Tigers and Their Den: The Offical Story of the Detroit Tigers

by John McCollister, Al Kaline (Foreword by), Michael Ilitch (Introduction)

Share the fascinating stories about those who have brought to Detroit the unvarnished excitement unique to Tiger baseball.

Genres: Baseball, Sports

238 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Chuck Neumann · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Tigers and their Dens" by John McCollister and Todd Miller (Paperback edition) is a very nice review of the history of Detroit baseball, even before they were the Tigers. Starting with the Detroit Wolverines in the 1880's and on to the teams of the mid 2010's, the book gives a year by year review of the team's performance. The Tigers nickname came to the team in the 1890's, when it was a minor league franchise, due to the striped colors of their socks. Joining the new American League in 1901, where they have been ever since, the book covers each years team as well as many of the key players of those teams. Ty Cobb is covered in detail, as is to be expected. While seasons are covered, special attention is played to the Pennant winning seasons of 1907,08,09,1934,35,1940,45,1968,1984,2006 and 2012. Of course, with over a hundred years to cover, many years are not covered in much detail. I also discovered a few errors in the book. One was on page 46 when the book says Howard Ehmke won 21 games for his new team and later found power and hit .393 with 35 homers for Brooklyn. In fact, Mr. Ehmke did win 21 games but never slugged for Brooklyn. That was Babe Herman, a player traded away with Ehmke but a different person. Also, a few photos were misidentified, one on page 53 where a photo of announcer Ty Tyson is listed as Rick Ferrell. Even with the few errors, this is still a solid book and In highly recommend it to all baseball fans.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had to return this to the library halfway through but finally finished it. There was a lot I didn't know (like the AL only got a DH in the 90's) and a lot of great reminiscing. I miss so many of these players. I wish I had seen more of Ordonez and Inge playing.

Best trade in recent Tigers history: getting rid of Prince Fielder.
Worst trade in recent history(this is personal for me): trading away Austin Jackson and Drew Smyly.

I loved reading about Jim Price; both as a player and a broadcaster. It was also cool to read a little about Brad Ausmus as a player with us.

"Swing and a fly ball, left field, it's deep, it's way back... the Tigers are going to the World Series. Three-run, walk-off home run! Ohhh, man! Ordonez around third, he's into a mob scene at home!" ~ Dan Dickerson calling the last game of the 2006 ALCS