Jump to content

Recommended Posts

  • oblong changed the title to 8/31/24 6:10 AM Red Sox @ Tigers
Posted

I could be wrong, but I think Darrell Evans was brought to Detroit in part to be the veteran presence for a playoff team.  Or maybe that's just how it was remembered.  The irony to that is that 1984 was his first playoff experience.

  • Like 1
Posted
39 minutes ago, casimir said:

I could be wrong, but I think Darrell Evans was brought to Detroit in part to be the veteran presence for a playoff team.  Or maybe that's just how it was remembered.  The irony to that is that 1984 was his first playoff experience.

I think they were also hoping he could still play a little 3rd because they didn't really like any of the current cast there. But that ended before ST was even over. My memory is skewed as I remember him more as the regular 1B vs Bergman but Bergmann had the Lions share at 1b with 114 games. Evens only played 47 games at 1st, another 20 at 3rd late in the season (Brookens hurt?), the rest at DH.

Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, casimir said:

I could be wrong, but I think Darrell Evans was brought to Detroit in part to be the veteran presence for a playoff team.  Or maybe that's just how it was remembered.  The irony to that is that 1984 was his first playoff experience.

It turned out that he was better in 85-87 than the year they won the World Series.  The thing I remember most about that signing was being shocked that the cheap Tigers actually signed an expensive player.  That was back in the period where they had a free agent "draft" in which teams selected the players with whom they wanted to negotiate.  All the big money teams would draft Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers and Dave Winfield and the Tigers would draft Mick Kelleher.  I was intrigued when the Tigers drafted Evans, but there were about 15 other teams that also drafted him and I never thought the Tigers would get him.  

Edited by Tiger337
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Posted

I still have my authentic warm-up jacket that Sparky's wearing in that photo. It seems unfashionably short by today’s standards, and although I’ve never washed it it’s somehow tighter today. I guess things can shrink in the closet over a span of 40 years. 

  • Like 1
  • Haha 2
Posted
1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

I think they were also hoping he could still play a little 3rd because they didn't really like any of the current cast there. But that ended before ST was even over. My memory is skewed as I remember him more as the regular 1B vs Bergman but Bergmann had the Lions share at 1b with 114 games. Evens only played 47 games at 1st, another 20 at 3rd late in the season (Brookens hurt?), the rest at DH.

They had a need for a corner infielder and he could still hit - 30 homers and a .378 OBP in 1983. It was considered a major signing at the time. 

  • Like 1
Posted
18 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

It turned out that he was better in 85-87 than the year they won the World Series.  The thing I remember most about that signing was being shocked that the cheap Tigers actually signed an expensive player.  That was back in the period where they had a free agent "draft" in which teams selected the players with whom they wanted to negotiate.  All the big money teams would draft Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers and Dave Winfield and the Tigers would draft Mick Kelleher.  I was intrigued when the Tigers drafted Evans, but there were about 15 other teams that also drafted him and I never thought the Tigers would get him.  

Was that “draft” part of the collusion?

Posted
24 minutes ago, oblong said:

Was that “draft” part of the collusion?

It may have have limited competiton for players.  The players, of course, didn't like it because if a very small number of teams drafted them, they had very little leverage.  

Posted
3 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

It turned out that he was better in 85-87 than the year they won the World Series.  The thing I remember most about that signing was being shocked that the cheap Tigers actually signed an expensive player.  That was back in the period where they had a free agent "draft" in which teams selected the players with whom they wanted to negotiate.  All the big money teams would draft Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers and Dave Winfield and the Tigers would draft Mick Kelleher.  I was intrigued when the Tigers drafted Evans, but there were about 15 other teams that also drafted him and I never thought the Tigers would get him.  

That’s interesting.  Was the draft an actual technical procedure of free agency back then, or was it just backroom shenanigans that teams had an undocumented understanding of?

Posted
4 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

I think they were also hoping he could still play a little 3rd because they didn't really like any of the current cast there. But that ended before ST was even over. My memory is skewed as I remember him more as the regular 1B vs Bergman but Bergmann had the Lions share at 1b with 114 games. Evens only played 47 games at 1st, another 20 at 3rd late in the season (Brookens hurt?), the rest at DH.

It’s always been an interesting wrinkle to me how close to the beginning of the season the trade for Hernandez and Bergman was.

Posted
55 minutes ago, casimir said:

It’s always been an interesting wrinkle to me how close to the beginning of the season the trade for Hernandez and Bergman was.

And I remember not liking the trade at the time, I had thought Glenn Wilson was going to have lot more upside than he ever actually did....

  • Like 1
Posted
1 hour ago, casimir said:

That’s interesting.  Was the draft an actual technical procedure of free agency back then, or was it just backroom shenanigans that teams had an undocumented understanding of?

It was a legitimate procedure.  It always seemed kind of strange to me.  Why not just lt every team go afer anyone they wanted? Of course, there was a money angle behind it.  

Posted
4 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

It was a legitimate procedure.  It always seemed kind of strange to me.  Why not just lt every team go afer anyone they wanted? Of course, there was a money angle behind it.  

I have never heard of this until now.  Free agents weren’t really free.  I can’t believe the MLBPA would agree to it. 

Posted
22 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

And I remember not liking the trade at the time, I had thought Glenn Wilson was going to have lot more upside than he ever actually did....

I thought Wilson and Johnson were both going to be good.  I didn't really buy into the Laga hype!  I was lukewarm about the trade.  I liked Wilson and Wockenfuss, but I felt that another top reliever could really help them at that point.  As is often the case with relievers, they caught lightning in a bottle as he never came close repeating his 84 season.

I remember reading that they tried to sign a lefty reliever (Gary Lavelle I believe) after the season and that they were going to trade Hernandez for a starter.  Instead, they traded Johnson for Terrell and kept Hernandez. They should have kept Johnson.       

Posted
4 minutes ago, oblong said:

I have never heard of this until now.  Free agents weren’t really free.  I can’t believe the MLBPA would agree to it. 

I believe something like 16 teams could draft the same player, so it probably didn't hurt the expensive players much.  I think the more marginal players that only got drafted by a couple of teams were the ones who got screwed.  It's the kind of thing that the current MLBPA would never go for.  

Posted

I just checked to see if because of the festivities surrounding the 1984 team that the mlb.tv feed of this game would come up earlier than usual. It told me that the event was “live.” But all I’m getting is an endless scroll telling me that the “event is about to start” but hasn’t started yet. I’m presuming it’ll scroll like this for 45 minutes or so. Heck. 

Posted
6 minutes ago, Tigermojo said:

It's on now. You might have to exit and restart the feed.

That’s what I had to do. I gotta tell you I’m really relieved the Jack Morris is there. 

Posted

I’m getting verklempt. 1984 was great for me. I was 32 years old and still with memories of 1968 and living in Tucson, Arizona. Six guys from Detroit - whom I had never met before they moved to Tucson -  became my closest circle of friends and we shared that entire season together.

As a kid, I was the only Tigers fan I knew. So being with a cluster of like-minded souls was a big deal. They were starry-eyed devotees just like me. Watching Jack’s no-hitter in the first week of the season on NBC’s game of the week made us all look at each other and wonder if this could be the year. And it was.

Posted
16 minutes ago, oblong said:

It sounds like they are using an AI version of Ernie’s voice and it’s mispronouncing all the names.  Cheap. 

They mispronounced **** Tracewski‘s name. (Edit) Richard! Sorry. 

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...