Retired numbers: Detroit Tigers
A big question remains: Why hasn't Mickey Lolich been given his due?
The commonly accepted way for a team to honor a former star is to retire his jersey. His name and number are emblazoned on an outfield wall, and the number is pulled from circulation, never to be assigned again.
Except in Detroit.
The Tigers, as we shall see, have adopted a two-tiered approach to jersey retirement, a strategy not encountered in the previous 26 installments of my every-other-Friday rundown of retired numbers.
That makes it difficult to determine exactly how many former players, managers, and broadcasters have been honored by the club. The team says on its website that the correct total is eight (not including the No. 42 universally retired in Jackie Robinson’s memory). But it’s possible to inflate the count as high as 16.
I fit between the extremes. The best current figure, I think, is nine, based on the way the honorees are displayed in Comerica Park.
But there’s no doubt that the total should be higher than that. At least two worthy candidates deserved to be enshrined, including one who is already ticketed for inclusion.
Subscribe — free — to Baseball’s Best (and Worst)
A new installment will arrive in your email each Tuesday and Friday morning
Tigers’ numbers already retired
Here’s a rundown of Detroit’s nine retired jerseys. The list is generally in numerical order, though an exception will immediately become apparent:
The hard-nosed Ty Cobb played 22 seasons for the Tigers (1905-1926) in the era before numerals were affixed to uniforms. A blank jersey has been retired in his honor. The fiery center fielder won 12 American League batting titles, nine of them coming in a row from 1907 to 1915. He rapped precisely 3,900 hits for Detroit before finishing his career with the Athletics. Cobb remains the Tigers’ all-time leader in several categories, including hits, runs (2,087), batting average (.368), and wins above replacement (a/k/a WAR) at 144.9.
No. 2 Charlie Gehringer spent his entire 19-year career as a second baseman for the Tigers (1924-1942). His greatest season came relatively late in that span. Gehringer led the American League with a .371 batting average in 1937 and won the Most Valuable Player Award. Most of his other seasons were nearly as successful. Gehringer posted averages above .300 in 13 different years and exceeded 200 hits in seven of them.
No. 3 Alan Trammell (1977-1996) is one of five men to play more than 2,200 games for the Tigers. He ranks as the franchise’s overall leader for defensive WAR, with four Gold Gloves offering further proof of his wizardry at shortstop. Trammell holds seventh place in the club’s standings for hits (2,365) and fifth place for stolen bases (236). He batted .300 or better in seven seasons.
No. 5 Hank Greenberg sits fourth on the franchise’s all-time list for home runs (306), a total that was depressed by the relative brevity of his career. The first baseman played only 12 years (1930, 1933-1941, 1945-1946) with the Tigers, losing more than four seasons to military service. Greenberg blasted at least 40 homers four times, peaking at 58 in 1938. He was twice named the AL’s MVP, and his career slugging average of .616 remains the best in Detroit history.
Nobody played more frequently for the Tigers than No. 6 Al Kaline, who was penciled into Detroit’s lineup 2,834 times over 22 seasons (1953-1974). The right fielder never won the American League’s MVP trophy, though he finished among the top 10 votegetters nine times. Kaline is No. 1 on the franchise’s career home-run list with 399, ranks second to Cobb in hits (3,007), and holds third place for runs scored (1,622).
No. 11 Sparky Anderson arrived in Detroit with something to prove. He had been fired as manager of the Cincinnati Reds in 1978 despite winning a pair of world titles over nine seasons. Anderson worked similar magic during the early portion of his 17-year run in Detroit (1979-1995), converting a mediocre club into a dynamo that won 35 of its first 40 games in 1984 and coasted to the championship. His 1,331 victories are the most for any Tigers manager.
Cynics called No. 16 Hal Newhouser a fluke, a beneficiary of diluted wartime competition. The pitcher won 54 games in 1944 and 1945, being named the American League’s MVP in each season. But how would he fare when baseball’s star hitters returned from overseas? Newhouser answered the question with a 26-9 mark and a league-leading 1.94 ERA in 1946. He finished his 15-year run in Detroit (1939-1953) with precisely 200 victories.
No. 23 Willie Horton (1963-1977) is the only Tiger to have his jersey retired without a corresponding induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The left fielder and designated hitter piled up a total of 262 home runs, putting him fifth in franchise history. Horton, who was raised in Detroit, blasted at least 25 homers in five different seasons for his hometown team, reaching triple digits for runs batted in on three of those occasions.
