Jeff Riger: Jim Leyland Revived Tiger Town

I'm not naive enough to believe that one person can change the way a whole fan base feels about their team. We all know that all the good players and interesting story lines in the world mean nothing unless that team eventually wins.

It's no secret how to get people to come out and watch...JUST WIN! No matter the sport, if the team is good, Detroiters will show their support. Of course, there is one exception to this rule and it's the Lions, but that is football, and everybody loves football so we move on.

As I sit here thinking about how the Tigers will do in the Big Apple against the "Evil Empire" Yankees in the ALDS, I can't help but to remember back to 2006 when Detroit baseball awoke from the dead. The Tigers didn't even have to make the postseason that year to get people interested, all they had to do was come close and people filled Comerica Park like never before.

So when they made it all the way to the World Series that year, Tiger baseball was officially back! From Pudge to Maggs to Granderson to Mr. Rogers and even Zoom Zoom, these were the players that all of a sudden Detroiters loved, and for good reason. They were talented and were part of a team that was finally winning for the first time since the Reagan administration.

The average Detroit sports fan probably doesn't even remember what it was like before '06. The team was consistently out of contention by late May, there was no direction or hope and all Tiger fans had to live for was the next great prospect that always seemed to be a bust.

I remember 2003, where the organization lost 119 games, I remember the Jose Lima's and Tony Clark's of those years, hell, I remember the whole marketing plan to get fans to go to games. The team tried everything possible to get people to come out with the exception of actually trying to win.

There was the last chance to see Ernie Harwell before he retired. There was the last chance to see Tiger Stadium. There was the first chance to see Comerica Park. And who can forget my personal favorite, the plea for fans to come and see a bunch of 1984 Tigers manage the current team at that time. We had nothing, and for that reason nobody cared or went to the games.

So when Jim Leyland took the job before the 2006 season, I suspected things were going to be the same. I figured Leyland would be exactly like those who came before him, so there was really no reason to get excited. In fact, I thought  Leyland might be even worse than the others because he had just walked out on the Colorado Rockies and claimed that his passion for the game had escaped him.

But then Monday, April 17th happened. The Tigers had just lost a day game to the Cleveland Indians 10-2 where Nate Robertson (remember him?) got lit up for seven runs on eight hits in just two-and-a-third innings. It was the end of a seven game home stand and Leyland let his team have it through the media after the game. Below is a transcript of what happened...

Leyland: We Stunk. Next question.
Reporter: What bothered you the most?
Leyland: It was lackluster; the whole ball of wax was lackluster. We had a chance to take the series, take 3 out of 4, and we came out like we brought our luggage to the park like we had to play a game before we went on the road. That's not good enough.
Reporter: It seems like this was your worst loss…
Leyland: Yeah we stunk period. We stunk and that's not good enough. This stuff has been going on here before and it's not going to happen here. We had a chance to take a series. I'm not talking about anyone in particular. I'm talking about the team, myself, the coaches, and everybody else included. It's my responsibility to have the team ready to play today, and they weren't ready to play. They were ready to get on the plane and go to Oakland. If they won it was okay and if they lost it was okay. That's not good enough

After the skipper's verbal thrashing, Detroit went 12 and 3 in their next 15 games and eventually ended up being 59 and 29 at the All Star break. Leyland had done it, he had changed the culture of Tiger baseball, at least for a half of a season and people took note.

Over the course of the next six years, the Tigers had higher expectations, a higher payroll and they were consistently selling out games. Of course they failed to make the playoffs again, until this year but Tiger baseball during the summer was relevant, and people were once again baseball fans and that's got to count for something. I know fans wanted more success in that time frame, I also know people have changed their minds drastically about Leyland since then too. But those same people are passionate in their beliefs whether they are positive or negative and that too shows that baseball is back in a once abandoned "Tiger Town."

So on Wednesday night after Detroit came from behind to beat the Indians in the final game of the regular season, I asked Leyland about his role in bringing back Detroit ball. I told him that during "the Jim Leyland era" Tiger baseball has become relevant again and wanted to know if he feels he is the reason why.

Now if you know anything about Leyland, he gets emotional rather easy when talking about the city and the fan base and this instance was no different. Of course, he denied that he had been the reason and instead gave credit to the entire organization -- but did it while getting choked up.

He even joked that people have had him getting fired more than a thousand times in the last four or five months but he has survived because he manages really good players. And that is definitely part of it. But it's impossible to ignore the fact that the "Marlboro Man" himself deserves a tremendous amount of credit for the success this franchise has had in the last 6 seasons and more importantly the passion the fan base now has.

People always talk about the good and the bad moves that General Manager Dave Dombrowski has made over his tenure with the team and there have been many that have fallen in both categories.

But I want to say on this Thursday, a day before the Tigers take on the Yankees in the Bronx that a GREAT move by Dombwoski was to hire Leyland in the first place. From the bizarre line-ups to the constant resting of his players to the occasional blow up at the media, Leyland has made a lot of fans really angry. And even if you want him fired and give him absolutely no credit for what has gone on, at least you have an opinion about it. And you can thank Leyland for that... YOU, actually caring about Tiger baseball