Detroit is flat-out the hottest sports town in America right now.

It wasn't but a few years ago that the only team Detroit sports fans had to look forward to was the Red Wings, because they were the only team that was going to win.

I credit the Detroit Pistons and general manager Joe Dumars with starting the winning attitude the Tigers and Lions have now adopted. Dumars has made continuous moves to make the Pistons contenders and to keep them at the top of the standings in the NBA's Eastern Conference.

Honestly, though, who would have thought the Tigers would have bought in before the Lions?

Let's start with the Red Wings, who for the last 14 years have been in the playoffs and were pretty much all Detroit sports had to cheer for until the last few years. After signing goaltender Dominik Hasek to keep him from signing with the Colorado Avalanche, the goalie situation in Detroit has been solved not by him or Curtis Joseph, but by "career back-up" Manny Legace.

Legace was great all season long and led the Red Wings to the President's Trophy, given to the team that finishes the regular season with the most points. In his first two playoff starts of his career, Legace held Nashville to two goals.

Despite all the nonsense with the team earlier in the year, the Red Wings are still the best team in the National Hockey League and are one of the favorites - if not the favorite - to bring Lord Stanley's Cup back to Hockeytown.

Next, we go back to the Pistons and their winning ways, which started two seasons ago and have continued through to this year. The team flip-flopped its record between the 2000-01 (32-50) and 2001-02 seasons (50-32). The Pistons duplicated that mark last season and already have 53 wins this year.

Dumars started the season last summer when he chose Darko Milicic over Carmelo Anthony with the second pick in the 2003 NBA Draft. The concern of fans that Detroit was one player short this season changed when Dumars landed forward Rasheed Wallace in a three-way trade with the Boston Celtics and the Atlanta Hawks.

Wallace has been everything for Detroit that Dumars, Pistons fans and NBA analysts thought he would be. Although they will not win the Central Division Championship this season, the addition of Wallace has put them in position as one of the favorites to win the Eastern Conference, or possibly the NBA title.

The third team of the big four, the Lions, has shown it wants to win by its off-season activity. While they finished 5-11 last season, the Lions have bulked up areas of need in the off-season by picking up Pro-Bowl safety Brock Marion and cornerback Fernando Bryant.

The Lions also picked up guard Damien Woody, wide receiver Tai Streets and quarterback Rick Mirer. On top of those players, the Lions still have the 2004 NFL Draft, in which they hold the No. 6 overall pick.

Whether they trade the pick or keep, if the Lions have as successful a draft as they did last year, they should add more impact players. Either way, football in downtown Detroit should be fun, and the way Detroit sports are going, Ws are in the cards.

And finally, we come to the Detroit Tigers. The 5-1 Tigers, the first-place-in-the-Central-Division Tigers and the most shocking, the best-record-in-all-of-Major-League-Baseball Tigers. No one could have predicted this start.

Ivan Rodriguez and the other newcomers on the Tigers have brought a whole new attitude. I saw an ESPN poll the other day which said 76.2 percent of teams that have a winning record in April finish the season with a winning record.

I'm not saying the Tigers are going to finish the season with a winning record, but the start they've had is the only reason I can make the claim for Detroit being the hottest sports town in the country right now.

I have been a Detroit sports fan my entire life, and I have yet to remember a time that I was as excited about all four teams as I am right now.

Regardless of what happens to all four teams and the remainder of their seasons, right now, it's nice to be able to say that I am a Detroit sports fan.

J. Ryan Mulcrone is a State News sports writer. He can be reached at mulcron3@msu.edu.