It's pretty cool that many of the 1984 Tigers came back to Detroit to be honored at the ballpark for what they accomplished 30 years ago. World Series champs. Sadly, the Tigers haven't won one since. Three decades is quite a dry spell. Then again, it pales in comparison to the Detroit Lions who play right across the street from the Tigers. The Honolulu blue and silver puddy-tats are one of only four teams to have never even reached the Super Bowl, the other 3 being the Jacksonville Jaguars, Houston Texans, and Cleveland Browns -- all "expansion" teams, while the Lions have been around since 1934. In that respect, maybe 30 years isn't so bad after all, and the Tigers are pretty good these days. The Lions? Well.....
Idle thought: OMG, what happened to Lou Whitaker? He doesn't look anything like the Sweet Lou of yore. Yeah, 30 years will take its toll on anybody, but Whitaker looks like he's turned into Gates Brown. Remember him?
It's interesting that some Detroit area sports writers still lament the likes of Alan Trammell, Jack Morris, and Lou Whitaker not getting elected into the Hall of Fame. Yet it might just be that each has doomed their chances in their own ways. Let's look a little closer.
Jack Morris. He was arguably the best pitcher in the game during the entire decade of the 1980's. Jack would wind up with a career record of 254-186 over 18 years. Winning percentage? Check. Longevity? Definitely. His ERA of 3.90 was a bit high, but not too shabby. So where did he go wrong? Morris was known to be a bit flippant, perhaps even cocky with reporters back in his heyday. Let's remember that the folks that vote on Hall of Fame inductees must have at least 10 years tenure in the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America). And of all sports, the baseball geeks have the longest memories of them all. Plus, towards the end of his career, Morris became a bit of a mercenary. After 14 years with the Tigers, Morris would spend one with the Minnesota Twins, two with the Toronto Blue Jays, and his last as a Cleveland Indian. Right or wrong, the BBWAA electors have always placed great value on not only stats and longevity, but also humility and loyalty. Had Morris been a little more humble and remained with the Tigers for his last 4 years in the majors, he might well have a plaque in Cooperstown today. Just a thought.
Lou Whitaker was a bit of an enigma. Nobody ever really seemed to know what was going on with him. Sure, he was a superb second baseman for 19 years, and a pretty good hitter to boot. But like Morris, the media could never really get close to him. Some perceived Sweet Lou as being a bit aloof as well. In his first year of Hall eligibility, Whitaker would only get 2.9% of the vote, far short of the minimum 5% to remain on the ballot in future years. Given his outstanding performance for almost two decades with the Tigers, that seems strange. Yet somehow, some way, the BBWAA voters quickly tuned him out. Even today, nobody seems to know what Whitaker is doing. He shows up at Tigers spring training in Florida here and there, but other than that he remains a mystery man. Did I mention he looks like Gates Brown?
The case of Alan Trammell is a bit easier to figure out. Yes, he put up some mighty fine numbers over his 19 year career with Tigers, both offensively and defensively. He was a hitting shortstop with a slick glove. He's been on the ballot for 13 years now, and never come close to being inducted. Two more, and he's out, unless the "old-timers" committee votes him in many years down the road. To date, the highest percentage of votes Trammell has received from the BBWAA was 36.8% in 2012. That's not even half of the 75% required for induction. His name will stay on the ballot until 2016, as long as he garners at least 5% every year, which is likely. But after that, he'll be put on hold for another six years until 2022 before the old-timers committee can even consider him. Oddly enough, Trammell was voted into the polish Hall of Fame back in 1998. Dang, I never knew he was into detailing cars in the offseason. He must have been really good at that wax on, wax off stuff. Ahem.
Yet since he retired as a player, he hasn't exactly enhanced his reputation in the grand scheme of baseball. From 2003-2005, Tram was the manager of the same Tigers he once played for. His teams went a collective 186-300 for a winning percentage of .383. Former 1984 teammate Kirk Gibson served as his bench coach. Just exactly what a "bench" coach does other than hang out and draw a fat salary seems to be another one of those mysteries like the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot, what happened to Amelia Earhart, and the on-going adventures of the Kardashians that will never be truly solved. Some things are just meant to be beyond normal human comprehension. And sorry, but 3 years of .383 will typically get a manager canned. And Trammell was, along with his buddy Gibson.
Lo and behold, a few years later, what do we see? Kirk Gibson has incredibly become the manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks. And guess who his bench coach is? Yep, in an ironic role reversal from their time spent as the Tiger dugout "brain trust", Gibby hired Tram as HIS bench coach way out in Arizona.
And guess what? The Diamondbacks are currently the worst team in all of major league baseball. Gibby as a manager? Really? What's next? Pete Rose replacing Bud Selig as Commissioner and hiring A-Rod as his underboss (bench coach)? Hmm. On second thought, that would be very interesting and definitely liven up the game. In the meantime, Trammell, fairly or not, is being associated with another big time loser. And somewhere in the dark recesses of the brilliant minds of the people that vote on Hall of Fame induction, another not-so-good stat has been added to the memory banks.
Funny thing is, Trammell was far and away a much better overall shortstop than Ozzie Smith of the St. Louis Cardinals. His hitting stats were vastly superior, and Tram could do everything Oz did defensively, but Oz was a showman, while Tram made it look routine. Evidently, back flips go a long ways towards getting one a plaque in Cooperstown. Smith has one. That's forever. Trammell does not, and he likely never will.
He never should have taken the Tigers' manager job, and he sure as hell shouldn't have gone to Arizona to sit on the bench next to Gibby. Both were great players in their day, but neither ever had a clue how to manage a ball club.
Oh yeah, one more thing. Did I mention Lou Whitaker looks like Gates Brown these days?
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