Leyland through Ausmus

Fast forward to 2006, the year my daughter Sydney was born, when Jim Leyland took the reins and finally got the Tigers back to the postseason.  Detroit promptly smashed the Yankees in the Division Series and took a 2-0 lead on Oakland in the ALCS, and we started thinking, “Maybe this is the year!”  I left work on October 13^th and headed to Comerica to see Game 3 of the ALCS.  My wife and I watched Kenny Rogers flip 7-1/3 innings of 2-hit ball.  Series MVP Placido Polanco laced a single up the middle off Rich Harden to score Curtis Granderson in the bottom of the first and Craig Monroe blasted a solo shot in the fifth to cement the victory.  Magglio Ordonez’s 3-run, walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth off Huston Street in Game 4 sent the Tigers back to the Series for the first time since 1984, and the first time in my appreciable life. 

Tony LaRussa’s St. Louis Cardinals, the same franchise the Tigers edged out in the legendary 1968 Bob Gibson World Series, were representing the National Leaguers.  Detroit sent rookie phenom Justin Verlander out to start Game 1, where he struck out eight but fell victim to the long ball against Scott Rolen and Albert Pujols.  Nonetheless, we still felt like this Tigers squad was the team to beat, and Dad and I made our way to the Motor City on October 22^nd, 2006, to sit among our fellow Tiger fans in Comerica Park for Game 2 of the WORLD SERIES!

Just as in Game 2 of the ALDS, the Tigers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on a solo shot from Monroe followed by Carlos Guillen doubling in Maggs.  This was the game where Kenny Rogers, who at 41 years old had become a finesse pitcher, was accused of having a substance on his hand in the first inning.  It turned out to be a clump of dirt mixed with rosin, Rogers stayed in the game, and went on to toss eight innings of 2-hit, shutout ball.  Sean Casey followed up a Guillen triple with a laser to right field to give the Tigers a 3-run lead as the ball was passed to Todd Jones and 42,533 Tiger fans held their collective breaths through what would inevitably be a tumultuous ninth.  After two quick outs, Scott Rolen roped a single to right, Juan Encarnacion reached on an error by Jones, Jim Edmonds scorched a double to left, making it 3-1.  “Here we go again.” Jones plunked Preston Wilson with a pitch, loading the bases for Yadier Molina.   Jones induced a grounder to Guillen who flipped to Polanco, and a classic Todd Jones “save” was in the books.  Dad and I had just witnessed the Tigers win a World Series game.

The Cards pitching staff shut us down for the rest of the Series, yielding just six runs in the final three games, and another Tigers season was behind us with no victory parade to succeed it.  Leyland would take Detroit back to the playoffs three more times in 2011-’13, including a World Series appearance in 2012 where the Tigers bats once again went silent against the San Francisco Giants.  Brad Ausmus was able to keep up the winning way for his first season, winning 90 games in 2014 to top the AL Central Division, only to get blanked 3-0 in the ALDS by Baltimore.  Three years of frustration followed, culminating with an embarrassing 64-98 “effort” in 2017 that culminated with Ausmus’s dismissal and the hiring of former long-time rival, Ron Gardenhire – whose 1983 Topps baseball card appeared in just about every other pack, I might add.