Tigers Won't Break Record

[Tigers#1]

There is no way the Tigers can only win 11 or 12 more games for the next 2 month or so. They are pretty bad, but they would have to take sucking to an all new low. Even though this is the best team i've seen in years in Detroit, they have played below what they should. This whole Harwell curse thing is scaring me though.

[~*TiGeRs f@N*~]

I agree Kyle!

oh, btw... I love your sig! :clap2:

[Trots]

You didn't just say this is the best team you've seen in years in Detroit, did you? I must have misunderstood. If so, I feel very bad for you. This is the best you've seen? That's shows just how bad things are around here.

Now, I feel even worse, as I have to break the bad news to you. There is absolutely no question this team is as terrible as they look. No one can be that bad otherwise. It's almost a mathematic impossibility.

I hope you are right, but I think this team does have a shot at setting the record. They have shown great ability to peel off prolonged losing streaks. September might save them, as everyone brings up the kids, but even the Tigers farm system is bad.

[Blue56]

you never know, it could happen.

[Cyberlibrarian]

Harwell curse? Am I missing something??

As for the Tigers setting the record, I am pleased to tell you that the surviving 1962 Mets were hoping they wouldn't lose their "crown." They said that they wouldn't wish something like that on anyone.

http://www.thejournalnews.com/newsroom/070403/c01041962metsco.html No one is laughing in Detroit this summer. The Tigers are on pace to break the 1962 Mets' record and set a new standard for baseball failure. But a select group of senior citizens around the country would very much like to see the Tigers win.

After all, the 1962 Mets wouldn't wish that kind of a season on anyone.

"That record, I'm not proud of having it," said Rod Kanehl, who played every position except for pitcher and catcher for the '62 Mets. "And I'm not hopeful that Detroit breaks it. I wouldn't want the players on that team to be stuck with that record."

...According to Kanehl and his former teammates, if in fact the Tigers do break the record, they should expect perpetual infamy. Long after retirement, when golf handicaps are more important than batting averages, they will get phone calls from reporters and autograph requests by mail.

And although the '62 Mets aren't proud of the baseball they played during that season, many happily claim a contribution to the annals of baseball trivia.

Catcher Joe Ginsberg, for example, had the distinction for years of having played for the worst team and for one of the best, the 1954 Cleveland Indians, whose 111 wins were the most in American League history until the Yankees won 114 in 1998. Seattle surpassed that mark in 2001 with 116 victories.

And reliever Mackenzie enjoys the distinction of being the only pitcher on the '62 Mets' staff with a winning record, 5-4.

...They never wanted to lose, those Mets, and despite the mounting evidence to the contrary, every day they thought they might win. The fans, apparently, thought so too, or if they didn't, they didn't care. Nearly a million fans came to the Polo Grounds, and there was no better place to lose a baseball game in 1962.

...Jimmy Breslin was so impressed by the fans' devotion that he dedicated his book about the '62 season to them: "Never has so much misery loved so much company."

...Between Stengel, the fans, and the honor of bringing a National League team back to New York, players' memories of the '62 season have not been spoiled by the team's abysmal record.

"It was kind of a magic time," said pitcher Jay Hook, who was 8-19. "Even though we were dismal losers."

...It was so painful to live through, but those losers were historically loveable, as Stengel famously called them, and not one of the dozen '62 Mets interviewed for this story said they were eager to be rid of the record at the Tigers' expense.

"I don't wish for anybody to break that kind of record," outfielder John DeMerit said. "That's not a positive thing, it's a negative thing."

Though, he added, "I think time changes people's opinions of that."

Not that any of the '62 Mets truly believe their record is in danger.

"I think it's harder to lose now," said reliever Craig Anderson, who was 3-17 in '62. "Players are jumping around so much, teams can reconstruct. If they have to make quick fixes, they can go out and buy some free-agent players."

Free agency might be the lantern lighting the end of the Tigers' tunnel, but the '62 Mets believe for another reason: Could anyone possibly be that bad again?

"I'd bet my life, and I love me, that the Detroit ballclub is a better ballclub than we had in 1962," Jackson said. "And I've never even seen them."

...But if they are anything, the '62 Mets are optimists.

"I never thought we were as bad as our record proved us to be," Hook said. "I always thought, tomorrow, we're going to win. ... You look at the Tigers, and they may be losers today, or this year, but it doesn't mean they're going to be losers forever." I know it's old, but I've been meaning to share it with you guys since it first came out. Please forgive the oversight.

[Tigers#1]

Originally posted by LeiterFan
Harwell curse? Am I missing something??
The Tigers treated him like crap(as did with Whiticker, and a few others), they kicked him out of the booth, and since then, they've been down right terrible.

[Cyberlibrarian]

So he didn't actually want to retire? Whoa. I had no idea.

I'm thinking that Bob Murphy's retirement definitely is voluntary, but I honestly didn't realize that Harwell's wasn't. That story never made it here to NY.

[Trots]

That's his first retirement, Julie. His most recent departure was, indeed, is own doing. The curse is the guy who owns the club, not the former radio broadcaster.

[Cyberlibrarian]

Gotcha. Thanks for the information!

[Blue56]

man i can't believe there 28-78, whoa!