The History of the Detroit Tigers
The Detroit Tigers were established in 1896 and were one of the charter members of the American League, they have won the World Series four times and won 10 AL Pennants.
In 1905, the Tigers acquired outfielder Ty Cobb. He played for the Tigers for 22 seasons, with the final 6 as player-manager.
Cobb won three AL pennants for Tigers. In 1934, they lost seven games to St. Louis Cardinals at World Series. In 1935, Tigers beat Cubs in six games for first World Series.
The storied franchise enjoyed arguably their greatest season in 1984 when they won a league high 104 games. They won in the AL Championship, advanced to the World Series where they defeat the Padres, 4 games to 1, for their first World Series in 16 years.
In 2003, with a record of 43-119, the Tigers set the AL record for losses in a year. Poor pitching and hitting contributed to the poor record, as the pitching staff had an ERA of 5.30 and the batters averaged an anemic .240.
The 2003 record-setting season took place in a time period where the Tigers had become synonymous with losing. They had not had a winning season since 1993 and were written off as playoff contenders early in the season.
In 2006, After a typical slow start, the Tigers manager Jim Leyland’s tirade in which he berated his team for its lack of effort. The Tigers won 95 games, for wild card in playoffs. After defeating the Oakland Athletics and then lost in five games to the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series in 1984
While the Tigers have not enjoyed any playoff success since their trip to the World Series in 2006, they are a completely different franchise from the perennial loser that was always predicted to finish last in their division.
