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The Detroit Tigers playoffs are one of the biggest in the city’s history

Vaseline September 28, 2024

Christopher Ilitch was dry.

Much too dry.

So Riley Greene calmly walked up to the Tigers’ owner and put a pair of goggles on his face.

Then Greene led Ilitch through the champagne-soaked clubhouse at Comerica Park on Friday night after the Tigers defeated the Chicago White Sox to clinch a playoff berth for the first time since 2014.

“Yes, hey!” Greene shouted at his teammates. “Hi! Hi! Hi!”

If you’ve ever wondered about the just-24-year-old Greene’s status in this organization — or even his sheer, fearless confidence — it was evident in that moment.

Greene held two beer cans in his left hand, wrapped his right arm around Ilitch and pulled him into the chaos. They reached the center of the party and several players went as follows: Holy crap, there’s the owner!

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The players started jumping up and down, as if they were on a club dance floor, and Ilitch jumped up and down. Ilitch raised both his arms in the air, and it was like being in a shower of champagne and beer, and Oh my god, can you believe this?

They did it.

This young, determined, resilient, energetic, athletic – and still developing – team beat the odds and made history.

Ilitch took off his glasses and gave Matt Vierling a high five.

“Unbelievable!” Ilitch said a moment later.

Yes, incredible.

As the team celebrated, manager AJ Hinch stood around the edges trying to take it all in.

I’m trying to remember every second of this.

Because the Tigers just did something absolutely remarkable. This team was 55-63 – eight games under .500 – on August 10. They had traded productive Major League players (hey, Jack Flaherty) and were left for dead – or at least a high draft pick.

But they kept fighting, kept working, kept fighting, kept taking it one game at a time – as Hinch preaches – but most importantly, they kept winning, and here they are in the play-offs.

The only other team to do that in baseball history? To climb out of such a hole? The 1973 Mets, when there were two divisions in each league and a total of four playoff spots.

“I’m pretty overwhelmed that we were able to do this, not because of talent, not because of faith, but because of the opportunity,” Hinch said. “We had to do a lot.”

Every player on this team has a unique story – from the rookies to the guys who have tasted struggle for years.

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But think for a moment about Hinch’s journey to this moment.

Hinch knows Detroit. And he knows all the struggles in the Motor City. He played 27 games on the 2003 Tigers team, which lost 119 games – an American League record until the White Sox broke it last week. But he also has tremendous success, guiding the Houston Astros to the postseason in four of his five seasons there and winning the 2017 World Series.

When he was fired by the Astros in 2019, suspended for a season and tarnished by the franchise’s sign-stealing scandal, he didn’t know if he would ever make it again. But the Tigers gave him a chance — a lifeline, actually — and he led them to one of the biggest, most unlikely sports stories (at least for the regular season) in Detroit history.

“It means a lot to me, you know, to be the leader of this team, and for an organization to take a chance on me, to put me back in this chair,” Hinch said, eyes glassy. emotion bubbles up.

“I wasn’t going to talk about it, but it’s very important for me to see a team respond the way they did and see October end on top.”

Yes, they are winners.

Let that sink in.

After all the rebuilds, after all the trade deadline deals, after all the high draft picks, after all the painful losing seasons, this team is going back to the playoffs.

“Ultimately, we want to see baseball win in Detroit, we want to qualify for the playoffs and ultimately we want to win a world championship,” Ilitch said in hiring Scott Harris as president of baseball operations in September 2022. I have been very clear, I have been very clear: that is the goal.”

Objective achieved – at least the first phase.

This is a winning team now.

No, it’s more than that.

They’re a playoff team.

Check, check.

Of course with more to go.

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As the team celebrated, Hinch, Ilitch and Harris stood off to the side.

“I’m super excited for Scott Harris,” Ilitch said. “It all starts with Scott. You know, he had a vision. He has a plan. He executes it.”

On Friday night, Hinch put together a lineup in which five of the first seven Tigers in the batting order were brought in by Harris, either via trade or waiver claims. And they beat the White Sox 4-1.

‘AJ Hinch, what can I say?’ Ilitch said. “Great leader. He is our field general.”

It wasn’t hang on the edge of your chair drama.

No, it seemed inevitable: The Tigers entered Friday with three chances to beat the White Sox and three chances for the Twins to lose, and they needed just one of those six events to advance to the playoffs .

This was more like a celebration, and Tigers fans filled Comerica, 44,435 strong.

“Born and raised in SOUTH Detroit,” the fans sang.

Indeed. Don’t stop believing.

And after the game, the party started on the field – a seriously cool moment for fans to watch – and then spread to the clubhouse.

“I don’t want this to end!” Greene shouted.

They sprayed beer and poured champagne over each other’s heads and danced and screamed and smiled and it got hot and sweaty and Spencer Torkelson searched through an empty bin of champagne bottles, seeing if he could find any more and…

And?

“We need more beer!” someone shouted.

Yep, the boys were out of beer.

Quick note: if you want to have fun at a bar, invite Jason Foley; he’s crazy as hell.

And Green.

And Jake Rogers.

And Tarik Skubal.

And well, all of them. They all just seem to fit together perfectly.

“It means a lot,” Skubal said. “You know, the youth we traded for guys at the deadline, and then, you know, look at us now. So I think it means a lot to the guys in that clubhouse, and it says a lot about the guys in that clubhouse.”

It’s a wild collection of players.

A couple of absolute stars in Greene and Skubal.

But they are mainly young children.

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“I wouldn’t say we’ve ever felt like a young team,” Greene said. “We’re just going to go out there and just try to play our best version of baseball as we can.”

But it’s an incredibly close-knit team.

A close-knit team that left a big mess behind.

“Jobe has to clean up the clubhouse!” Skubal shouted.

He was joking.

I think.

Contact Jeff Seidel: [email protected]. Follow him on X @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, visit freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.

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