Detroit Tigers

Date of birth: February 21, 1958 Garden Grove, CA

High School:  Kearny HS (San Diego, CA)

First Impression; Its not a great card but he’s a great player. The side effect of being a baseball nut in a town with two very inconsistent franchises is that your attention begins to wander. And after the Cubs disaster of an NLCS in 1984, what dried my tears and helped me sleep was that nobody was stopping the 1984 Tigers. So while I would have been overjoyed to see the Cubs MAKE the World Series, the way it worked out it probably got the heartache over quicker. And so who else do you root for in the WS but the Tigers to CRUSH the Padres. And it was hard to not follow them, they were all over TWIB and their hot start got them on the front pages, and they never left, well they left in 1985.

The Tigers were a fun team with Sparky coming over from the Reds and Gibby and Lance Parrish, Jack Morris, one of my favorites, Darrell Evans, and Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell. They were the peas and carrots of that time. “The longest-running double-play combination in baseball history, Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker played 1,918 games together from 1977-95, the most ever for American League teammates.  During that time they combined for 11 All-Star berths, seven Gold Gloves, seven Silver Slugger awards, 4,734 hits, and 429 home runs.  They were, quite simply, the heart and soul of the Detroit Tigers for nearly two full decades.”*

I liked Alan because he was frequently an All-Star and he looked more “common man” compared to Dave Parker or Mike Schmidt. Probably just my perception as a kid. But Alan Trammell gave me good vibes. I would feel for him later…

Career stats player: Comparing their time with Detroit, which for Trammell was 20 years as opposed to Miggy who was there 16 years. Trammell had 33 more hits in 600 or so at bats. 6 time All-Star 3 time silver slugger, and the ring.

All Time Stat: Pounding in that Whitaker nail, they made their major league debut at Fenway Park together, during the second game of a double-header on September 9, 1977. He collected both his 200th hit of the season and 1,500th career in same at bat (October 1, 1987).

Career stats manager: 186-300. I should just leave it at yikes. As we forshadowed with Luis Pujols, it was a rocky road in Detroit as manager for Trammell. It is a shame when someone like this gets his shot and he is served a crap salad of a team. That’s being blunt, but their best player was Dmitri Young who was DH and hit 29 HR. Their staff was pretty durable with 3 starters going 32 starts or more. The problem was they were not pitching well. This may be an over analysis of this scenario but I want to really analyze what went wrong, in Alan’s defense.

Nate Cornejo a 23 year old started 32 games (previous experience [PE] 19 starts), he was 6-17. He pitched 194.2 innings, he struck out 46 batters. He walked 58. Jeremy Bonderman a 20 year old starter (rookie) pitched 162 innings also walking 58 batters and surrendering 100 earned runs and 23 homers. Mike Maroth, the first player to lose 20 games since Brian Kingman, and the last to do it. He started 33 games (PE 21 starts) and he was 9-21, he led the league in earned runs 123 and home runs 34. Other highlights on staff were Adam Bernero (PE 15 starts) got his sole win against the Yankees and he was 1-12, he was dealt IN JULY to the Rockies where he finished 0-2.

Gary Knotts (PE 1 start) 3-8. Will Ledezma (rookie) 3-7 and knuckleballer Steve Sparks 0-6 out of the pen. The Tigers handed Trammell a AAA roster. Their top 5 starters had a combined 56 starts prior to the season. And while the next two seasons were better, they were not good as he lost 90 and 91. At least they let him finish out the season. They were able to turn the franchise around in short order under Jim Leyland and with the arrival of Miguel Cabrera in 2008.

Fun Fact: He borrowed a Frankenstein outfit with wooden blocks glued to army boots, one block fell off, he toppled into bushes, and that fall caused his first meniscus tear. This injury started the chain of knee surgeries he dealt with for the rest of his career.

Ever a Future Star?  Well a Rookie Shortstop, with PAUL MOLITOR. And also Mickey Klutts and U L.

Rookie or final card? No. And Topps would also honor his as a manager (not for the losses, they gave all managers cards) in 2004 and 2005.

Hall of Fame? Number retired? He is in the National Baseball Hall of Fame as well as his #3 is retired by Detroit. ALSO he was inducted into the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame and well as the San Diego Hall of Champions in 1998. No word on his inclusion in the Hall of Justice.

Links to stories including Alan Trammell.

*Baseball Prospectus