1980 Detroit Tigers season

1980 Detroit Tigers
1980 Detroit Tigers
Major League affiliations
	American League (since 1901) Eastern Division (since 1969); ;
Location
	Tiger Stadium (since 1912); Detroit, Michigan (since 1901);
Other information
Owner(s)	John Fetzer
General manager(s)	Jim Campbell
Manager(s)	Sparky Anderson
Local television	WDIV-TV; (George Kell, Al Kaline)
Local radio	WJR; (Ernie Harwell, Paul Carey)
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The 1980 Detroit Tigers finished in fifth place in the American League East with a record of 84–78, 19 games behind the Yankees. They outscored their opponents 830 to 757. The Tigers drew 1,785,293 fans to Tiger Stadium in 1980, ranking 7th of the 14 teams in the American League.

Offseason[]

December 7, 1979: Ron LeFlore was traded by the Tigers to the Montreal Expos for Dan Schatzeder.^[1]

Regular season[]

Season standings[]

v t AL East	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
New York Yankees	103	59	0.636	—	53–28	50–31
Baltimore Orioles	100	62	0.617	3	50–31	50–31
Milwaukee Brewers	86	76	0.531	17	40–42	46–34
Boston Red Sox	83	77	0.519	19	36–45	47–32
Detroit Tigers	84	78	0.519	19	43–38	41–40
Cleveland Indians	79	81	0.494	23	44–35	35–46
Toronto Blue Jays	67	95	0.414	36	35–46	32–49

Boston's record of 83–77 has a fractionally better winning percentage that Detroit's record of 84–78; .51875 and .51851, respectively.

Record vs. opponents[]

1980 American League Records v t Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]
Team	BAL	BOS	CAL	CWS	CLE	DET	KC	MIL	MIN	NYY	OAK	SEA	TEX	TOR
Baltimore	—	8–5	10–2	6–6	6–7	10–3	6–6	7–6	10–2	7–6	7–5	6–6	6–6	11–2
Boston	5–8	—	9–3	6–4	7–6	8–5	5–7	6–7	6–6	3–10	9–3	7–5	5–7	7–6
California	2–10	3–9	—	3–10	4–6	5–7	5–8	6–6	7–6	2–10	3–10	11–2	11–2	3–9
Chicago	6–6	4–6	10–3	—	5–7	2–10	5–8	5–7	5–8	5–7	6–7	6–7	6–7–2	5–7
Cleveland	7–6	6–7	6–4	7–5	—	3–10	5–7	3–10	9–3	5–8	6–6	8–4	6–6	8–5
Detroit	3–10	5–8	7–5	10–2	10–3	—	2–10	7–6	6–6	5–8	6–6	10–2–1	4–8	9–4
Kansas City	6–6	7–5	8–5	8–5	7–5	10–2	—	6–6	5–8	8–4	6–7	7–6	10–3	9–3
Milwaukee	6–7	7–6	6–6	7–5	10–3	6–7	6–6	—	7–5	5–8	7–5	9–3	5–7	5–8
Minnesota	2–10	6–6	6–7	8–5	3–9	6–6	8–5	5–7	—	4–8	6–7	7–6	9–3	7–5
New York	6–7	10–3	10–2	7–5	8–5	8–5	4–8	8–5	8–4	—	8–4	9–3	7–5	10–3
Oakland	5–7	3–9	10–3	7–6	6–6	6–6	7–6	5–7	7–6	4–8	—	8–5	7–6	8–4
Seattle	6–6	5–7	2–11	7–6	4–8	2–10–1	6–7	3–9	6–7	3–9	5–8	—	4–9	6–6
Texas	6–6	7–5	2–11	7–6–2	6–6	8–4	3–10	7–5	3–9	5–7	6–7	9–4	—	7–5
Toronto	2–11	6–7	9–3	7–5	5–8	4–9	3–9	8–5	5–7	3–10	4–8	6–6	5–7	—

Notable transactions[]

June 2, 1980: Al Greene and John Martin were traded by the Tigers to the St. Louis Cardinals for Jim Lentine.^[2]
June 3, 1980: Chuck Hensley was drafted by the Tigers in the 10th round of the 1980 Major League Baseball draft.^[3]
June 6, 1980: Bárbaro Garbey was signed as an amateur free agent by the Tigers.^[4]
September 21, 1980: Roger Mason was signed as an amateur free agent by the Tigers.^[5]

Roster[]

1980 Detroit Tigers

Roster

Pitchers

41 Jack Billingham
20 Mark Fidrych
18 John Hiller
29 Aurelio López
47 Jack Morris
46 Dan Petry
48 Bruce Robbins
19 Dave Rozema
36 Dan Schatzeder
38 Dave Tobik
28 Jerry Ujdur
40 Pat Underwood
44 Roger Weaver
39 Milt Wilcox

Catchers

15 Duffy Dyer
13 Lance Parrish

Infielders

16 Tom Brookens
25 Tim Corcoran
2 Richie Hebner
9 Stan Papi
30 Jason Thompson
3 Alan Trammell
5 Mark Wagner
1 Lou Whitaker
14 John Wockenfuss

