Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg

1922–1933
The Tiger teams of the 1930s were consistently among the league's best with "Black Mike" Mickey Cochrane behind the plate, slugger Hank Greenberg at first, and consistent Charlie Gehringer, "The Mechanical Man", at second. All three players are in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1934 American League Champions

Main article: 1934 Detroit Tigers season
The Tigers won the AL Pennant but would lose again in the 1934 World Series in seven games to the "Gashouse Gang" St. Louis Cardinals. Again, when the chips were down in the deciding game, Detroit folded, giving up seven third-inning runs and losing Game Seven 11–0 at Navin Field (Tiger Stadium). The game was marred by an ugly incident. After spiking Tiger third baseman Marv Owen in the sixth inning, the Cardinals' Joe "Ducky" Medwick had to be removed from the game for his own safety by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis after being pelted with fruit and garbage from angry fans in the large temporary bleacher section in left field.

1935 World Series Champions

Main article: 1935 Detroit Tigers season
With a lineup that featured four future Hall of Famers (Hank Greenberg, Mickey Cochrane, Goose Goslin and Charlie Gehringer), the Tigers eventually won the World Series the following year, defeating theCubs, 4 games to 2. Game 6 concluded with Goslin's dramatic game-ending single, scoring Cochrane to seal a 4–3 victory. After team owner Frank Navin died that year, plumbing fixture manufacturer Walter Briggs, Sr. took control of the team.

1936–1940
Despite being forecast to win the American League title again in 1936[4] the Tigers returned to the middle of the American League standings in the late 1930s. At the close of the 1938 season, however, the Tigers presciently held out doubts about a pennant in 1939, but figured that 1940 would be their year.[5]

1940 American League Champions

Main article: 1940 Detroit Tigers season
The Tigers won the American League Championship and reached the World Series once again. But the Tigers lost the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds in a seven-game series. This was the third time the Tigers had lost a World Series in a deciding seventh game.

1945 World Series Champions

Main article: 1945 Detroit Tigers season
With the end of World War II and the timely return of Hank Greenberg and others from the military, the Tigers took the 1945 American League pennant. With Virgil Trucks, Hal Newhouser and Dizzy Trout on the mound and Greenberg leading the Tiger bats, Detroit responded in a Game 7 for the first time, staking Newhouser to a 5–0 lead before he threw a pitch en route to a 9–3 victory over the Cubs. Because many baseball stars had not yet returned from the military, some baseball scholars have deemed the '45 Series to be among the worst-played contests in Series history. For example, prior to the Series, Chicago sportswriter Warren Brown was asked who he liked, and he answered, "I don't think either one of them can win it!"[6] But the Cubs had no answer to Greenberg, and the Series went Detroit's way.

A long drought: 1946–67

1946–50
After their 1945 Series win, the Tigers continued to have strong seasons for the remainder of the decade, finishing second in the AL three times but never winning the pennant. The 1950 season was particularly frustrating, as the Tigers posted a 95-59 record for a .617 winning percentage, the seventh best in team history through 2012. But they finished that season three games behind a strong New York Yankees team that went on to sweep the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series.

Prior to the 1946 season, the Tigers acquired George Kell, a third baseman who hit a lifetime .306 and was a 10-time all-star. He won a batting title in a very close race with Ted Williams in 1949, going 2-for-3 on the last day of the season to edge out the Red Sox slugger, .3429 to .3427.

1951–60
Over the next ten years, the Tigers sank to the middle and lower ranks of the American League. The team had only three winning records over this span and never finished higher than fourth place. The last-place 1952 team went 50-104 (.325), which was the worst season in Tigers history until the 2003 team lost 119 games. Despite the dismal season, starter Virgil Trucks threw two no-hitters in 1952, only the third time in major league history that a pitcher had accomplished that feat.[7] Also, team owner Walter Briggs, Sr. died in 1952. His son Walter Briggs, Jr. inherited the team, but he was forced to sell it in 1956 to broadcast media owners John Fetzer and Fred Knorr.

Notwithstanding Detroit's fall in the standings, the decade saw the debut of outfielder Al Kaline in 1953. One of the few Major League players who never played a day in the minor leagues, he would hit over .300 nine times in his career. He also made 15 All-Star teams, won 10 Gold Gloves, and featured one of the league's best arms in right field. In 1955, the 20-year old Kaline hit .340 to became the youngest-ever batting champion in major league history.[8]

1958 saw the Tigers become the 15th of the then 16 MLB teams to field an African-American player. In the Tigers' case, it was an Afro-Caribbean player, Ozzie Virgil, Sr. who finally broke the team's color barrier. Only the Boston Red Soxtrailed the Tigers in integrating their roster.

1961

Main article: 1961 Detroit Tigers season
As the American League expanded from 8 to 10 teams, Detroit began its slow ascent back to success with an outstanding 1961 campaign. The Tigers won 101 games, a whopping 30-game improvement over the 71-83 1960 team, but still finished eight games behind the Yankees. This marked one of the few times a team had failed to reach the postseason despite winning over 100 games. First baseman Norm Cash had the best batting average in the American League, a remarkably high .361, while teammate Al Kaline finished second. Cash never hit over .286 before or after the '61 season, and would later say of the accomplishment: "It was a freak. Even at the time, I realized that."[9] Cash's plate heroics, which also included 41 home runs and 132 RBI, might have earned him MVP honors that season were it not for New York's Roger Maris bashing a record 61 homers the same year. He also drew 124 walks that season for a league-leading .487 on-base percentage.
The 1961 club featured two nonwhite starters, Jake Wood and Bill Bruton, and later in the 1960s, black players such as Willie Horton, Earl Wilson, and Gates Brown would contribute to Detroit's rise in the standings.

