1979 Detroit Tigers season

1979 Detroit Tigers
Major League affiliations
Location
Other information
Owner(s) John Fetzer
General manager(s) Jim Campbell
Manager(s) Les Moss, Dick Tracewski, Sparky Anderson
Local television WDIV-TV
(George Kell, Mike Barry, Al Kaline)
Local radio WJR
(Ernie Harwell, Paul Carey)
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The 1979 Detroit 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.

Offseason

Regular season

Season standings

AL East W L Pct. GB Home Road
Baltimore Orioles 102 57 0.642 — 55–24 47–33
Milwaukee Brewers 95 66 0.590 8 52–29 43–37
Boston Red Sox 91 69 0.569 11½ 51–29 40–40
New York Yankees 89 71 0.556 13½ 51–30 38–41
Detroit Tigers 85 76 0.528 18 46–34 39–42
Cleveland Indians 81 80 0.503 22 47–34 34–46
Toronto Blue Jays 53 109 0.327 50½ 32–49 21–60

Record vs. opponents

1979 American League Records

Sources:

Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK SEA TEX TOR
Baltimore — 8–5 9–3 8–3 8–5 7–6 6–6 8–5 8–4 5–6 8–4 10–2 6–6 11–2
Boston 5–8 — 5–7 5–6 6–7 8–5 8–4 8–4 9–3 5–8 9–3 8–4 6–6 9–4
California 3–9 7–5 — 9–4 6–6 4–8 7–6 7–5 9–4 7–5 10–3 7–6 5–8 7–5
Chicago 3–8 6–5 4–9 — 6–6 3–9 5–8 5–7 5–8 4–8 9–4 5–8 11–2 7–5
Cleveland 5–8 7–6 6–6 6–6 — 6–6 6–6 4–9 8–4 5–8 8–4 7–5 5–7 8–5
Detroit 6–7 5–8 8–4 9–3 6–6 — 5–7 6–7 4–8 7–6 7–5 7–5 6–6 9–4
Kansas City 6–6 4–8 6–7 8–5 6–6 7–5 — 5–7 7–6 5–7 9–4 7–6 6–7 9–3
Milwaukee 5–8 4–8 5–7 7–5 9–4 7–6 7–5 — 8–4 9–4 6–6 9–3 9–3 10–3
Minnesota 4–8 3–9 4–9 8–5 4–8 8–4 6–7 4–8 — 7–5 9–4 10–3 4–9 11–1
New York 6–5 8–5 5–7 8–4 8–5 6–7 7–5 4–9 5–7 — 9–3 6–6 8–4 9–4
Oakland 4–8 3–9 3–10 4–9 4–8 5–7 4–9 6–6 4–9 3–9 — 8–5 2–11 4–8
Seattle 2–10 4–8 6–7 8–5 5–7 5–7 6–7 3–9 3–10 6–6 5–8 — 6–7 8–4
Texas 6–6 6–6 8–5 2–11 7–5 6–6 7–6 3–9 9–4 4–8 11–2 7–6 — 7–5
Toronto 2–11 4–9 5–7 5–7 5–8 4–9 3–9 3–10 1–11 4–9 8–4 4–8 5–7 —

Notable transactions

Roster

1979 Detroit Tigers
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders

Other batters

 Manager

Coaches

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 Parrish, LanceLance Parrish 143 493 136 .276 19 65
1B Thompson, JasonJason Thompson 145 492 121 .246 20 79
2B Whitaker, LouLou Whitaker 127 423 121 .286 3 42
3B Rodríguez, AurelioAurelio Rodríguez 106 343 87 .254 5 36
SS Trammell, AlanAlan Trammell 142 460 127 .276 6 50
LF Kemp, SteveSteve Kemp 134 490 156 .318 26 105
RF Morales, JerryJerry Morales 129 440 93 .211 14 56
CF LeFlore, RonRon LeFlore 148 600 180 .300 9 57
DH Staub, RustyRusty Staub 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
Summers, ChampChamp Summers 90 246 77 .313 20 51
Wockenfuss, JohnJohn Wockenfuss 87 231 61 .264 15 46
Jones, LynnLynn Jones 95 213 63 .296 4 26
Brookens, TomTom Brookens 60 190 50 .263 4 21
Wagner, MarkMark Wagner 75 146 40 .274 1 13
Mankowski, PhilPhil Mankowski 42 99 22 .222 0 8
Putman, EdEd Putman 21 39 9 .231 2 4
Gibson, KirkKirk Gibson 12 38 9 .237 1 4
Corcoran, TimTim Corcoran 18 22 5 .227 0 6
Peters, RickRick Peters 10 19 5 .263 0 2

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
Wilcox, MiltMilt Wilcox 33 196.1 12 10 4.35 109
Morris, JackJack Morris 27 197.2 17 7 3.28 113
Rozema, DaveDave Rozema 16 97.1 4 4 3.51 33
Petry, DanDan Petry 15 98 6 5 3.95 43
Robbins, BruceBruce Robbins 10 46 3 3 3.91 22
Fidrych, MarkMark Fidrych 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
Billingham, JackJack Billingham 35 158 10 7 3.30 59
Underwood, PatPat Underwood 27 121.2 6 4 4.59 83
Baker, SteveSteve Baker 21 84 1 7 6.64 54
Chris, MikeMike Chris 13 39 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

Player G W L SV GF ERA SO
López, AurelioAurelio López 61 10 5 21 49 2.41 106
Hiller, JohnJohn Hiller 43 4 7 9 30 5.22 46
Tobik, DaveDave Tobik 37 3 5 3 19 4.33 48
Burnside, SheldonSheldon Burnside 10 1 1 0 2 6.33 13
Taylor, BruceBruce Taylor 10 1 2 0 8 4.82 8
Arroyo, FernandoFernando Arroyo 6 1 1 0 3 8.25 7

Awards and honors

All-Stars

League top ten finishes

Steve Kemp

Ron LeFlore

Aurelio López

Jack Morris

Bruce Robbins

Alan Trammell

Milt Wilcox

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:

Farm system

Level Team League Manager
AAA Evansville Triplets American Association Jim Leyland
AA Montgomery Rebels Southern League Dennis Sommers
A Lakeland Tigers Florida State League Fred Hatfield
Rookie Bristol Tigers Appalachian League Joe Lewis

LEAGUE CHAMPIONS: Evansville

Notes

  1. ↑ Ed Putman at Baseball-Reference
  2. ↑ Champ Summers at Baseball-Reference
  3. ↑ Rick Leach at Baseball-Reference
  4. ↑ Rusty Staub at Baseball-Reference

References

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