1984 Detroit Tigers Make Case for Greatest Team in History

1984 Detroit Tigers win 3-1 in 12 innings and 16-0 vs. 1929 Philadelphia A's. See our new Top 10 teams of all-time at the bottom of this blog.

Chet Lemon tripled to key the 1984 Detroit Tigers to a 3-1 win between two of the greatest teams in history, and in the nightcap they took it to another level to make the case they are the greatest team in history. DH Larry Herndon, who did not play in the first game because pitchers batted in the 1929 NL, then hit a 3-run homer in his first at bat en route to a five of five game and dominant 16-0 win in the nightcap.

With the win we moved this Tigers team up to No. 1 in our all-time ranking - as they passed a couple of New York Yankees teams and others.

While none of our 60 great teams has played more than two games, so such a winning may seem premature, this Tigers team started the season at 35-5 - the best of any team in history - after which they could cruise to the pennant. After winning 104 games, they played games that mattered for the first time in weeks and won seven of eight playoff games to easily take the American League Championship and the World Series.

When we compare the only 12 teams since 1901 to start the season winning even 31 of their first 40 games, we rank this Tigers season as the most dominant start to finish of any season ever. The second best is the 1998 Yankees who were four games worse than the Tigers at the outset at 31-9, and then went onto win even more games at 114, before winning 11 of 13 playoff games to take the series. The others we consider to have had the best start to finish seasons are the 1907 Cubs and two Yankees teams (1928 and 1939).

Here is the combined box score for the two games in which the Tigers hit 0.344 and had a 0.43 ERA against a great Philadelphia Athletics' line-up.

Modern fans may be surprised that a relief pitcher could be voted MVP, but Willie Hernandez won it easily after pitching in 80 games and 140 innings with an ERA under 2.00. 

 

2 games	Detroit Tigers 1984	AB	R	H	RBI	Other
SS	Alan Trammell	11	2	4	2	sb
3B	Howard Johnson#	11	0	2	2
RF	Kirk Gibson*	11	1	3	2	3b
C	Lance Parrish	10	1	4	1	sb
LF	Johnny Grubb*	10	3	3	0	2b
CF	Chet Lemon	11	4	4	1	2b,3b
2B	Lou Whitaker*	11	2	3	1
1B	Dave Bergman*	8	3	4	2
DH-ben	Larry Herndon	5	2	5	5	HR
P	Pitcher at bat	4	0	0	0
3B	Tom Brookens	0	0	0	0	sb
PH	Nelson Simmons#	1	0	0	0
PR	Barbaro Garbey	0	1	0	0
	Tigers Totals	93	19	32	16	0.344
2 games	Philadelphia Athletics 1929	AB	R	H	RBI	Other
RF	Bing Miller	10	0	1	0
C	Mickey Cochrane*	8	1	1	0	2b
1B	Jimmie Foxx	8	0	2	0
LF	Al Simmons	7	0	2	0
DH-3B	Jimmy Dykes	6	0	1	0
CF	Mule Haas*	8	0	2	0
2B	Max Bishop*	8	0	0	0
SS	Joe Boley	7	0	1	0
3B-ben	Sammy Hale	2	0	0	0
P	Pitcher at bat	3	0	0	0	Sac
PH	Jim Cronin#	1	0	0	0
	Athletics Totals	68	1	10	0	0.147
Decision	Game 1 Tigers	IP	H	R	ER	W/K
	Dan Petry	7	6	1	1	3/6
	Willie Hernandez	2	1	0	0	1/2
Win	Aurelio Lopez	3	0	0	0	1/4
Decision	Game 2 Tigers	IP	H	R	ER	W/K
Win	Dave Rozema	5	3	0	0	0/7
	Randy O'Neal	4	0	0	0	1/4
0.43	Totals, ERA to left	21	10	1	1	6/23
Decision	Game 1 Athletics	IP	H	R	ER	W/K
	Lefty Grove	8	5	1	1	2/7
Loss	Eddie Rommel	4	4	2	1	2/3
Decision	Game 2 Athletics	IP	H	R	ER	W/K
Loss	Rube Walberg	4	8	6	6	1/5
	Bill Shores	1.3	6	5	3	0/2
	Jack Quinn	0.7	4	4	4	0/0
	Carroll Yerkes	2	5	1	0	0/3
8.55	Totals, ERA to left	20	32	19	15	5/20

Here are the 12 teams that have won at least 31 of their first 40 games since 1901, and how we rank them for dominating from beginning to end of the season.

