History of the Detroit Tigers Baseball Team

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By John Lindell
eHow Contributing Writer

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The Detroit Tigers came into the American League as one of the original teams in 1901. The club had great initial success, led by the great Ty Cobb, capturing three pennants in a row from 1907 through 1909 but did not win its first World Series until 1935. The Tigers have won the championship four times in all and some of baseball's greatest stars have played for the club.

Ty Cobb

Cobb hit .366 over 24 seasons, the highest career average by any player in MLB history. Cobb hit over .400 three different times, scored 2,246 runs, and collected 4,189 base hits while stealing 892 bases on his way to being one of the first five men elected to the Hall of Fame.

Home runs

Only two Tigers ever eclipsed the 50 home run plateau-Hank Greenberg with 58 in 1938 and Cecil Fielder with 51 in 1990. Al Kaline hold the team record with 399 round trippers.

Managers

Sparky Anderson with 1,331 wins and Hughie Jennings with 1,131 victories, have the most wins of any manager in Detroit Tiger history. Anderson's 1,248 losses are the most by any manager.

Pitching

Hooks Dauss, who pitched for Detroit from 1912 through 1926, is the pitcher with the most victories as a Tiger with 222. Denny McLain won 31 games in 1968, to post the most wins in a single season for the club.

Titles

The Tigers defeated the Chicago Cubs in the 1935 and 1945 World Series to become champions. In addition the team beat the St. Louis Cardinals in 1968 and the San Diego Padres in 1984 to also take the World Series those years.