Published Oct. 31, 2022

NOW they get younger, smarter and more dynamic.

NOW they get an up-and-coming executive.

NOW they embrace that there’s a world of baseball talent outside of the United States.

NOW they understand the holistic approach to acquiring and developing talent.

Better late than never, eh?

The Tigers just lost seven years. Flushed them right down the toilet. There’s irony at play here.

It was in August 2015 when owner Mike Ilitch released a brief, terse, almost angry release, announcing the firing of President & GM Dave Dombrowski. The crotchety Ilitch, some 85 years old at the time, was restless and smarting after his team was swept in the ALDS in 2014 at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles. This, one year after the horrific implosion in the ALCS against the Boston Red Sox. Four straight years of winning the AL Central netted one World Series appearance (sweep to the Giants) and a lot of postseason heartbreak.

Ilitch was done with Dombrowski, which of course is his prerogative as owner. His impatience, combined with his advancing years and failing health, whipped Mr. I into a frenzy of sorts.

Fine.

But that impatience was trumped by something else that was always an Ilitch trademark: loyalty to a fault.

So when faced with what to do in a post-Dombrowski era some seven years ago, Ilitch inexplicably handed the keys over to DD’s lieutenant, Al Avila. Hardly the dramatic change the team so badly needed.

Avila was a good soldier, joining the Tigers about the same time as his boss did (Nov. 2001 was when the Tigers hired Dombrowski). But he was DD Lite; he wasn’t at all what the organization needed at the time.

Al Avila’s biggest qualification for the GM job was, frankly, that he wasn’t David Dombrowski.

I thought at the time that Ilitch would let Avila run the show on an interim basis, until a thorough search for a man outside of the Tigers organization could be completed. Then, Avila would be given a gold watch with an Old English D engraved on it, thanked, and that would be the end of it.

Nope.

The Tigers’ current languishing in the American League, lightyears away from serious contention, can be traced back to what Mike Ilitch didn’t do in 2015.

Why? Because the impatience fell to loyalty. Because Ilitch didn’t want to mess around with what he no doubt thought would be a starting over of sorts. Best to simply pass the torch to Avila and hope for the best. A few months later, the now infamous contracts to pitcher Jordan Zimmermann and outfielder Justin Upton were handed out, as Ilitch’s desperation and whistling past the graveyard continued unabated. Maybe he was growing deaf in his sunset years, because Ilitch certainly didn’t hear the oncoming horn of the train coming through the tunnel.

The Tigers had their shot in 2015 to cast a wide net and look for fresh, younger candidates who would be willing to take over a ballclub with a clearly fervent fan base. They had their shot at a makeover upstairs and embrace analytics and take their blinders off. It was all there for them.

But they hitched their train to Avila, who eventually hired a dinosaur as manager (Ron Gardenhire) and now here we are.

Seven lost years.

It’s all water under the bridge now, of course, even as the Houston Astros, with Justin Verlander, and the Philadelphia Phillies, with Nick Castellanos (and Dombrowski upstairs), duke it out in the World Series.

All Dave Dombrowski does, it seems, is build teams that make it to the World Series. And he’s won some too.

He did it as a young, fresh executive with the Marlins. He did it with the Tigers. He did it with the Red Sox. And here is again, in the Fall Classic with the Phillies. Funny.

Dombrowski kicked off his career as a 20-something with the White Sox in the late-’70s, hired by the great Roland Hemond. In Chicago, DD rose to assistant GM. It’s also where Dombrowski got to know the Chisox’s third base coach—one Jim Leyland, which began a friendship that would result in a world championship with the Marlins and two WS tries with the Tigers.

But Dombrowski ticked off Ilitch, apparently, by failing to deliver the owner’s white whale on time.

It’s too bad that no one was in the owner’s ear in 2015 and advised him to eschew loyalty (Avila) and start a new dawn of Tigers baseball (almost anyone else). Maybe Mr. I wouldn’t have listened, anyway. Who knows?

Again, no sense wallowing over spilled milk now. In Scott Harris, the Tigers finally have their bold, young executive who is already making significant moves in the front office–purging the old guard (like Scott Pleis and David Chadd) in favor of men like Rob Metzler (poached from the Rays) and Mark Conner (Padres).

But how much angst, anger and frustration could the Tigers have saved their fan base if they did all of the above seven years ago?

Another “What if?” question that the sports team executives in Detroit seem to be answering ad nauseam.

Meanwhile, Dave Dombrowski is in the World Series. Again—for the second time since getting the ziggy in Detroit.

Irony can be cruel.