for a shot at a title...and came up way short.

Now its really to bad Doyle was never that good in a Tigers uniform again. He was decent through the first half of 1988...and was selected to his only All Star Game that year...but wound up with a 14-11 record and a ERA over 4...In 1989 his performace fell to 6-18.

Looking back on it, in the days before inter league play, I think we can write off part of his dominance due to the hitters in the AL not being that use to him...granted he had a long history of play in the AL before that so maybe he just got fire for those final few months of 1987...and could never find that groove again. Had Doyle helped this team to another post season I think more Tigers fans would remember him with more fondness.

We also need to remember that Smoltz was a unknown here in Detroit when he was traded...and had he never gone on to do anything no one would care. We talk about the John Smoltz curse in jest...because old time baseball guys know when a team is that close to the post season they do anything and everything to get themselves over the hump. It very nearly worked...and had the entire roster performed better in the '87 ALCS maybe they would have won the second World Series title we all thought those 1980's Tigers teams should have won.

My 25 Favorite Detroit Tigers Players

My 25 Favorite Detroit Tigers- Dave Bergman

I have been a fan of the Detroit Tigers since the Summer of 1984. I am lucky enough to vividly remember my baseball team winning a World Series title. Since every year the team itself asks me who my Tiger is I decided to write about my favorite 25 Tigers since I became a fan...at eight years old...This has less to do with performance as it does with whatever intangible qualities Tigers' players have...I mean this is the town that loved Brandon Inge and Don Kelly...and no neither one of those players will make my list...With all of that being said...

#20- 1B/OF/DH Dave Bergman

Dave Bergman was never the star. He was a piece...and he makes my list of 25 favorite Tigers for two very different reasons. The first is the absolute fleecing of the Philadelphia Phillies that occurred before the 1984 season. The Tigers sent Glenn Wilson and Johnny Wockenfuss to Philly for Willie Hernandez and Bergman. All Willie would do was win the American League MVP and Cy Young awards...and Bergman became a key piece on the bench and as a DH for the team.

Every one of my teams that has won a National Title has had a moment like this. The Bad Boy Detroit Pistons were home grown for the most part and then they traded for Mark Aguirre and that put them over the top. The 1997-98 Detroit Red Wins were largely home grown and then they traded for Brendan Shanahan and that put them over the top. This was the deal that made a very good Tigers club over the top...so far over the top they were the best team in baseball by a very wide margin.

This is how I see championship teams being built...and although we are in a different era of baseball now I still believe that a good percentage of your core team has to be home grown...then a wise General Manager has to make a deal or sign a key free agent to get that core over the top.

Bergman's role on the team was a utility guy. He was a part of one of the deepest benches in recent baseball history. He would spell Darrell Evans at first, and Kirk Gibson in right. He would also serve as the DH. He never put up huge stats but he performed when needed and would be with the Tigers through the end of his career in 1992.

The other reason I love this guy so much is one at bat...and I cannot even remember what season it was from...however when I talk about this one particular at bat old time Tigers fans know exactly what I am talking about. Bergman had worked a full count...and then fouled off something like 15 pitched before finally getting a big hit. He just battled the guy...till his will and skill at the plate got him his desired result. As a young sports fan it was a very important lesson to learn.

Dave was not the star, but he had a role and he did what was expected of him. That was a very important lesson I learned when I began to play sports and much later when I started coaching sports. Numbers aside Dave Bergman taught me those lessons and I remember his time here in Detroit with a great fondness.

My 25 Favorite Detroit Tigers

My 25 favorite Detroit Tigers- Mickey Tettleton

I have been a fan of the Detroit Tigers since the Summer of 1984. I am lucky enough to vividly remember my baseball team winning a World Series title. Since every year the team itself asks me who my Tiger is I decided to write about my favorite 25 Tigers since I became a fan...at eight years old...This has less to do with performance as it does with whatever intangible qualities Tigers' players have...I mean this is the town that loved Brandon Inge and Don Kelly...and no neither one of those players will make my list...With all of that being said...

#21 C/1B/OF Mickey Tettleton

By the time the Detroit Tigers acquired Mickey Tettleton the bottom of the great 1980's teams had begun to fall out. The core of players was aging, the starting pitching had been ineffective and not much was done to fix that, and the front office was in turmoil. Still what remained of the 1984 championship team along with the additions of Cecil Fielder, Tettleton, and Tony Phillps, managed with skill by Sparky Anderson...were able to still contend. Maybe not contended for the post season even though they were in the hunt in 1993 till very late in the season.

I remember seeing Tettleton bat that spring training and I was like who is this dude with the funky batting stance...I had grown away from baseball by that point due in no small part to the emergence of Barry Sanders, the Detroit Lions, and football...It was Mickey who got me excited for baseball again. I liked the way this guy went about his job. Much like Tom Brookens before him Mickey would play wherever Sparky felt he needed him. He was a good catcher, a pretty good first baseman, and I saw him play in the outfield live on more than one occasion. I was still attending at least one game a season then, and liked what I saw from what I saw as the new core of the team. Granted this core was not home grown like the 1984 squad had been but even then I think I knew we were in a different era of baseball. I didn't know at the time the very sad state of the Tigers' minor league system.

That didn't matter to me then because I was just a fan, I had not become a sports writer and as long as the team could attract decent free agents...not named Rob Deer...It seemed like they could go on winning forever. Tettleton, Fielder, Phillips were the first wave of those free agents. Of those Tettleton was always my personal favorite.

He did hit more than 30 home runs in three straight seasons here. He won two Silver Slugger awards, and in his final season in Detroit he was an All Star. I think he main drawback was the amount of times he struck out. This was before everyone knew the name of the Hitting Coach...but had this been in the time of the Internet hotness I am more than sure all of us Tigers fans would have been calling for his head each and every day.

I suppose I had come to embrace the second incarnation of my baseball team. The team's of the 1980's had been so good, so fun to watch, so full of names I had come to know that it was hard to embrace the new guys. Fielder hit a ton of home runs and who doesn't love that but it was guys like Tettleton that seemed like the next great thing in Detroit baseball.

My 25 favorite Detroit Tigers