For most of the season the Detroit Tigers were one of the best teams in baseball and racking up wins at an incredible rate. The Freep shares that all that changed:
The 6-seed Tigers (87-75) squandered what was a 15½-game lead over the 3-seed Guardians (88-74) in the division on July 8, and 9½ games on Sept. 10. Cleveland went 5-1 against Detroit in the final two weeks (and 8-5 overall this season) to take homefield in the wild-card series and give the Tigers a label no team ever wants: biggest division meltdown in MLB history.
Today, the slate is clean & the Tigers travel to Cleveland to meet the Guardians at 1:08pm in Game 1 of an American League wild-card series. Play(off) Ball!!
That brutal day came during a nationwide heat wave that swept from the West Coast through the Great Plains and into the Midwest, ultimately settling over the Motor City. More than 700 people died across the country due to the heat. Detroit’s death toll was lower than most. An eight-month old baby named Rosie May died of heat exhaustion and two men drowned swimming while trying to cool down. But low death toll or not, the city felt the heat.
And 105°F isn’t just “hot.” It’s desperate. On Van Dyke, on the city’s east side, a lumber yard fire broke out, engulfing nearly 10 acres. The blaze destroyed nearly 3,000 telephone lines, and claimed five lives
The Corktown Historical Society shares this photo depicts the historic intersection of Michigan & Trumbull aka “The Corner” in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood in 1934, a year the Tigers won the AL pennant. They share “Trolley cars were a popular source of transportation to Tigers games during the 1930s, at least for those who could afford the fare during the Depression. In this photo, hundreds of fans exit a trolley car near Navin Field.”
You have until noon today (Thursday, June 26) to submit your vote for the first round of voting for the MLB All Star Game. With a record of 50-31, the Detroit Tigers are tied with defending champions the Los Angeles Dodgers for the best record in baseball.
Pictured above is AL leading second baseman Gleyber Torres on Father’s Day. Click the pic below to vote!
For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.
Friday, April 4th 2025 is the 124th Opening Day for the Detroit Tigers. As a resident of Midtown in Detroit, I can tell you that this is unquestionably one of the biggest holidays of the year for us. Already the streets are filling with cars as baseball fans from all over Michigan and the world get ready for Tiger Baseball to return to the Motor City!
I’ve rounded up some of the highlights with a laser focus on FREE including and Opening Day party at Grand Circus Park by the City of Detroit and a Wisconsin manufacturer of watery beer that features a LOT of great food trucks, DJ Invisible, and lots of video walls and screens. There’s another free party from noon – 6pm just across Woodward at one of my favorite venues, The Fillmore with giveaways, WRIF and the game on their MASSIVE screen (tell the security guys Andy sent you and they will laugh). Also on the free front are a party at Gilly’s with giveaways, raffle, face painting & DJ Ray Ya Dig (official DJ of the Lions) from 9 AM–4 PM. I think that the Opening Day Party with my friends The Honest to God Jug Band is free, but they’re so fun and Cliff’s Bells is SO cool that I think you won’t mind if there is a cover.
And everywhere there are giveaways, giveaways, giveaways including the House of Faygo Pop-up at Campus Martius this Friday – Sunday.
Here’s more information on the photos & happenings. Please add yours in the comments here or on our Facebook!
Skubal is the fifth Tiger to win the award, joining Max Scherzer (2013), Justin Verlander (2011), Willie Hernández (1984) and Denny McLain (1968 and ’69). The dominant southpaw capped his pitching Triple Crown season on Wednesday by winning the AL Cy Young Award in a unanimous vote from members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America
His 18 wins were the most by a Tiger since Scherzer had as many in 2014. His 2.39 ERA was the lowest by a qualified Detroit starter since Mark Fidrych’s incredible rookie season of 1976. His 5.9 fWAR trailed only Verlander’s 2009 and ’10 seasons as the most by a Tigers pitcher in his age-27 season or younger since 1971. His 6.3 bWAR not only led MLB pitchers, it ranked seventh among all AL players. Skubal became the 22nd player in Major League history to win a pitching Triple Crown. (and first since Verlander in 2011!)
I know a lot of us have felt like we’d become skeletons before the Lions & Tigers were competitive, but here we are … even the Pistons won their first game of the season last night!
In nearly 30 years of doing Michigan in Pictures, I’ve had a lot of firsts, but this is the first time I’ve shared a photo from the VP of Travel Michigan aka Pure Michigan! Dave has been an absolute champion for Michigan over the years. He was at the Detroit Tigers home opener that they won 5-4 and writes:
It was sunny. It was cloudy. It was windy. It was cold. It actually…snowed. The Tiger’s won their ’24 opening home game. A perfect day.
The Detroit Historical Society shared: The Detroit Tiger’s Opening Day has always been cause for celebration! While baseball’s return and renewed championship hopes are enough to excite sports fans, the promise of the long summer days baseball brings with it never fails to put the rest of the city in a celebratory mood.
The caption of the photo is: Photo: c. 1886, from the Detroit Historical Society collection. Black and white photographic print depicting the Detroit Wolverines playing at Recreation Park, as seen from behind home plate. Mounted on board.
Definitely our red hot Tigers being THE ONLY undefeated team in baseball & in first place in the AL Central has the city extra fired up for the home opener against the Gonna Be in Vegas Next Year A’s.
Michigan in Pictures 