Comerica Park was a lonely, hostile place for the Tigers in 2003. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

The 2003 Detroit Tigers, the team that quite possibly turned around the fortunes of the franchise, actually rode into the seventh week of the season on a high note. The prior week they finished with a winning record for the first time.

So would this be the turning point where the Tigers would morph from one of the worst teams in baseball history to just one of the lousy teams we had experienced on so many occasions since 1989?

Not so much…

May 12 to 18 (Weekly record 1-5)(Season record 9-32)

A six-game homestand brought in Oakland and Seattle. Detroit split the first two games with the A’s before losing the series finale on May 15. They would go on to drop all three games to the Mariners and experienced an epic fail of a homestand. Detroit finished 1-5, and was outscored 34 to 12.

The 2003 Tigers were back!

Painful Game of the Week: May 15-Athletics at Tigers

In 2003, the Oakland Athletics were a pretty good team. This was one year removed from the 2002 team that was featured in Moneyball, and won 20 straight games. The A’s would go on to win the AL West that season and came into the mid-May series nine games over the .500 mark. The first game featured decent pitching from Mike Maroth and Steve Sparks, but the bats were quiet as the A’s earned a 3-1 win. The bats stayed quiet, but a strong pitching performance from four Tigers’ pitchers (including Steve Avery–bet you didn’t remember he was on this team) helped the two Tigers runs stand up (the second run scored on a Brandon Inge sacrifice fly which scored Craig Monroe for a rare walk-off win).

On May 15, the Tigers were hoping that they could win a series at home for the first time and, with a 6-3 record in their last nine games, they actually had hope. The first inning ended all of that. The A’s scored six runs to start the game off Adam Bernero and, with the Tigers usual anemic offense, that was pretty much a death sentence. Oakland would cruise to victory and the loss would start yet another lengthy Detroit losing streak.

Final: Oakland 11, Detroit 2

(Lousy) Player of the Week: Craig Monroe

Former Tiger Craig Monroe. http://images.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/_photos/2006-09-24-monroe.jpg

Craig Monroe came to the Tigers in 2002 off waivers from the Texas Rangers, the team that drafted him in the 8th round of the 1995 draft. He’d play just 27 games for the Rangers (all in 2001), making his major league debut on July 28, 2001, going hitless in three at-bats with a strikeout.

He became a full-time player in 2003 and had a breakout year. After just three homers in his career, Craig was second on the team, behind Dmitri Young, with 23 home runs. He was one of the catalysts in the club’s 2006 rebirth, hitting a career high 28 homers. He also hit five home runs in the postseason.

One favorite memory of Craig may have come in a July 2006 game with the Chicago White Sox. That season Chicago had dominated Detroit and were closing in on them in the AL Central. The Tigers trailed 2-0 into the sixth inning when Monroe hit a grand slam that gave the Tigers a lead they wouldn’t relinquish, putting the defending World Champions in the rear view mirror (of course those pesky Twins didn’t go so quietly). When Monroe touched home plate and celebrated with his teammates, A.J. Pierzynski refused to back up from the plate, as catchers often do after homers, nearly causing a fight to break out when the two players collided. That was when the Tiger fans’ hatred of Pierzynski began.

After that magical 2006 season, it was hard to believe he didn’t make it through the 2007 season with the team. He struggled that year, hitting 10 homers with a .222 average. The Tigers traded him to the Cubs in August, and he bounced to Minnesota in 2008, and Pittsburgh in 2009, before being released on July 1 of that year.

Monroe is now back in Detroit, serving as the in-studio analyst for Tiger games on Fox Sports Detroit.

May 13, 2013; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera (24) makes a play on a ball hit by Houston Astros third baseman Matt Dominguez (not pictured) in the second inning at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Last night the Tigers rebounded to take the first game of the series with the new AL whipping boy, Houston Astros. In between the MLB.TV buffers, outages and lots of swear words, I had a couple observations on some Tiger-related topics.

Miguel Cabrera

It amazed me that Miguel Cabrera winning the Triple Crown was not a huge story outside of Detroit. Perhaps that’s due to the rise of sabermetrics, and a segment of baseball fans and media valuing the new-age stats over the traditional numbers. It could also be because the accomplishment happened to a player with Detroit. Had it been New York or Boston, it may have been a bigger deal. Either way, one thing is certain, Miguel is on a similar pace as last year.

Through 36 games in 2012: .308, 8 HR, 31 RBI; Through 36 games in 2013: .385, 6 HR, 36 RBIs

Friday night, almost on cue when Fox Sports Detroit put a graphic up about his unbelievable numbers with RISP, he hit a three-run bomb. He is so good that its actually more newsworthy when he fails, as was the case when he grounded out to end Saturday’s game with the tying run in scoring position.

There is no debate that Miggy is the best player in the game today. It is not out of the realm of possibility that he could win another Triple Crown and become the first player to ever achieve the honor two straight years. If that happens, perhaps sabermetricians and ESPN will finally give him his due.

