Detroit Tigers - The Clinton Years (1990-1999)

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1990

1993

1997

Decade

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109

Titles:

Top Tigers Players of the Nineties

None

Pitchers:

BallPark:

Bill Gullickson (4.6) - 30

Tiger Stadium

Mike Henneman (7.18) - 28

Justin Thompson (13.13) - 25

Team Name:

Brian Moehler (8.8) - 25

Tigers

Todd Jones (2.7) - 21

Frank Tanana (3.16) - 20

Owner:

Mike Moore (0.88) - 19

Tom Monahan (1990-1992)

David Wells (10.29) - 16

Michael Ilitch (1993-1999)

Jack Morris (0.72) - 12

Felipe Lira (6.49) - 12

General Managers:

Doug Brocail (6.71) - 8

Jim Campbell (1990)

Omar Olivares (5.07) - 7

Bo Schembechler (1990-1992)

Michael Ilitch (1993-1995)

Catchers:

John McHale (1995-1999)

Mickey Tettleton (14.83) - 33

Chad Kreuter (5.13) - 13

Managers:

Brad Ausmus (4.23) - 10

Sparky Anderson (1990-1995)

Buddy Bell (1996-1998)

First Basemen:

Larry Parrish (1998-1999)

Cecil Fielder (16.89) - 63

Tony Clark (9.41) - 19

No Hitters:

None

Second Basemen:

Lou Whitaker (23.38) - 45

Hall of Famers:

Damion Easley (10.52) - 19

Jack Morris

Alan Trammell

ShortStop:

Allen Trammell (15.02) - 31

Rookie of the Year:

Deivi Cruz (3.6) - 17

None

Third Base:

MVP:

Travis Fryman (27.48) - 58

None

Outfield:

Cy Young:

Tony Phillips (25.29) - 48

None

Bobby Higginson (10.76) - 35

Brian Hunter (3.01) - 21

Notable Events:

Rob Deer (6.03) - 17

Milt Cuyler (5.24) - 14

1990 - Jim Campbell steps down as GM. He will continue as president and

Kirk Gibson (3.54) - 12

CEO until 1992 when he is fired by the new owner. In all, Campbell will have

Luis Gonzalez (2.35) - 4

been in charge as GM or president/CEO for thirty years. During his tenure,

the Tigers would finish above .500 twenty one times, finish first four times

Notable Events:

and win two World Series. Campbell had a unique organizational style all

his own. He would home grow a crop of young players and then keep them

1993 - The last Tigers winning season for another twelve years.

until they got old. The first crop was in the early Sixties - Freehan, Cash,

There's still plenty of the old guard around, emphasis on the "old".

McAulliffe, Wert, Northrup, Stanley, Horton (plus Kaline). The second crop

Whitaker, Trammell, Phillips, Gibson and manager Sparky Anderson

was in the late Seventies - Parrish, Thompson, Whitaker, Trammell, Kemp,

Gibson, Morris, Petry, Wilcox. He did a bit more maneuvering with this group,

1995 - Sparky Anderson steps down as manager. Owner Michael Ilitch

but very little by most standards. He never did come up with a third group.

finally realizes that President Michael Ilitch is running the team into oblivion

and hires a baseball man, John McHale, to run the operation.

1990 - Tom Monaghan starts acting like a pizza guy and hires Bo

Schembechler, football coach of Michigan, as his General Manager.

1995 - Outfielder Bobby Higginson, 24, is a rookie. He was a twelfth

At least he still had Campbell around as team President, but this

round pick in the 1992 draft. Higginson was the one bright spot in the

move did nothing to further the Tigers' cause

dark days of the Tigers ignominious run in the late nineties and

early 2000's

1992 - Michael Ilitch buys the club from Tom Monaghan. Ilitch was a former

minor league baseball player who had built the Little Caesar's Pizza empire.

1998 - Detroit is placed into the AL Central. They're lucky they

I don't know what it was about the Tigers and pizza guys. Unfortunately for

weren't placed into the International League

Tigers fans, Ilitch thought that his background as a minor league player and

pizza pie magnate somehow qualified him to run a big league baseball club.

1999 - The Tigers play their last game in Tiger Stadium. They had been

It actually qualified him to run a big league baseball club into the ground.

playing at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull avenues the entire

It started out OK - he fired Bo Schembechler. Then it got scary as he also

century. First at Bennett Park, then Navin Field, then Briggs Stadium,

fired Jim Campbell. Then it got outright horrifying as Ilitch installed himself

then Tiger Stadium (Navin, Briggs and Tiger were all one and the same

as GM. Ilitch was arrogant and he was wrong.

physical park which had been standing for 87 years).

It would be years before he would turn the Tigers fortunes around. He first

had to overcome the damage he himself had done in ruining the organization.

Then he had to turn his attentions from building a new ballpark to put a

winning team in it. It would take over a decade of severe losing for all

of this to come about. Luckily, Ilich had deep pizza pockets to be able

to overcome the miserable failure the franchise had become in the long run.