Detroit Tigers | History & Notable Players (2024)

Detroit Tigers, American professional baseball team based in Detroit that plays in the American League (AL). The Tigers have won four World Series titles (1935, 1945, 1968, 1984) and 11 AL pennants.

The Tigers were founded in 1894 as a minor league franchise, playing alongside organizations that would become the Chicago White Sox, the Cleveland Indians, and the Baltimore Orioles in the Western League (the Tigers are the only surviving member of the Western League to remain in its original city). The Western League was renamed the American League in 1900, and it was elevated to major league status in 1901. The early Tiger teams were not a success until Detroit acquired outfielder Ty Cobb—one of the game’s all-time greats—in 1905. In just his third season, Cobb led the team to its first pennant and berth in the World Series, which it lost to the Chicago Cubs. The Tigers returned to the World Series in each of the following two seasons but lost on each occasion.

The Tigers dropped in the AL standings in 1910, finishing in third place. In 1912 they played their first game in Navin Field (later known as Tiger Stadium), which would be home to the team for 88 seasons and become one of the most venerated ballparks in the game. The new home stadium was no guarantee of success, however, and the Tigers finished no higher than second place in the AL (which they did on two occasions) until 1934. That season, the sterling play of catcher and manager Mickey Cochrane, first baseman Hank Greenberg, and second baseman Charlie Gehringer (all future Hall of Famers) propelled the Tigers to the World Series, in which the club’s unfortunate streak continued as Detroit lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. In 1935 Detroit returned to the World Series and finally broke through to win its first championship, defeating the Cubs in six games. The Tigers won another World Series in 1945, but in the 1950s the team finished above fourth place just once.

One high point of the 1950s took place in 1953, when the Tigers signed 18-year-old Al Kaline, an outfielder who would go on to play 22 seasons with the team and earn the nickname “Mr. Tiger.” Detroit tied a team record with 101 wins in 1961 but finished second in the AL behind a dominant New York Yankees team. In 1968 the Tigers team that featured pitchers Denny McLain (winner of the Cy Young Award and 31 games, the highest single-season win total in baseball since 1931) and Mickey Lolich, along with Kaline and sluggers Norm Cash and Willie Horton, won 103 games and ran away with the AL pennant before beating the Cardinals in the World Series.

With the exception of a berth in the AL Championship Series (ALCS) in 1972, the Tigers teams of the 1970s were mostly mediocre, although quirky rookie pitcher Mark (“The Bird”) Fidrych was a brief national media sensation in 1976. In 1979 Detroit hired Sparky Anderson as manager, and under his guidance the team returned to the upper echelons of the AL, including another World Series championship in 1984. Talented teams led by such notables as pitcher Jack Morris and shortstop Alan Trammell remained near the top of the standings until 1989, when the Tigers experienced a sudden plummet to last place in the AL. Detroit continued to play poorly throughout most of the following two decades, including an AL-record 119-loss season in 2003.

In 2006, however, the Tigers—behind the play of a mix of veteran stalwarts like catcher Ivan Rodriguez and young stars such as pitcher Justin Verlander—surged into the playoffs, ultimately reaching the World Series, which they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals. The team returned to the postseason in 2011, losing to the Texas Rangers in the ALCS. In 2012 the Tigers again qualified for the playoffs by capturing the AL Central title behind the superb hitting of third baseman Miguel Cabrera, who led the league in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in (RBIs) to capture the first Triple Crown in 45 years. In the ALCS the Tigers swept the New York Yankees to qualify for the World Series, in which they, in turn, were swept by the San Francisco Giants. The Tigers continued to play great regular-season baseball over the following two years—the team’s division title in 2014 was a franchise-record fourth in a row for Detroit—but was undone by poor performances from the bull pen during the playoffs in both seasons.

The team failed to make the playoffs in any of the following three years and traded away Verlander in 2017 during a campaign that resulted in Detroit posting a league-worst 64–98 record. The Tigers continued to regress, resulting in a 114-loss campaign in 2019. The team performed slightly better in 2020 and 2021 but failed to qualify for the playoffs both seasons.