Lend me your ears, baseball fans - your hometown team is about to make history.
It's definitely not in the way most people would find anything to cheer about, but with the Tigers, I'm sure you've learned to take what you can get.
Yes, I'm talking about the losingest season in modern baseball history. That's right, not since the 1962 New York Mets lost 120 games has a Major League Baseball team looked so awful.
The magic number sits at 22 -Detroit must only win 10 of its final 32 games in order to avoid humiliation. Not completely impossible, unless you toss in the fact that during those 32 games the Tigers butt heads with the AL East-leading Yankees and the AL Central-leading ChiSox.
Toast.
And at least the Mets had an excuse: They were a first-year expansion team in 1962. So what smells in Motown?
I wish I knew. I've been wracking my brain the entire season (and the last, and the last, and the last) and I just don't have any answers. The team sure doesn't look like the train wreck everyone is making them out to be, but something is definitely wrong. The simple conclusion I've come to is that they're not a bad team, they're simply not as good as everyone else. I'm thinking those Japanese little-leaguers might even give Detroit a run for their money.
In the field
In his rookie campaign, third baseman Eric Munson has proven he not only has the agility to hold down the hot corner but boasts quite a club as well. Munson's 18 home runs, while second on the Tigers to Dmitri Young's 25, are third overall among MLB rookies. While learning a new position, the 25-year-old has made some expected errors - 19 in 237 opportunities but has stuck it out to become Detroit's everyday man. Or nearly so.
On the mound
Southpaw Mike Maroth is dangerously toeing the 20-loss tightrope with a 6-18 record. Not since A's pitcher Brian Kingman tossed a less-than-stellar 8-20 record in 1980 has any professional hurler graced the 20-loss mark. But Kingman set the tone with a winning team - Oakland went 83-79 that year. Is it really Maroth's fault? He has nearly the worst run support in the bigs; only 18-year-old teammate Jeremy Bonderman's totals are worse.
At the plate
It's simply depressing to compare the Tigers' statistics against any other professional squad. Detroit has a full 325 RBIs less than Boston's league-topping 759, and its .238 batting average is anemic when placed side-by-side with Bean Town's .291.
But with his hair exploding out of the hole in his batting helmet earlier this season, Dmitri Young is hard not to notice. Even after cornrows became the favored style for this first-baseman-turned-left-fielder, Young continued to garner attention. Turning a complete 180 on a dismal, injury-plagued 2002, Young leads the team in batting average (.298), runs (64), hits (131), doubles (26), triples (7), homers (26), RBIs (67) and total bases (246) - that's every statistical category, folks. If I were management, I'd lock this one down because if the past has any influence on the future, I'm predicting Dmitri will go for a sack of wooden nickels just hours after he wins his first AL batting title.
Yes, things aren't good for the Tigers right now, but let's look at the bright side. First of all, attendance has gone up. Not unlike a grisly highway accident, people are flocking to the area to be able to see the show - even if they're only rubbernecking for a few innings. And most importantly, once New York's "other" team found it had nowhere to go but up, it took just seven short seasons to put together a championship team.
A friend once told me that sometimes you need to bottom out before you can rise above the ashes. Despite what they look like on paper, on the field and everywhere else, I'm not ready to give up; I'm convinced the Tigers are a young team that hasn't yet risen to its full potential. Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking for miracles here.
But I am calling for a World Series team for 2010.
Dawn Klemish is the delusional general assignment sports reporter. She'd loved to see another World Series championship in her hometown but thinks maybe she'll have to move to New York to accomplish this. She can be reached at klemishd@msu.edu.