1962–66

As a strong nucleus developed, Detroit repeatedly posted winning records throughout the 1960s. Pitchers Mickey Lolich and Denny McLain entered the rotation during the middle of the decade, with outfielders Willie Horton (1963), Mickey Stanley (1964) and Jim Northrup (1964) also coming aboard at this time.

The team managed a third-place finish during a bizarre 1966 season, in which manager Chuck Dressen and acting manager Bob Swift were both forced to resign their posts because of health problems. Thereafter, Frank Skaff took over the managerial reins until the end of the season. Both Dressen and Swift died during the year – Dressen in August because of a kidney infection, Swift in October due to cancer. Skaff was replaced by Mayo Smith in 1967, perhaps the last step before World Series contention.

1967

Main article: 1967 Detroit Tigers season
Indeed, in 1967 the Tigers were involved in one of the closest pennant races in history. Because of rainouts, the Tigers were forced to play back-to-back doubleheaders against the California Angels over the final two days of the season. They needed to sweep the doubleheader on the last day of the season to force a one-game playoff with the Boston Red Sox. The Tigers won the first game but lost the second, giving the Red Sox the flag with no playoff. Detroit finished the season at 91–71, a single game behind Boston. Starter Earl Wilson, acquired the previous season from the Red Sox, led the Tigers with 22 wins and would form a strong 1–2–3 combination with Denny McLain and Mickey Lolich over the next few years.

1968–72

Glory in '68 (1968 World Series Champions)

Main article: 1968 Detroit Tigers season
The Tigers finally returned to the World Series in 1968. The team grabbed first place from the Baltimore Orioles on May 10 and would not relinquish the position, clinching the pennant on September 17 and finishing with a 103–59 record. In a year that was marked by dominant pitching, starter Denny McLain went 31–6 (with a 1.96 ERA), the first time a pitcher had won 30 or more games in a season since the St. Louis Cardinals' Dizzy Dean accomplished the feat in 1934; no pitcher has accomplished it since. McLain was unanimously voted American League Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Award winner for his efforts.

1968 World Series

Main article: 1968 World Series
In the 1968 World Series, the Tigers met the defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals, led by starter Bob Gibson (who had posted a record 1.12 ERA during the regular season) and speedy outfielder Lou Brock. This was the first time the Tigers and Cardinals had met in the World Series since 1934, when as it was said, they were choked by the Gashouse Gang. The series was predicated with a bold decision by manager Mayo Smith to play center fielder Mickey Stanley at shortstop, replacing the slick fielding but weak hitting of Ray Oyler. Stanley had never played shortstop before, but was a gold glover in the outfield and an excellent athlete. Smith started him at short for the final nine games of the regular season and all seven World Series games, with Oyler only appearing as a late-inning defensive replacement. This allowed Smith to play an outfield of Willie Horton, Jim Northrup and Al Kaline in every Series game.

In Game 1, Gibson completely shut down the Detroit lineup, striking out 17 batters, still a World Series record, en route to an easy 4–0 win. However, due in no small part to pitcher Mickey Lolich's victories in Games 2 and 5, the Tigers climbed back into the Series. Many fans believe the turning point in the Series came in the fifth inning of Game 5, with the Tigers down three games to one, and trailing in the game, 3–2. Left fielder Willie Horton made a perfect throw to home plate to nail Lou Brock (who tried to score from second base standing up), as catcher Bill Freehan blocked the plate with his foot. The Tigers came back with three runs in the seventh to win that game, 5–3, and stay alive in the Series. The Cardinals would not threaten to score the rest of this game, and scored only two more meaningless runs over the remainder of the series. In Game 6, McLain ensured a Game 7 by notching his only win of the Series, a 13–1 blowout, despite pitching on only two days' rest.

In Game 7 at Busch Memorial Stadium, Lolich, also pitching on two days' rest, faced Gibson. Both men pitched brilliantly, putting zeros up on the scoreboard for much of the game. In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Cardinals looked primed to take the lead as Lou Brock singled to lead off the inning, only to be promptly picked off first base by Lolich. One out later, Curt Flood followed with another single, and was also picked off first by Lolich. In the top of the seventh, an exhausted Gibson finally cracked, giving up two-out singles to Norm Cash and Willie Horton. Jim Northrup then struck the decisive blow, lashing a triple to center field over the head of Flood, who appeared to mis-judge how hard the ball was hit. That scored both Cash and Horton; Northrup himself was then brought home by a Bill Freehan double. Detroit added an insurance run in the ninth. A solo home run by Mike Shannon was all the Cardinals could muster against Lolich as the Tigers took the game, 4–1, and the Series, 4–3. For his three victories that propelled the Tigers to the World championship, Lolich was named the World Series Most Valuable Player.