2000 Detroit Tigers season

The 2000 Detroit Tigers season was the team's 100th season and its first season at Comerica Park, after playing at Tiger Stadium since 1912, at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Trumbull Avenue (also site of their previous stadiums since 1896).

2000 Detroit Tigers
LeagueAmerican League
DivisionCentral
BallparkComerica Park
CityDetroit, Michigan
OwnersMike Ilitch
General managersRandy Smith
ManagersPhil Garner
TelevisionWKBD
(Frank Beckmann, Al Kaline)
Fox Sports Detroit
(Josh Lewin, Kirk Gibson, Tom Paciorek)
RadioDetroit Tigers Radio Network
(Ernie Harwell, Jim Price, Dan Dickerson)
← 1999 Seasons 2001 →

Offseason

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  • November 2, 1999: Juan González was traded by the Texas Rangers with Danny Patterson and Gregg Zaun to the Detroit Tigers for Frank Catalanotto, Francisco Cordero, Bill Haselman, Gabe Kapler, Justin Thompson, and Alan Webb (minors).[1]
  • November 15, 1999: Luis Polonia was signed as a free agent with the Detroit Tigers.[2]
  • November 29, 1999: Mike Oquist was signed as a free agent with the Detroit Tigers.[3]
  • March 7, 2000: Gregg Zaun was sent to the Kansas City Royals by the Detroit Tigers as part of a conditional deal.[4]
  • March 13, 2000: Mike Oquist was released by the Detroit Tigers.[3]
  • March 26, 2000: Mike Oquist was signed as a free agent with the Detroit Tigers.[3]

Regular season

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  • On October 1, 2000, Dusty Allen hit a home run in the last at-bat of his career.[5]
Honored 2000
 
Harry
Heilmann

OF: 1914-29

Heinie
Manush

OF: 1923-27

Honored 2000
 
Hughie
Jennings

M: 1907-20

Sam
Crawford

OF: 1903-17

Honored 2000
 
Mickey
Cochrane

C: 1934-37
M: 1934-38
George
Kell

3B: 1946-52
Honored 2000
 
Ernie
Harwell

Broadcaster:
1960–2002
Honored 2000

Comerica Park

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Groundbreaking for a new ballpark to replace Tiger Stadium for the Detroit Tigers was held on October 29, 1997, and the new stadium was opened to the public in 2000. At the time of construction, the scoreboard in left field was the largest in Major League Baseball.[6] In December 1998, Comerica Bank agreed to pay US$66 million over 30 years for the naming rights for the new ballpark. Upon its opening, there was some effort to try to find a nickname for the park, with the abbreviation CoPa suggested by many,[7] but that nickname has not gained widespread acceptance.

First Game

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Comerica Park panoramic

The first game at Comerica Park was held on Tuesday, April 11, 2000, with 39,168 spectators attending, on a cold snowy afternoon. Grounds people had to clear snow off the field from the night before. The Tigers defeated the Seattle Mariners by a score of 5-2. The winning pitcher, like in the final game at Tiger Stadium was Brian Moehler.

April 22

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The Tigers were involved in a pair of bench-clearing brawls in a 14–6 loss to the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park on April 22. Both were fueled by pitchers hitting batters. The tensions began in the sixth inning with Carlos Lee and Jeff Weaver who continued to jaw with Lee after being subbed out. A retaliatory pitch thrown by Jim Parque to Dean Palmer one inning later in the seventh began the first brawl which moved into shallow right field and included Keith Foulke being punched by Bobby Higginson and sustaining a cut under his left eye that needed five stitches to close. Four batters after Tanyon Sturtze hit Deivi Cruz in the ninth, the second brawl erupted when Bob Howry did likewise to Shane Halter. Among the eleven ejections were the Tigers' Weaver, Palmer, Robert Fick, Danny Patterson and Doug Brocail and White Sox's Sturtze, Howry, Magglio Ordóñez, Bill Simas, manager Jerry Manuel and bench coach Joe Nossek.[8]

