The Detroit Tigers are a professional baseball team based in Detroit, Michigan. The Tigers are members of the American League Central Division in Major League Baseball. In baseball, the head coach of a team is called the manager, or more formally, the field manager. The duties of the team manager include team strategy and leadership on and off the field.[1][2] The team initially began in the now defunct Western League in 1894, and later became one of the American League's eight charter franchises in 1901. Since the inception of the team in 1894, it has employed 48 different managers.[3] The Tigers' current manager is A. J. Hinch, who was named manager on October 30, 2020, following the sudden retirement of Ron Gardenhire.[4]

The franchise's first manager after the team's arrival in the American League was George Stallings, who managed the team for one season. Hall of Famer Hughie Jennings, who managed the team from 1907 to 1920, led the team to three American League championships. Jennings however was unable to win the World Series, losing to the Chicago Cubs in 1907 and 1908 and the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1909. The Detroit Tigers did not win their first World Series until 1935 under the leadership of player-manager Mickey Cochrane. Steve O'Neill later led the Tigers to another World Series victory again in 1945. The Tigers would not win another World Series until 1968 World Series when the Tigers, led by Mayo Smith, defeated the St. Louis Cardinals. Sparky Anderson's 1984 Detroit Tigers team was the franchise's last World Series victory, and marked the first time in Major League Baseball history that a manager won the World Series in both leagues. In total, the Tigers have won the American League pennant 10 times, and the World Series 4 times.

The longest tenured Tiger manager was Sparky Anderson. Anderson managed the team for 2,579 games from 1979 to 1995. Hughie Jennings, Bucky Harris and Jim Leyland are the only other Detroit Tiger managers who have managed the team for more than 1,000 games. Anderson's 1331 wins and 1248 losses also lead all Tiger managers, while Cochrane's winning percentage of .582 is the highest of any Tiger manager who has managed at least one full-season. Eight Hall of Famers have managed the Tigers: Ed Barrow, Jennings, Ty Cobb, Cochrane, Joe Gordon, Bucky Harris, Alan Trammell, and Anderson. Barrow was elected as an executive, Jennings and Anderson were elected as managers; the others were elected as players.

Key

# Number of managers[a]
G Regular season games managed; may not equal sum of wins and losses due to tie games
W Regular season wins
L Regular season losses
Win% Winning percentage
PA Playoff appearances: number of years this manager has led the franchise to the playoffs
PW Playoff wins
PL Playoff losses
LC League Championships: number of League Championships, or pennants, achieved by the manager
WS World Series Championships: number of World Series victories achieved by the manager
Ref Reference(s)
† Inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame primarily as a manager or executive
* Inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame primarily as a player
** Manager acted as interim manager

Managers

Western League

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
#[a] Manager Seasons W L Win% Ref
1 Bob Glenalvin 1894
2 Con Strouthers 1895–96
3 George Stallings 1896
4 Bob Allen 1897
5 Frank Graves 1897–98
6 Ollie Beard 1898
7 Tony Mullane 1898
8 George Stallings 1898–1900