Outfielders

10 Al Cowens
23 Kirk Gibson
34 Dan Gonzales
35 Lynn Jones
33 Steve Kemp
27 Jim Lentine
32 Rick Peters
22 Dave Stegman
24 Champ Summers

Manager

11 Sparky Anderson

Coaches

26 Gates Brown
50 Billy Consolo
52 Roger Craig
51 Alex Grammas
53 Dick Tracewski

Player stats[]

Batting[]

Starters by position[]

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

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Lance Parrish	144	553	158	.286	24	82
1B	Richie Hebner	104	341	99	.290	12	82
2B	Lou Whitaker	145	477	111	.233	1	45
3B	Tom Brookens	151	509	140	.275	10	66
SS	Alan Trammell	146	560	168	.300	9	65
LF	Steve Kemp	135	508	149	.293	21	101
CF	Rick Peters	133	477	139	.291	2	42
RF	Al Cowens	108	403	113	.280	5	42
DH	Champ Summers	120	347	103	.297	17	60

Other batters[]

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
John Wockenfuss	126	372	102	.274	16	65
Kirk Gibson	51	175	46	.263	9	16
Jim Lentine	67	161	42	.261	1	17
Tim Corcoran	84	153	44	.288	3	18
Dave Stegman	65	130	23	.177	2	9
Jason Thompson	36	126	27	.214	4	20
Stan Papi	46	114	27	.237	3	17
Duffy Dyer	48	108	20	.185	4	11
Mark Wagner	45	72	17	.236	0	3
Lynn Jones	30	55	14	.255	0	6
Dan Gonzales	2	7	1	.143	0	0

Note: pitchers' batting statistics not included

Pitching[]

Starting pitchers[]

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

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Jack Morris	36	250	16	15	4.18	112
Milt Wilcox	32	198.2	13	11	4.48	97
Dan Schatzeder	32	192.2	11	13	4.02	94
Dan Petry	27	164.2	10	9	3.94	88
Mark Fidrych	9	44.1	2	3	5.68	16

Other pitchers[]

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

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Dave Rozema	42	144.2	6	9	3.92	49
Roger Weaver	19	63.2	3	0	4.10	42
Bruce Robbins	15	51.2	4	2	6.62	23
Jerry Ujdur	9	21.1	1	0	7.59	8

Relief pitchers[]

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

Player	G	W	L	SV	GF	ERA	SO
Aurelio López	67	13	6	21	59	3.77	97
Pat Underwood	49	3	6	5	24	3.59	60
Dave Tobik	17	1	0	0	6	3.98	34
John Hiller	11	1	0	0	2	4.40	18
Jack Billingham	8	0	0	0	3	7.36	3

Awards and honors[]

Lance Parrish, AL Silver Slugger Award, catcher
Alan Trammell, AL Gold Glove Award, shortstop
Alan Trammell, Tiger of the Year Award, from Detroit sportswriters

All Star selections[]

Lance Parrish, AL All Star Team, catcher
Alan Trammell, AL All Star Team, shortstop

League top ten finishers[]

Steve Kemp

#2 in MLB in time grounded into double plays (24)
#5 in AL in sacrifice flies

Aurelio López

#3 in AL in games (67)
#3 in AL in games finished (59)

Jack Morris

#3 in AL in earned runs allowed (116)
#4 in AL in games started (36)
#10 in MLB in bases on balls allowed (87)
#10 in MLB in losses (15)

Lance Parrish

#2 in MLB in time grounded into double plays (24)
#4 in AL in strikeouts (109)
#10 in MLB in extra base hits (64)

Alan Trammell

#5 in AL in runs scored (107)
#6 in AL in sacrifice hits (13)

Milt Wilcox

#10 in MLB in complete games (13)

Players ranking among top 100 all time at position[]

The following members of the 1979 Detroit Tigers are among the Top 100 of all time at their position, as ranked by The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract in 2001:

Lance Parrish: 19th best catcher of all time
Lou Whitaker: 13th best second baseman of all time
Alan Trammell: 9th best shortstop of all time

Farm system[]

Level	Team	League	Manager
AAA	Evansville Triplets	American Association	Jim Leyland
AA	Montgomery Rebels	Southern League	Roy Majtyka
A	Lakeland Tigers	Florida State League	Eddie Brinkman
Rookie	Bristol Tigers	Appalachian League	Tom Kotchman

Notes[]

^ Dan Schatzeder at Baseball Reference
^ Jim Lentine at Baseball Reference
^ Chuck Hensley at Baseball-Reference
^ Bárbaro Garbey at Baseball-Reference
^ Roger Mason at Baseball Reference

References[]

Johnson, Lloyd; Wolff, Miles, eds. (1997). The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (2nd ed.). Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America. ISBN 978-0-9637189-8-3.
1980 Detroit Tigers Regular Season Statistics

[1] Dan Schatzeder at Baseball Reference

[2] Jim Lentine at Baseball Reference

[3] Chuck Hensley at Baseball-Reference

[4] Bárbaro Garbey at Baseball-Reference

[5] Roger Mason at Baseball Reference

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