In the harshest penalty for a brawl in MLB history, a combined 16 members of the Tigers and White Sox were suspended for a total of 82 games five days later on April 27.[9] Tigers coach Juan Samuel incurred the longest at 15 for throwing punches rather than serving as a peacemaker, while the opposing managers Manuel and Phil Garner each received eight. Palmer was also assessed eight for participating in the second brawl despite having already been ejected. Other suspended Tigers were Higginson and Fick for five each, Brocail for four and Juan Encarnación, Karim García and Luis Polonia for three. Ordóñez was the White Sox player receiving the longest suspension at five, while Lee, Parque, Foulke, Sturtze and Howry got three each.[10]

Season standings

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AL Central
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Chicago White Sox 95 67 .586 46‍–‍35 49‍–‍32
Cleveland Indians 90 72 .556 5 48‍–‍33 42‍–‍39
Detroit Tigers 79 83 .488 16 43‍–‍38 36‍–‍45
Kansas City Royals 77 85 .475 18 42‍–‍39 35‍–‍46
Minnesota Twins 69 93 .426 26 36‍–‍45 33‍–‍48

Record vs. opponents

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Source: AL Standings Head-to-Head
Team ANA BAL BOS CWS CLE DET KC  MIN NYY OAK SEA TB  TEX TOR NL 
Anaheim 7–5 5–4 4–6 3–6 5–5 6–6 7–3 5–5 5–8 5–8 6–6 7–5 5–7 12–6
Baltimore 5–7 5–7 4–6 5–4 6–4 3–7 6–3 5–7 4–8 3–7 8–5 6–6 7–6 7–11
Boston 4–5 7–5 7–5 6–6 7–5 4–6 8–2 6–7 5–5 5–5 6–6 7–3 4–8 9–9
Chicago 6–4 6–4 5–7 8–5 9–3 5–7 7–5 8–4 6–3 7–5 6–4 5–5 5–5 12–6
Cleveland 6–3 4–5 6–6 5–8 6–7 5–7 5–8 5–5 6–6 7–2 8–2 6–4 8–4 13–5
Detroit 5–5 4–6 5–7 3–9 7–6 5–7 7–6 8–4 6–4 7–2 4–5 5–5 3–9 10–8
Kansas City 6–6 7–3 6–4 7–5 7–5 7–5 7–5 2–8 4–8 4–8 5–5 3–7 4–6 8–10
Minnesota 3–7 3–6 2–8 5–7 8–5 6–7 5–7 5–5 5–7 3–9 4–6 8–4 5–4 7–11
New York 5–5 7–5 7–6 4–8 5–5 4–8 8–2 5–5 6–3 4–6 6–6 10–2 5–7 11–6
Oakland 8–5 8–4 5–5 3–6 6–6 4–6 8–4 7–5 3–6 9–4 7–2 5–7 7–3 11–7
Seattle 8–5 7–3 5–5 5–7 2–7 2–7 8–4 9–3 6–4 4–9 9–3 7–5 8–2 11–7
Tampa Bay 6–6 5–8 6–6 4–6 2–8 5–4 5–5 6–4 6–6 2–7 3–9 5–7 5–7 9–9
Texas 5–7 6–6 3–7 5–5 4–6 5–5 7–3 4–8 2–10 7–5 5–7 7–5 4–6 7–11
Toronto 7–5 6–7 8–4 5–5 4–8 9–3 6–4 4–5 7–5 3–7 2–8 7–5 6–4 9–9

Notable transactions

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  • May 10, 2000: Rich Becker was signed as a free agent with the Detroit Tigers.[11]
  • July 31, 2000: Luis Polonia was released by the Detroit Tigers.[2]

Roster

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2000 Detroit Tigers
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Player stats

