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1966 Detroit Tigers season

Major League Baseball season

Field	Value
name	Detroit Tigers
season	1966
league	American League
ballpark	Tiger Stadium
city	Detroit, Michigan
record
league_place	3rd
owners	John Fetzer
general_managers	Jim Campbell
managers	Chuck Dressen, Bob Swift, Frank Skaff
television	WJBK
(George Kell, Ray Lane)
radio	WJR
(Ernie Harwell, Gene Osborn)

(George Kell, Ray Lane) (Ernie Harwell, Gene Osborn) |}} The 1966 Detroit Tigers season was the 66th consecutive season for the Detroit franchise in the American League. The Tigers, who had finished fourth in the ten-team AL in 1965 with an 89–73 record, won one less game in 1966, going 88–74, but moved up to third in the league, ten full games behind the eventual world champion Baltimore Orioles. The team attracted 1,124,293 fans to Tiger Stadium, fifth in the ten-team circuit.

Regular season

The 1966 season saw the maturation of the core of the 1968 world champion Tiger club, and the addition of starting pitcher Earl Wilson, a future 20-game winner. But it was marred by the in-season illnesses, ultimately fatal, that struck manager Chuck Dressen and his immediate successor, interim pilot Bob Swift.

Dressen, 71, suffered a heart attack on May 16 (his second in two years) with Detroit 16–10, three games behind the Cleveland Indians. He was admitted to a Detroit hospital and third-base coach Swift, 51, took the reins as acting manager, as he had done in 1965. Under Swift, the Tigers won 32 of their next 57 games. But during the July 11–13 All-Star break, with Detroit in second place, eight games behind Baltimore, Swift was hospitalized for rapid weight loss and what was first suspected to be food poisoning. Tests revealed that he was suffering from lung cancer, and he was forced to step aside. Dressen died August 10, and Swift succumbed October 17.

Another Tiger coach, Frank Skaff, finished the season as acting manager, with the team playing only one game above the .500 mark for him, at 40–39. The Tigers eventually hired Mayo Smith as their new manager for 1967, and Smith would lead them to within one game of the 1967 pennant and the 1968 world title.

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Notable transactions

April 11, 1966: Mike Marshall was purchased by the Tigers from the Philadelphia Phillies.
June 7, 1966: Les Cain was drafted by the Tigers in the 4th round of the 1966 Major League Baseball draft.
June 14, 1966: Don Demeter and a player to be named later were traded by the Tigers to the Boston Red Sox for Joe Christopher and Earl Wilson. The Tigers completed the deal by sending Julio Navarro to the Red Sox at June 21.
July 2, 1966: Tim Hosley was signed by the Tigers as an amateur free agent.

Roster

1966 Detroit Tigers
Roster
Pitchers

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	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	136	492	115	.234	12	46
1B	160	603	168	.279	32	93
2B	113	385	89	.231	1	26
SS	124	430	118	.274	23	56
3B	150	559	150	.268	11	70
LF	146	526	138	.262	27	100
CF	142	479	138	.288	29	88
RF	123	419	111	.265	16	58

Other batters

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

G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
92	235	68	.289	3	19
98	230	58	.252	2	27
71	210	36	.171	1	9
88	169	45	.266	7	27
49	138	35	.254	5	13
81	124	24	.194	0	7
32	99	21	.212	5	12
2	3	1	.333	0	0
4	3	0	.000	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

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

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
38	264.1	20	14	3.92	192
40	203.2	14	14	4.77	173
23	163.1	13	6	2.59	133

Other pitchers

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

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
38	140.2	8	3	3.20	93
36	107.2	4	5	3.43	53
30	103.2	3	9	3.82	50
30	102.2	7	8	4.73	61
29	91.2	2	7	5.30	61

Relief pitchers

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

G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
55	8	5	20	3.82	63
54	4	2	7	3.08	79
51	5	0	2	3.28	57
4	0	1	1	6.30	6
2	0	0	0	0.00	2
1	0	0	0	0.00	2
1	0	0	0	9.00	1
1	0	0	0	inf	0

Farm system

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Rocky Mount

Notes

References

1966 Detroit Tigers season at Baseball Reference

References

[https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/1966-misc.shtml ''1966 AL Attendance''], [[Baseball Reference]]
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/m/marshmi01.shtml Mike Marshall page at Baseball Reference]
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/c/cainle01.shtml Les Cain page at Baseball Reference]
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/c/chrisjo01.shtml Joe Christopher page at Baseball Reference]
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/h/hosleti01.shtml Tim Hosley page at Baseball Reference]

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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