Shortened '81 set stage for '84 Tigers triumph

DETROIT -- No former players know the experience of what today’s players are going through right now, to hold up their physical condition and mental optimism with the season on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. But several former Tigers can relate to the challenge of a shortened season.

Three years before Alan Trammell and Kirk Gibson celebrated a World Series title in 1984, they were in the dugout at Milwaukee’s County Stadium watching the Brewers celebrate their first playoff berth in franchise history, and the first for a Milwaukee baseball team since the Braves in 1958. It was a gut-wrenching loss for Detroit on the next-to-last day of the season, and it ended what was essentially an eight-week sprint in a season split into halves by a seven-week work stoppage.

Detroit’s unlikely run at the playoffs was over, but several players lingered.

“What I remember is [manager] Sparky [Anderson] telling us to stay on the bench and watch,” Trammell said. “It was more for the guys that were going to be around for a few more years. 'Watch them celebrate. This is what we want to do at some point.' And I remember sticking around and watching them. It was the first time I remember watching a team on the other side jump up and down and all that good stuff. That was really the start.”

Trammell was just 23. Most of the players who formed the Tigers’ core were in their early to mid 20s. Though it marked their fourth straight winning season, it was their first taste of playoff contention. They had the split season in part to thank for it.

When their season stopped on June 12, the Tigers were 31-26 and in fourth place in the stacked AL East, 3 1/2 games behind the Yankees. They were under .500 at the end of May before winning seven of eight. They didn’t know how long they’d be out.

The timing was mixed. Jack Morris had won eight starts in a row with seven consecutive complete games and a 2.56 ERA, an early candidate for AL Cy Young. On the flip side, Gibson, coming off an offseason wrist surgery, was 4-for-29 with 15 strikeouts in June, hadn’t homered since May 7 and was batting .235 for the season.

How Trammell and Gibson handled the break differed.

“For me at that age, I was working out on a regular basis,” Trammell said. “I was hitting. I believe I went up to the University of Michigan. I remember going over to Pennsylvania and spending about 10 days with [teammate] Tom Brookens. We had access to some fields and [were] taking ground balls. I was staying in shape and running and active already. Basically I was ready to roll even though it was a long two months.”

For Gibson, it was a chance to take a step back.

“I spent most of my time sailing,” Gibson said. “I sailed from Northport [Mich.], under the bridge up through the channel. It was a pretty cool experience.”

“I think that's when we were calling him Captain Kirk,” Trammell said.

The season resumed on Aug. 9 with the All-Star Game, which Morris started. The next day, the Tigers went back to work on their schedule. The Yankees earned a playoff berth by leading the division for the first half, but they’d have to face whichever team had the best record in the division from that point on.

“The nucleus of the team, Jack and Lance [Parrish] and Lou [Whitaker] and myself, we weren't seasoned veterans, but we had a few years under our belt. It gave us an opportunity,” Trammell said. “Whether we could've caught the Yankees, who knows, but the fact we started off 0-0? Hey, everybody has a shot. Why not us?”

Trammell’s ninth-inning walk-off single started the Tigers’ second half with a win over the Blue Jays, but Detroit lost its next three, including the opener of a four-game series against the Yankees at Tiger Stadium. Detroit was 0-7 against New York at that point.

Milt Wilcox pitched 8 2/3 scoreless innings in a 1-0 win to stop the skid, but the real drama came two days later. Gibson stepped off the bench and crushed a walk-off three-run homer into the right-field upper deck off Yankees All-Star reliever Ron Davis.

From there, Gibson and the Tigers took off. While Detroit won nine in a row, Gibson hit .462 (30-for-65) in August and .375 with a .962 OPS for the second half, earning his only .300 season.

“As a group, we probably had an advantage that we had a number of younger guys,” Trammell said. “It was easier for the younger guys to take a break [and restart].”

The Tigers led the AL East the next-to-last week in the season, and went to Milwaukee for the final weekend with a chance at the second-half title if they could take two of three from the Brewers. An 8-2 loss in the opener put them on the brink of elimination with Morris pitching Saturday.

Morris pitched a gem and took a 1-0 lead into the eighth, but a leadoff walk to Paul Molitor, a defensive miscommunication on a Robin Yount sacrifice bunt and a bunt single from Cecil Cooper loaded the bases with nobody out. A Ted Simmons RBI groundout and Gorman Thomas sac fly were all Milwaukee needed for a 2-1 clinching win.

“I don't think we were quite ready,” Trammell said. “I don't look back on our team and say that we were as good as Milwaukee. They were good, and they had some key players that had a few more years under their belt. They were a couple years ahead of us as far as our development. Nevertheless, we had a shot.”