Rnk	Team	Wins 1st 40 g	Season Wins	How did season end
1	1984 Tigers	35	104	Won 7 of 8 games to take ALCS and World Series
2	1998 Yankees	31	114	Won 11 of 13 games to take World Series
3	1907 Cubs	31	107	Swept World Series
4	1939 Yankees	33	101	Swept World Series
5	1928 Yankees	33	101	Swept World Series
6	1905 Giants	31	105	Won Series 4 games to 1
7	1929 Athletics	31	104	Won Series 4 games to 1
8	1902 Pirates	32	103	No World Series yet, but won league by 27.5 games
9	1946 Red Sox	31	104	Lost World Series in 7 games
10	1912 Giants	32	103	Lost World Series in 7 games
	1941 Cardinals	31	97	Finished 3 games behind Brooklyn
	2001 Mariners	31	116	Lost 4-1 in AL playoffs

All-Time Greatest 10 Teams Updated July 13, 2024

If a player is already ranked by ESPN as one of the top 100 players in history, then we list their rnaking as well as our team ranking.

1. (Original Power = 18) - Detroit Tigers 1984 Chet Lemon, Willie Hernandez, Kirk Gibson - Sure they will come back to earth, but a 2-game sweep against the great 1929 Philadelphia A's team that culminated with a 16-0 win with a ridiculous 24 hits makes us put them all the way to first for the moment.

2. (Original Power = 2) - New York Yankees 1998 28. Derek Jeter, 31. Mariano Rivera Win over the Strawberry and Gooden Mets puts these Yankees on the heels of the of the Tigers 1st all-time for now 

3. (Original Power = 8) - St Louis Cardinals 1942 10. Stan Musial, Mort Cooper great win against one of the other 2 Super Midwest teams, the 1929 Cubs, pushes them info 3rd all-time for the moment with two of the three big Yankees teams all suffering surprise losses. 

4. (Original Power = 1) - New York Yankees 1939 16. Joe DiMaggio, Marius Russo lost to NYM 1969 4-5, then won 4-3. No shame in losing one to Tom Seaver.

5. (Original Power = 4) - Chicago Cubs 1907 Frank Chance, Carl Lundgren the early Cubs teams of Evers to Tinker to Chance keeps them ranked 5th all-time in our game showing dead ball era teams can win with 10 of 10 steals and a 12-6 win and a ballpark that keeps the live ball eras hitters in the park. 

6. (Original Power = 26) - Brooklyn Dodgers 1955 38. Jackie Robinson, 83. Roy Campanella, 95. Duke Snider Stunning sweep of the 1927 Yankees pushes them near the top to start - but when you have three of the top 10 teams in history you are for real.

7. (Original Power = 3) - New York Yankees 1927 1. Babe Ruth & 6. Lou Gehrig get stunned by Jackie Robinson’s Brooklyn 1955 - 2-3 and then running out of pitchers in a 9-19 loss– after being our all-time champion the one other time we played an all-time season 20 years ago. 

8. (Original Power = 6) - Pittsburgh Pirates 1909 12. Honus Wagner, Babe Adams Split with the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies - 1-0, 3-5 (11) 

9. (Original Power = 7) - Cincinnati Reds 1975 20. Johnny Bench, 34. Pete Rose, 37. Joe Morgan vs Hou 1998 2-3 (11), 4-1. No shame in losing one game to Randy Johnson, but recovered in Game 2 for the split.

10. (Original Power = 21) - Oakland A's 1972 55. Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter Nice sweep of the Mariners team in dominant combined score of 11-2 for the threepeat champs. 

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Click here for links to the 60 all-time great Statis-Pro baseball teams.