No. 47 Jack Morris won 254 games during his 18-year pitching career, with 198 coming in his 14 seasons with the Tigers (1977-1990). His 408 starts rank second on Detroit’s all-time list, and his 1,980 strikeouts are third in franchise history. Morris was the undisputed ace for the powerful 1984 club, securing two of the Tigers’ four victories over the San Diego Padres in the World Series.
The Tigers have also posted the surnames of several former managers, players, and broadcasters on the right-field wall in Comerica Park. Some played before numerals were common, but others did wear numbers, such as Mickey Cochrane’s No. 3 and George Kell’s No. 21.
Members of this group are referred to as “honored names,” apparently putting them a step below jersey retirement. Among them are Cochrane, Sam Crawford, Ernie Harwell, Harry Heilmann, Hughie Jennings, Kell, and Heinie Manush.
Tigers’ candidates for retired numbers
Detroit’s two-tiered system confuses the situation. I suppose the club could always decide to elevate any of the subsidiary seven to full-fledged retirement status, but I’m going to assume that such a move is unlikely.
So here are six other possibilities for future ceremonies:
No. 1 Lou Whitaker was a Detroit mainstay at second base for 19 years (1977-1995), linked with Trammell in the heart of the infield. Whitaker won the AL’s Rookie of the Year Award in 1978 and Gold Gloves in three subsequent seasons. He ranks third on the Tigers’ all-time list for games played (2,390), fourth for runs (1,386) and WAR (75.1), sixth for hits (2,369), and seventh for homers (244).
No. 11 Bill Freehan, who died last month, spent his entire career with his hometown Tigers (1961, 1963-1976). The catcher was named to 10 straight All-Star teams from 1964 to 1973. He was best known as the sparkplug of Detroit’s 1968 world champions, finishing second in American League MVP voting that year. Freehan is 10th on the club’s home-run list with an even 200.
No. 24 Miguel Cabrera is still active, making headlines for blasting the 500th home run of his career on August 22. Nearly three-quarters of those homers — 364 at last count — have come during his 14 years with the Tigers (2008-2021). The first baseman has won a pair of MVP trophies, as well as a rare Triple Crown in 2012, when he hit 44 homers, drove in 139 runs, and batted .330. Cabrera’s career slugging average of .531 is the third-best for Detroit.
Only Kaline launched more home runs for the Tigers than No. 25 Norm Cash, who finished his 15-year Detroit career (1960-1974) with 373. The first baseman’s second season with the club was his best. He won the American League batting title in 1961 with a .361 average and finished fourth in the voting for Most Valuable Player. Cash ranks seventh in club history for games played (2,018) and 10th for hits (1,793).
No pitcher in Tigers history made more starts than No. 29 Mickey Lolich, who tossed the first pitch in 459 games over his 13-year tenure (1963-1975). Lolich also ranks first in club history in shutouts (39) and strikeouts (2,679). He achieved his greatest fame in 1968, when he notched three victories in Detroit’s World Series triumph over the Cardinals, allowing just five runs in 27 innings.
Present-day fans associate No. 35 Justin Verlander with the Astros, perhaps forgetting that the pitcher spent his first 13 seasons (2005-2017) in a Detroit uniform. Verlander won the American League’s Rookie of the Year Award in 2006, then doubled up with the MVP and Cy Young Awards five years later. His 2,373 strikeouts put him second to Lolich in the club’s lifetime rankings, while his 380 starts are fifth.
The outlook
Okay, I fudged a bit. I already knew that the Tigers had planned to retire Whitaker’s number in 2020, an honor overdue for years. But Covid-19 delayed the ceremony, which now appears likely to happen next season.
So strike his name from the list of candidates. But what about the other five possibilities?
Cabrera is a dead cinch to have his number pulled from circulation, though not anytime soon. He has played the bulk of Detroit’s games this season — primarily as a designated hitter — and he remains under contract through 2023.
Another strong contender, Verlander, likewise remains active (in a way). He is currently rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, hoping to retake the mound for Houston next season. He has pledged to keep pitching “until the wheels fall off,” waving away any talk of retirement.
That leaves Freehan, Cash, and Lolich, all key members of Detroit’s 1968 championship squad. If the Tigers had wished to honor these past heroes, you’d assume they would have done so by now.
But the omission of Lolich, in particular, is hard to figure. He offers the most compelling stats among the three candidates — and unlike Freehan and Cash, he’s still alive.
Perhaps the brain trust in Detroit can find its way to holding a second retirement ceremony during the season ahead.