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Batting

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Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Bobby Higginson 154 597 179 .300 30 102
Deivi Cruz 156 583 76 .302 10 82
Juan Encarnación 141 547 158 .289 14 72
Dean Palmer 145 524 134 .256 29 102
Brad Ausmus 150 523 139 .266 7 51
Damion Easley 126 464 120 .259 14 58
Juan González 115 461 133 .289 22 67
Luis Polonia 80 267 73 .273 6 25
Shane Halter 105 238 62 .261 3 27
Rich Becker 92 238 58 .244 7 34
Tony Clark 60 208 57 .274 13 37
Wendell Magee 91 186 51 .274 7 31
José Macías 73 173 44 .254 2 24
Robert Fick 66 163 41 .252 3 22
Gregg Jefferies 41 142 39 .275 2 14
Billy McMillon 46 123 37 .301 4 24
Hal Morris 40 106 33 .311 1 8
Javier Cardona 26 40 7 .175 1 2
Karim García 8 17 3 .176 0 0
Dusty Allen 18 16 7 .438 2 2
Eric Munson 3 5 0 .000 0 1
Rod Lindsey 11 3 1 .333 0 0
Gabe Alvarez 1 1 0 .000 0 0
Pitcher Totals 162 19 1 .053 0 0
Team Totals 162 5644 1553 .275 177 785

Note: Individual pitchers' batting statistics not included

Pitching

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Starting pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Jeff Weaver 31 200.0 11 15 4.32 136
Hideo Nomo 32 190.0 8 12 4.74 181
Brian Moehler 29 178.0 12 9 4.50 103
Dave Mlicki 24 119.1 6 11 5.58 57
Steve Sparks 20 104.0 7 5 4.07 53

Other pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Willie Blair 47 156.2 10 6 4.88 74
C.J. Nitkowski 67 109.2 4 9 5.25 81
Adam Bernero 12 34.1 0 1 4.19 20
Mark Johnson 9 24.0 0 1 7.50 11
Dave Borkowski 2 5.1 0 1 21.94 1

Relief pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L SV ERA SO
Todd Jones 67 64.0 2 4 42 3.52 67
Matt Anderson 69 74.1 3 2 1 4.72 71
Danny Patterson 58 56.2 5 1 0 3.97 29
Doug Brocail 49 50.2 5 4 0 4.09 41
Nelson Cruz 27 41.0 5 2 0 3.07 34
Jim Poole 18 8.2 1 0 0 7.27 5
Allen McDill 13 10.0 0 0 0 7.20 7
Kevin Tolar 5 3.0 0 0 0 3.00 3
Brandon Villafuerte 3 4.1 0 0 0 10.38 1
Erik Hiljus 3 3.2 0 0 0 7.36 2
Sean Runyan 3 3.0 0 0 0 6.00 1
Masao Kida 2 2.2 0 0 0 10.13 0
Shane Halter 1 0.0 0 0 0 ---- 0
Team Pitching Totals 162 1443.1 79 83 44 4.71 978

Farm system

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Level Team League Manager
AAA Toledo Mud Hens International League Dave Anderson and Glenn Ezell
AA Jacksonville Suns Southern League Gene Roof
A Lakeland Tigers Florida State League Skeeter Barnes
A West Michigan Whitecaps Midwest League Bruce Fields
A-Short Season Oneonta Tigers New York–Penn League Gary Green
Rookie GCL Tigers Gulf Coast League Kevin Bradshaw

[12]

References

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  1. ^ "Juan Gonzalez Stats". Baseball-Reference.com.
  2. ^ a b "Luis Polonia Stats". Baseball-Reference.com.
  3. ^ a b c "Mike Oquist Stats". Baseball-Reference.com.
  4. ^ "Gregg Zaun Stats". Baseball-Reference.com.
  5. ^ "Home Run in Last At Bat by Baseball Almanac". www.baseball-almanac.com.
  6. ^ "Turner Construction Company". Archived from the original on February 17, 2007. Retrieved June 19, 2008.
  7. ^ "Fans were terrific at going-away party". archive.is. November 1, 2006. Archived from the original on November 1, 2006.
  8. ^ "Tigers, White Sox Get Fighting Mad: 11 Tossed," The Washington Post, Sunday, April 23, 2000. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  9. ^ "MLB Suspends 16 After Melee," The Associated Press (AP), Thursday, April 27, 2000. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  10. ^ Newhan, Ross. "16 Suspended for 82 Games for Roles in Chicago Brawl," Los Angeles Times, Friday, April 28, 2000. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  11. ^ "Rich Becker Stats". Baseball-Reference.com.
  12. ^ Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007
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