Going into the 1984 MLB season, the Detroit Tigers were optimistic about their chances, after falling just short of their goals a year before, when they finished seond in the AL East with 93 wins. After 12 years of middle of the road baseball, Sparky Anderson, the driving force behind the Big Red Machine Cincinnati teams of the 1970's, was now in Motown, putting his finishing touches on a whole new baseball machine.

With a balanced roster, a rock solid trio of starting pitchers and an offensive attack built around three players under the age of 28, Sparky, asked the front office to trade for a specific pitchers from the Phillies roster that he had a keen interest of through the years, even though his numbers were mediocre at best. He promises Tigers GM Bill Lajoie, if you trade for this guy, we will win it all. The front office captitulates to what Anderson is selling, and Willie Hernandez made Sparky look like the baseball savant, that we all know him to be.

This is the story of the Bless You Boys, 1984 Detroit TIgers. one of the most dominant single season teams in the history of baseball. With their vulgar display of productive bats and shutdown pitching, the Tigers would win their first nine games of the season, with one of those victories being a no-hitter on the NBC Game of the Week. Next think you know the Tigers are 16-1. Then they are 18-2.. On May 21st, they are 32-5. After sweeping the Angels, the Tigers are 35-5 after 40 games and they have won a record tying 17 consecutive road games. No team in the history of baseball before or since has ever seriously approached that 40 game record to start a season. But this team didn't just start strong. They ended strong. A team for the ages, that is oft-forgotten.

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