5 Best Non-World Series Seasons for Detroit Tigers

Creative Commons, Aaron Webb http://goo.gl/9Bm9To

#4: 1915 Detroit Tigers (100-54, 2.5 GB Boston Red Sox) 

We go in the way, way back machine for this team, exactly 100 years in fact. The Tigers seemingly had a dark period in their history from 1910 to 1934. The Ty Cobb-led clubs went to the World Series three straight years from 1907 to 1909 and didn’t return until 1934, but that’s not to say they didn’t have some close calls along the way.

The 1915 team was one of the closest calls. For the first time in their 15-year history to that point, the Tigers won 100 games, but it was all for naught as the pesky Boston Red Sox won 101 games and eventually became World Champions.

This team was led by a still-in-his prime Ty Cobb and two other stellar outfielders in Sam Crawford and Bobby Veach. The trio finished in the top three in RBIs and total bases. That outfield was named as the best one-year outfield in major league history by Bill James.

The pitching staff was led by two 20-game winners in Hooks Dauss (24-13, 2.50 ERA) and Harry Coveleski (22-13, 2.45 ERA). Jean Dubac also picked up 17 wins in the four-man rotation.

Because baseball had a 154-game schedule at the time, the Tigers’ .649 winning percentage was the second-best in franchise history (even higher than the championship years on 1968 and 1984 when the team won 103 and 104 games respectively), only bested by 1934 when they won 101 of the 154 games.

The Tigers never really competed in the Cobb-era after that.