American League

Through September 18, 2020
#[a] Manager Seasons W L Win% PA PW PL LC WS Ref
1 George Stallings 1901 74 61 .548 [5]
2 Frank Dwyer 1902 52 83 .385 [5]
3 Ed Barrow† 1903–1904 97 117 .453 [5]
4 Bobby Lowe** 1904 30 44 .405 [5]
5 Bill Armour 1905–1906 150 152 .497 [5]
6 Hughie Jennings† 1907–1920 1131 972 .538 3 4 12 3 0 [5][6]
7 Ty Cobb* 1921–1926 479 444 .519 [5]
8 George Moriarty 1927–1928 150 157 .489 [5]
9 Bucky Harris 1929–1933 355 410 .464 [5]
10 Del Baker** 1933 2 0 1.000 [5][7]
11 Mickey Cochrane* 1934–1936 259 166 .609 2 7 6 2 1 [5][8]
– Del Baker 1936 18 16 .529 [5][7]
– Mickey Cochrane* 1937 42 33 .560 [5][8]
– Del Baker 1937 41 23 .641 [5][7]
12 Cy Perkins** 1937 6 9 .400 [5]
– Mickey Cochrane* 1938 47 51 .480 [5][8]
– Del Baker 1938–1942 356 316 .530 1 3 4 1 0 [5][7]
13 Steve O'Neill 1943–1948 509 414 .551 1 4 3 1 1 [5][9]
14 Red Rolfe 1949–1952 278 256 .521 [5]
15 Fred Hutchinson 1952–1954 155 235 .397 [5]
– Bucky Harris 1955–1956 161 147 .523 [5]
16 Jack Tighe 1957–1958 99 104 .488 [5]
17 Bill Norman 1958–1959 58 64 .475 [5]
18 Jimmy Dykes 1959–1960 118 115 .506 [5]
19 Billy Hitchcock** 1960 1 0 1.000 [5]
20 Joe Gordon* 1960 26 31 .456 [5]
21 Bob Scheffing 1961–1963 210 173 .548 [5]
22 Chuck Dressen 1963–1964 140 124 .530 [5]
23 Bob Swift 1965 24 18 .571 [5]
– Chuck Dressen 1965–1966 81 65 .555 [5]
– Bob Swift** 1966 32 25 .561 [5]
24 Frank Skaff** 1966 40 39 .506 [5]
25 Mayo Smith 1967–1970 363 285 .560 1 4 3 1 1 [5][10]
26 Billy Martin 1971–1973 248 204 .549 1 2 3 0 0 [5][11]
27 Joe Schultz** 1973 14 14 .500 [5]
28 Ralph Houk 1974–1978 363 443 .450 [5]
29 Les Moss 1979 27 26 .509 [5]
30 Dick Tracewski** 1979 2 0 1.000 [5]
31 Sparky Anderson† 1979–1995 1331 1248 .516 2 8 5 1 1 [5][12]
32 Buddy Bell 1996–1998 184 277 .399 [5]
33 Larry Parrish 1998–1999 82 104 .441 [5]
34 Phil Garner 2000–2002 145 185 .439 [5]
35 Luis Pujols** 2002 55 100 .355 [5]
36 Alan Trammell* 2003–2005 186 300 .383 [5]
37 Jim Leyland 2006–2013 700 597 .540 4 25 23 2 0 [5][13][14]
38 Brad Ausmus 2014–2017 314 332 .486 1 0 3 0 0 [5]
39 Ron Gardenhire 2018–2020 132 241 .354 0 0 0 0 0 [5][15]
40 Lloyd McClendon** 2020 2 6 .250 0 0 0 0 0 [5][16]
41 A. J. Hinch 2021–present 202 252 .445 0 0 0 0 0 [5][4]

Managers with multiple tenures

# Manager Seasons G W L Win% PA PW PL LC WS Ref
9 Bucky Harris 1929–1933
1955–1956 		1,078 516 557 .481
10 Mickey Cochrane* 1934–1936, 1937, 1938 600 348 250 .582 2 7 6 2 1
11 Del Baker 1933, 1936, 1937, 1938–1942 675 417 355 .540
22 Chuck Dressen 1963–1964
1965–1966 		411 221 189 .539
23 Bob Swift 1965, 1966 99 56 43 .566

Notes

References

  1. ^ "Manager: Definition | Dictionary.com". Dictionary.Reference.com. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 2006. Retrieved 2009-02-24.
  2. ^ Dickson, P. (2009). The Dickson Baseball Dictionary (Third ed.). W.W. Norton & Co. p. 530. ISBN 978-0-393-06681-4.
  3. ^ "Detroit Tiger Managerial Register". Baseball-Reference. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved October 26, 2009.
  4. ^ a b Beck, Jason (October 30, 2020). "Hinch: 'The good times are coming' to Detroit". MLB.com. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw "Detroit Tigers Managers". baseball-reference.com. Retrieved October 21, 2013.
  6. ^ "Hughie Jennings". Retrosheet.org. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  7. ^ a b c d "Del Baker". Retrosheet.org. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  8. ^ a b c "Mickey Cochrane". Retrosheet.org. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  9. ^ "Steve O'Neill". Retrosheet.org. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  10. ^ "Mayo Smith". Retrosheet.org. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  11. ^ "Billy Martin". Retrosheet.org. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  12. ^ "Sparky Anderson". Retrosheet.org. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  13. ^ "Jim Leyland". Retrosheet.org. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  14. ^ "2013 Detroit Tigers Statistics". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  15. ^ Beck, Jason (October 20, 2017). "Tigers, Gardenhire finalize skipper's 3-year deal". MLB.com. Retrieved October 20, 2017.
  16. ^ Beck, Jason (September 19, 2020). "Citing health, Tigers manager Gardy retires". MLB.com. Retrieved September 19, 2020.
Categories