I've been a Tiger fan most of my life and, although we've endured nowhere near the suffering of our friends at Wrigley Field, or out in Boston, Tiger fans have suffered more than the average amount of ridicule and disappointment. For the past 12 years, the Tigers were baseball's most losingest team. That's 1,170 losses. With 162 games in the regular season, that means if you attended a Tiger game anytime since 1994, there's a 60 percent chance that you saw them lose. I did, at least a couple times.
Granted, Tiger fans have not earned the right to complain. They do not deserve pity. Even when their team wins, some of the fans behave like depraved losers. Rather than bask in the glory that was 1984, Tiger fans started a near-riot, turning over police vehicles and setting them on fire.
That aside, the team in 1984 was one of baseball's greatest, a collection of players who went on to prove their worth elsewhere. Some ended up in LA (Kirk Gibson!) and the manager even retired here (Sparky Anderson lives in the upscale LA suburb of Thousand Oaks).
I'll try to contain my enthusiasm and stay on point during these next few weeks, but it may be difficult, particularly when I read the poetry that is Mitch Albom's column. Next stop, Oakland.
— TJ Sullivan in LA
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