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1979 Detroit Tigers season

Major League Baseball season

Field	Value
name	Detroit Tigers
season	1979
league	American League
division	East
ballpark	Tiger Stadium
city	Detroit, Michigan
owners	John Fetzer
general_managers	Jim Campbell
managers	Les Moss, Dick Tracewski, Sparky Anderson
television	WDIV-TV
(George Kell, Mike Barry, Al Kaline)
radio	WJR
(Ernie Harwell, Paul Carey)

(George Kell, Mike Barry, Al Kaline) (Ernie Harwell, Paul Carey) |}} The 1979 Detroit Tigers season was the team's 79th season and the 68th season at Tiger Stadium. The Tigers finished in fifth place in the American League East with a record of 85–76, 18 games behind the Orioles. They outscored their opponents 770 to 738. The Tigers drew 1,630,929 fans to Tiger Stadium in 1979, ranking 7th of the 14 teams in the American League. This season is most notable for both the Tigers' involvement in the infamous Disco Demolition Night, of which they were the visiting team to the Chicago White Sox and declared winners by forfeit, as well as for their mid-season hiring of Sparky Anderson as manager. Anderson would manage the Tigers through the end of the 1995 season, winning the 1984 World Series along with two American League Eastern Division titles in 1984 and 1987.

Offseason

March 20, 1979: Steve Dillard was traded by the Tigers to the Chicago Cubs for a player to be named later. The Cubs completed the deal by sending Ed Putman to the Tigers on March 24.

Regular season

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Notable transactions

May 25, 1979: The Tigers traded a player to be named later to the Cincinnati Reds for Champ Summers. The Tigers completed the deal by sending Sheldon Burnside to the Reds on October 25.
June 5, 1979: University of Michigan football quarterback Rick Leach was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 1st round (13th pick) of the 1979 Major League Baseball draft.
July 20, 1979: Rusty Staub was traded by the Tigers to the Montreal Expos for a player to be named later and cash. The Expos completed the deal by sending Randy Schafer (minors) to the Tigers on December 3.

Roster

1979 Detroit Tigers
Roster
Pitchers

Player stats

	= Indicates team leader

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	143	493	136	.276	19	65
1B	145	492	121	.246	20	79
2B	127	423	121	.286	3	42
3B	106	343	87	.254	5	36
SS	142	460	127	.276	6	50
LF	134	490	156	.318	26	105
RF	129	440	93	.211	14	56
CF	148	600	180	.300	9	57
DH	68	246	58	.236	9	40

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
	90	246	77	.313	20	51
	87	231	61	.264	15	46
	95	213	63	.296	4	26
	60	190	50	.263	4	21
	75	146	40	.274	1	13
	42	99	22	.222	0	8
Al Greene	29	59	8	.136	3	6
	21	39	9	.231	2	4
	12	38	9	.237	1	4
Dave Stegman	12	31	6	.194	3	5
Dave Machemer	19	26	5	.192	0	2
	18	22	5	.227	0	6
	10	19	5	.263	0	2
Dan Gonzales	7	18	4	.222	0	2
Milt May	6	11	3	.273	0	3

Pitching

Starting pitchers

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

G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
27	197.2	17	7	3.28	113
33	196.1	12	10	4.35	109
15	98.0	6	5	3.95	43
16	97.1	4	4	3.51	33
10	46.0	3	3	3.91	22
4	14.2	0	3	10.43	5

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
	35	158.0	10	7	3.30	59
	27	121.2	6	4	4.59	83
	21	84.0	1	7	6.64	54
Kip Young	13	43.2	2	2	6.39	22
	13	39.0	3	3	6.92	31

Relief pitchers

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

G	W	L	SV	GF	ERA	SO
61	10	5	21	49	2.41	106
43	4	7	9	30	5.22	46
37	3	5	3	19	4.33	48
10	1	1	0	2	6.33	13
10	1	2	0	8	4.82	8
6	1	1	0	3	8.25	7

Awards and honors

Steve Kemp, Tiger of the Year Award, from Detroit baseball writers

All-Stars

Steve Kemp, reserve

League top ten finishes

Steve Kemp

#4 in AL in OPS (.939)
#8 in AL in batting average (.318)

Ron LeFlore

#2 in MLB in stolen bases (78)
#3 in AL in singles (139)
#4 in AL in times caught stealing (14)
#5 in AL in triples (10)
#7 in AL in runs scored (110)

Aurelio López

#3 in AL in saves (21)
#5 in AL in games finished (49)

Jack Morris

#4 in AL in Adjusted ERA+ (133)
#5 in AL in ERA (3.28)
#5 in AL in wins (17)
#5 in AL win percentage (.708)
#4 in AL in hits allowed per 9 innings (8.15)

Bruce Robbins

3rd youngest player in the AL

Alan Trammell

#4 in AL in times caught stealing (14)

Milt Wilcox

#2 in MLB in hit batsmen (11)

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 (played 12 games as a rookie)
Lou Whitaker: 13th best second baseman of all time (played 11 games as a rookie)
Alan Trammell: 9th best shortstop of all time (played 19 games as a rookie)
Aurelio Rodríguez: 91st best third baseman of all time
Ron LeFlore: 80th best center fielder of all time

Farm system

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Evansville

Notes

References

[https://www.baseball-reference.com/p/putmaed01.shtml Ed Putman] at ''Baseball-Reference''
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/s/summech01.shtml Champ Summers] at ''Baseball-Reference''
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/l/leachri01.shtml Rick Leach] at ''Baseball-Reference''
[https://www.baseball-reference.com/s/staubru01.shtml Rusty Staub] 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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