Down 8-0, Detroit Tigers rally to avoid tying major league record for most losses in a season

Associated Press ^ | 09-27-03

[Brian S]

The Detroit Tigers starved off history Saturday night, beating the Minnesota Twins 9-8 on a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning to avoid matching the modern major league record for most losses in a season.

The win kept the Tigers at 119 losses -- one away from the record of 120 losses set by the expansion 1962 New York Mets.

[tallhappy]

Wow!

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

The funny thing is, I don't think the team with the best record in baseball (New York Yankees, tied with the Atlanta Braves) has come back from anywhere near that big a deficit all season. I'm not positive, but I believe the biggest deficit they've come back from has been 4 (maybe 5). Of course, the Tigers had many more opportunities to come from behind, given their record.

[Brian S]

The Tigers have won 4 of their last five games which in itself is amazing considering their season.

Tomorrow is that last regular game of the season. I might even watch this one. If they win...the Mets will retain the 120 losses in a season title.

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

If they win...the Mets will retain the 120 losses in a season title.

But the Tigers will hold the AL record. In any case, their win percentage will be better than the Mets even if they lose tomorrow, given that the Tigers will have 42 wins vs. the Mets' 40.

Speaking of losses, does anyone remember when the Baltimore Orioles started 0-21 in 1988? As I recall they didn't finish with that bad of a record, considering.

[cephalopod]

The Twins starters were only in for the first few innings, when all their runs were scored. By the end of the game, it was all 2nd and 3rd stringers; the minor league players that have been called up. Jesse Orosco, who is fourty-something, was the loser.
They've played the whole series this way. Resting the regulars for the playoffs. According to the TV commentators, the Twins manager isn't anxious to help set Detroit's record.
Having said all this, I hate seeing the Twins lose; they should just play the game.

[Reagan79]

We're all behind are baseball teams. Go get em Tigers! I spent some good times at the old tiger stadium. Actually I am a Red Sox fan and I hope by some whimsical piece of fate or divine intervention we win the world series. Death to the pinstripes and death to that stupid curse.

[mrustow]

After a season filled with losing under first-year manager Alan Trammell, the Tigers suddenly have turned tough -- just when it seemed they would own a record that nobody wanted.

As a lifelong Mets fan, I beg to differ. It was that team and that record, under the leadership of the inimitable, 72-year-old Casey Stengel, that endeared the Mets to millions of New Yorkers still grieving over the defection of The Evil Walter O'Malley, who took our Brooklyn Dodgers from us.

The origin of the term, "the Amazing Mets," came not from their miracle season in 1969, when they came back after trailing far behind the Chicago Cubs, late in the season, in the pennant race, and going on to win the World Series, but from the old professor, Stengel. When asked to sum up his team, Casey said, "They're amazin.'"

Casey also said, among other things, about that team, "Can't anybody play this game?"

I hope the Tigers win big.

P.S. Thanks for the memories, Murph.

[PRND21]

Wow! Good for them.

[Eagles2003]

They finished well because they weren't that bad a team, but at the time I wondered how a team with such talent could avoid winning.

I also remember the '61 (I think) Phillies who WERE that bad. The Mets and Colt 45's helped them out in '62. Phils went 17-1 against the Colt 45's (Astros).

[PMCarey]

The Detroit Tigers starved off history Saturday night, beating the Minnesota Twins 9-8 on a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning to avoid matching the modern major league record for most losses in a season.

Chokers.

[GreatOne]

Agreed - while it's probably good strategy for Gardy to rest the starters so they can heal (Jones, Mientkiewicz) and prevent possible injury, it is a pain in the ass to lose. Was looking forward to the Twins putting the Tigers into the history books. Still have tomorrow to try.

[nickcarraway]

Yes, the Yanks were able to manage the best record in baseball- but only because of Mark Mulder's season ending injury.

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

Could be, but don't forget that the Yankees had three critical players out for significant periods of time: Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter, and Nick Johnson. Plus, Jason Giambi had an eye infection for the first several weeks of the season.

And Oakland STILL had an outstanding finish, as they have done the past several years. Ted Lilly has filled in admirably (lots of Yankee fans want him back, and Jeff Weaver, ex-Tiger no less, banished to the end of the Earth).

In any case, I hope Oakland beats the Red Sox, not because I think the Yankees have a better shot against them (Boston's pitching, especially the bullpen, is suspect), but because I don't like the Red Sox much. This dislike isn't necessarily based in facts or anything, you know how it is. Some people grew up hating the Yankees, and always will. It's part of being a baseball fan. If there were no heated rivalries, baseball would be less fun to watch.

I respect the Red Sox and what they're capable of, but I became a Yankee fan around the age of ten, so I wasn't a bandwagon jumper. I was ten in 1982, near the start of a long (for the Yankees) postseason drought. 1995 was a heartbreaker, when Griffey scored the winning run in game 5 of the ALDS. So 1996, to me, was like the Yankees winning for the first time. I don't like the Braves, either. Ted and Jane have something to do with it, but some of their players have gotten on my nerves. Andruw Jones always looks like a smug SOB out in center field. Back in 1991 I rooted for the Twins in the World Series against the Braves (I have some family there). Best World Series I ever saw. I think four or five games were decided by one run.

Ah, I could go on and on. Ever since the Bird-era Celtics faded away (yes, I was a Celtic fan, and disliked the Knicks, go figure), I pretty much followed only baseball. Never did get into football, but did watch the Patriots in the Super Bowl last year. That was my 30th birthday -- nice present.

[dfwgator]

Tigers tied 2-2 in the seventh. GO TIGERS!!!!

[dfwgator]

Tigers 5 Twinkies 2 bottom of the sixth. Looks like the Mets are still going to be all alone.

[Brian S]

8-2 Detroit, still bottom of the 6th. Amazing!

[dfwgator]

It's now 7-2. Restore the roar in '04!!!!

[Brian S]

9-2, 2 outs...