For a weekend, the Tigers were the best team in baseball instead of the worst team of all time. Dan Nied savors the most precious moment in a season nearly fully devoid of precious moments altogether.
when the pitch scooted past the Minnesota Twins' catcher in the bottom of the ninth inning Saturday night Tigers' center fielder Alex Sanchez scooted home from third base and, for that one second, the Detroit Tigers were the best team in baseball.
Sanchez's run capped a comeback from an eight-run deficit and gave the Tigers a 9-8 win as the scarce crowd at Comerica Park erupted with elation at the fact that their team, officially, could not be the worst of all time.
The Tigers, 119 losses already in hand with two games left to top the major league record of 120 set by the 1962 New York Mets, showed the chutzpah it took to rally. When they beat the Twins 9-4 Sunday to hold their record at 43-119, the city of Detroit could not have been more proud of one of the worst teams of all time.
Just a week earlier the record was in the bag as the Tigers were 38-118. But Detroit rallied to go 5-1 in its last six games and finally proved a little bit of scrappiness.
Lets forget for a second that the final four-game series against the Twins meant nothing to Minnesota and everything to Detroit. Lets forget that Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire sat most of his regulars and limited his starting pitchers to 50-70 pitches. There is no use diluting the three games the Tigers won against the Twins. The only thing that matters is that the Detroit Tigers may have been the happiest team in Major League baseball this weekend.
The main problem with this Tigers team is that up until Saturday night they weren't all that loveable. At least those ‘62 Mets were peppered with characters who saturated the media with soundbites The best soundbites the Tigers could muster all year were those of manager Alan Trammell running out of excuses around the 80-loss mark and just admitting defeat.
Where the Mets were an expansion team with bottom of the barrel talent, the Tigers had been around for over 100 years and actually built a team this bad through a series of bad long term contracts (the underachieving Bobby Higginson, the injured Dean Palmer, the departed Damien Easley) and minor leaguers playing dress up in big league uniforms (Ramon Santiago, Omar Infante).
But there they were Saturday proving, on the field, that they were a loveable team. Down 8-1 at the seventh inning stretch, No. 120 was just two and a half innings away. Then the Tigers showed their character. Four runs in the seventh, three in the eighth to tie. Then Sanchez walking to lead off the ninth, stealing second and third and finding home plate on that wonderful wild pitch and, just like that, the Tigers were better than someone.
Now, does a 5-1 final week make up for a 43-119 season? Well, no. Have the Tigers turned the corner? Well, no. Are they still an inept franchise? Well, yes. But now, as the season is over optimism can run free the way it does every offseason. Owner Mike Ilitch has promised to heighten the payroll and General Manager Dave Dombrowski has a knack for finding talent. While no one is touting the Tigers as a playoff contender in 2004, the organization and its fans, like every other team, still have the next six months to dream.
And it makes it just a little bit easier that they weren't the worst of all time.