May 7, 2013; Washington, DC, USA; Detroit Tigers catcher Alex Avila (13) reacts after striking out to end the eighth inning against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

Alex Avila

No one needs to be reminded of the struggles of Alex Avila. Perhaps his lone highlight of the year was the clutch home run in Houston. Other than that, he has struggled at the plate and is average behind the plate (including looking awful on a couple of throws in last night’s games). Which leads me to wonder if the Tigers are stuck with Avila. Brayan Pena‘s productive Sunday should lead to questions of if he should be starting more often, at least until he cools off.

Avila has plenty of supporters. Justin Verlander likes having him as his catcher, and, more importantly, his dad is the assistant GM. A major change will not happen during the season, but if Avila struggles this year, giving him two straight subpar years (and three out of four), should the Tigers think of upgrading the position? Will that be a problem because of Alex’s relationship to the front office?

The Jim Price Drinking Game

Because of my battles with MLB.TV’s crappy reception for the last week, I’ve been listening to more of the radio feed, which has renewed my astonishment that Jim Price is still employed. The Rod Allen Drinking Game has nothing on a possible Jim Price Drinking Game, except everyone would be passed out by the third inning.

Price relies heavily on gimmicks. He describes any location that Dan Dickerson talks about during an advertisement as, “what a great place, I love it there,” even though you know he’s never been there. I almost wish DD would trip him up one time and say, “We have a young man attending his first Tigers’ game from Fallujah,” only to have Price utter, “oh what a beautiful city that is!”

Aside from the constant eating on the air, the other thing that drive me insane about Price is his constant use of the talking point “the art of pitching.” It is like nails on a chalkboard. Dickerson is a very good broadcaster, but his partner is so awful that it brings the entire broadcast level down.

Price is getting to the Hawk Harrelson level for embarrassment, and this needs to be his last season in the booth.

Comerica Park was a lonely, hostile place for the Tigers in 2003. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

The 2003 Detroit Tigers, the team that quite possibly turned around the fortunes of the franchise, trudged into another week without much hope. It was hard to believe that nearly five full months of baseball still needed to be played.

Fear not, though, good days were ahead (seriously).

May 5 to May 11 (Weekly record 4-2), (Season record 8-27)

For the one or two of you that have read all of these 2003 recaps (thank you and your checks are in the mail), you know that each has been full of doom and gloom, sadness and despair. But for one week (literally one week), the Tigers put together a stretch where it looked like they actually belonged in the majors.

The first thing they had to do, however, is get out of Detroit. The crowds that were at Comerica Park throughout the first five weeks of the season were sparse, but vocal about their displeasure with the Tigers’ brand of baseball. So much so that the players began to take notice.

“What made the day worse was nobody was in the stands,” Dmitri Young said after a May 1 doubleheader. “Nobody is behind us. These people don’t care about us. I’d rather be on the road.”

So on the road they shall go. After winning the lone game of the homestand on Sunday, the team headed into Baltimore for the first of three on May 5. There a funny thing happened–THEY WON! Detroit put two consecutive victories together for the first time. The next day, they won! And then, in the series finale, they WON AGAIN!

The 2003 Tigers finally had a modicum of success. They won four in a row (which would become the longest streak of the season) and swept a team for the first time (something that would happen just once more). Though they dropped the first two games to the Devil Rays in St. Petersburg, they won the finale and posted a winning record in a week for the first time, something that would not be repeated.

Painful Game of The Week: May 9-Tigers at Devil Rays

You’d think after all the pain we’ve inflicted with this weekly piece that we’d highlight one of the four wins, but, as we mentioned last week–2003 was no fairy tale.

This game is highlighted because the Tigers cruised into Tropicana Field with a lot of momentum. If they kept up their winning ways, they could get closer to eclipsing the Devil Rays and possibly escape the distinction of being the worst team in baseball (Detroit entered the game at 6-26, Tampa Bay at 12-22). In their previous series, the Tigers outscored the Orioles 22 to 10. The run onslaught was uncharacteristic for a team that had been shutout so many times. So of course they got shut out for the eighth time.

They were two-hit by that storied Devil Rays’ quartet of  Jim Parque, Travis Harper, John Rocker (yeah THAT guy) and Lance Carter. Shane Halter and Dean Palmer notched the only Tigers’ hits, both singles.

Winning streak snapped.

Final: Tampa Bay 2, Detroit 0

(Lousy) Player of the Week: Shane Halter

Shane Halter will be forever remembered in Detroit (okay most of you probably haven’t thought of him in years) for a neat little trick the Tigers played on Oct. 1, 2000. With nothing on the line in the last game of the season, Halter appeared in all nine defensive positions, including pitcher where he walked his only batter. Halter joined just four players to do that in major league history, including Texas Ranger Scott Sheldon who had just accomplished the same feat three weeks earlier.

That answer to a trivia question was the highlight of Halter’s professional career. He lettered in five sports in high school, was drafted in 1991 and made his major league debut with a strikeout on April 6, 1997 as a member of the Kansas City Royals. Primarily a bench player, he left KC to play one season with the Mets before spending the longest stretch of his career in Detroit (2000-2003).

He played in 114 games in 2003, hitting .217 with 12 homers and 20 RBIs. Detroit opted to let him walk before the 2004 season and he spent that year splitting time between the Angels and their AAA affiliate. He languished in the Cubs’ system for a handful of games in 2005 before giving up the dream for good.