(Photo credit: Topps.com)
Instead of doing another opening day preview, I decided to look back at previous opening days. With the help of the Retrosheet play-by-play database, I was able to summarize data from Tigers opening days from 1950-2014. For the purpose of this post, opening day means first game of the season as opposed to first home game. The Tigers opening day batting leaders are shown in Table 1 below. Here are some of the highlights:
- Hall of Famer Al Kaline played in more opening days (21) than any other Tiger. He did not perform particularly well in those game though posting a .210/.333/.321 line.
- Shortstop Alan Trammell led all Tigers with 19 hits and 9 extra base hits in 16 opening days.
- Nine Tigers played in 10 or more opening days, the most recent being Brandon Inge. Inge had a .934 OPS and his 8 RBI is third highest on the team.
- Outfielders Kirk Gibson and Dmitri Young each had three opening day home runs. Young, of course, hit all three in the same game in 2005.
- The best opening day slugger might have been right-handed hitting Larry Herndon who had 11 hits, including six for extra bases in six openers. He had at least one hit in every game from 1982-1987 and multiple hits in four games.
- The worst hitter might have been outfielder Jim Northrup with just three hits and a .346 OPS in nine openers.
Table 1: Detroit Tigers Opening Day Batting Leaders, 1950-2014
Statistic
|
First
|
Second
|
Third
|
G
|
Kaline 21
|
Whitaker 17
|
Trammell 16
|
H
|
Trammell 19
|
Kaline 17
|
Whitaker, Cash 12
|
HR
|
Gibson 3
|
Young 3
|
Many tied with 2
|
TB
|
Trammell 33
|
Kaline 26
|
Herndon 22
|
RBI
|
Trammell 10
|
Kaline 9
|
Inge 8
|
R
|
Trammell 13
|
Kaline 8
|
Whitaker 8
|
BA
|
Herndon .440
|
Boone .412
|
Easley .407
|
OBP
|
Boone .500
|
Herndon .481
|
Fryman .452
|
SLG
|
Herndon .880
|
Boone .765
|
Young .762
|
OPS
|
Herndon 1.361
|
Stanley 1.265
|
Young 1.126
|
Data source: Retrosheet.org
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