Tigers Fire Trammell as Manager

Turn out the lights- your misery is over. His time as manager of baseball's worst franchise over the last 12 years is finished. Alan Trammell, star SS for the 1984 World Champion Tigers got the broom yesterday as General Manager Dave Dombrowski took 3 seasons of bad, losing baseball out on his manager. Trammell, a San Diego native, couldn't be a tough enough disciplinarian to improve a terrible Tiger team, that has not had a winning season since 1993.

His first year they lost an American League record 119 times. His lineup in 2003 was littered with has-beens and never-wases. He could be given a pass for that sad season. But the last two years the owner and GM opened the coffers and brought in some quality players. (Rondell White, Mags Ordonez, Placido Polacio, Ivan Rodriguez, Carlos Guillen, Jason Johnson and Troy Percival).

But he failed on two big promises and lost control of his clubhouse. These failures got him fired.

Fundamentals and Enthusiasm were what he promised. Show me where either improved.

1. He took the job stressing fundamentals. Game after game his Tigers lollygagged the ball around, committing the same basic baseball mistakes as they did when Trammell signed on. Trammell never benched a guy for a bonehead game, never called him out for his mistakes, never held him accountable. A pity that his players never got the message about how to play this little boys game right. They kept on with their bumbling ways.

2. He promised that his players would play with the enthusiasm that he, Lou Whitaker and Kirk Gibson took out on the field. He could motivate them to play inspired baseball was the claim. Sadly not one listened- they were the same yawning Tigers. It was most noticeable during a critical August road trip that would seperate the contenders from the pretenders: his Tigers lost every game and fell out of the wild-card race for keeps. I think this was the moment Dombrowski decided to fire him.

When he really needed their best efforts to save his job at the end of 2005- they played flat and fundamental-less baseball and lost the last 5 games in a row.

So Tiger baseball embarks on a new era...another new era. It'll be the same story... again... but with a different manager. I think they have caught the Detroit Lions syndrome. Play good enough to fill the seats- but don't win too much or people will start expecting it. Where have you gone Sparky Anderson?

Best of luck Alan Trammell- you are a fine man and a hero to all who remember the 1984 season. But until you get a lot tougher you'll never manage in "the show" again.