Glory Days I n 1901 the American League AL played its first season Among the eight teams that made up the league were the Detroit Tigers Fans in the city were very happy to have a new team A club called the Detroit Wolverines had been champions in the National League NL during the 1800s but they went out of business after the 1888 season From 1894 to 1900 Detroit was home to a team in the minor leagues but it just wasn’t the same as watching big-league baseball The Tigers finished no higher than third until 1907 That year Hughie Jennings became the manager and Ty Cobb won his first of 11 batting championships Jennings and Cobb were joined by Sam Crawford the AL’s top power hitter The three helped Detroit win the pennant each year from 1907 to 1909 The Tigers were fun to watch in their early years but they did not win another pennant until the 1930s That team was led by catcher 6
LEFT Ty Cobb RIGHT Mickey Cochrane Mickey Cochrane who was also the manager His lineup starred some of the best hitters in history including the G-Men Hank Greenberg Charlie Gehringer and Goose Goslin The Tigers captured the pennant in 1934 and 1935 They beat the Chicago Cubs in the 1935 World Series for their first championship The Tigers won the pennant again in 1940 and 1945 The 1945 club starred pitcher Hal Newhouser He led the team to its second championship that fall During the 1950s the Tigers found more young players for their lineup Jim Bunning and Frank Lary were the stars of a strong pitching staff Harvey Kuenn and Al Kaline helped form a dangerous batting order Kaline went straight from high school to the big leagues and won 7
a batting championship when he was just 20 years old Kaline was still playing for the Tigers when they won their next championship in 1968 Pitchers Denny McLain and Mickey Lolich led this team but as always Detroit had a lot of power in its lineup Besides Kaline the Tigers had sluggers Willie Horton Norm Cash and Jim Northrup Detroit also had Bill Freehan the AL’s top catcher during the 1960s In 1984 the Tigers won the World Series again This may have been Detroit’s greatest team The Tigers were in first place from the first day of the year until the last They were led by infielders Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell heavy hitters Lance Parrish and Kirk Gibson and starting pitcher Jack Morris Relief pitcher Willie Hernandez won the Cy Young Award and was named the league’s Most Valuable Player MVP LEFT Al Kaline ABOVE Willie Hernandez and Lance Parrish raise their arms in victory after the last out of the 1984 World Series 9
