Sparky Anderson’s Tigers Having Dream Season but It’s Not a Fairy Tale

He has the statistics in front of him, the lineup card in his hand and the clubhouse at his back.

Yet, as Sparky Anderson attempts to explain this incredible thing called the Detroit Tigers, he does not reach for any of these pieces of physical evidence. Instead, he points toward his head, his stomach, his heart. He tugs at the familiar white jersey.

The answer, he keeps saying, is somewhere else.

“We create in our clubhouse a very great atmosphere,” the Tigers’ manager said. “You can’t scout it. Scouts can’t see what you have inside. I would be willing to assure you that there’s not another team in any sport that is as good at the intangibles as we are.”

He tells a story about leaving the clubhouse at 1 in the morning and seeing Alan Trammell and Darrell Evans still sitting together discussing the game. He talks about Evans getting picked off third base in Game 4 of the 1987 American League playoffs and facing the press for an hour afterward.

He mentions Jack Morris slipping him a $100,000 check for the Detroit Children’s Hospital this spring, asking only that he not mention it to the press. He mentions the airline and hotel people who stop by to say his team is well-mannered and professional. The box scores, he keeps saying, do not pick up such things.

“Listen, when we were picked fifth the last two years, we didn’t mind,” he said. “Our guys know that’s where we belong. We had no business winning that thing (the American League East) last year, and if we hang around, we’ll have no business winning this year. Man for man, we don’t stack up with very many teams.”

In some ways, they do not. Luis Salazar and Pat Sheridan, who were released by other teams, have combined for 22 homers and 95 RBI. Frank Tanana (13-7) wore out his welcome in Texas, and Doyle Alexander (11-6) has been shown to the door by seven other general managers.

The Tigers are also the oldest of baseball’s 26 teams. They have only two position players and four pitchers under age 30. Tanana, Dave Bergman, Tom Brookens and Larry Herndon all turn 35 this year, Ray Knight will be 36, Alexander 38 and Darrell Evans recently became 41.

You do not love them immediately. Bergman, who has never hit more than seven home runs or had more than 271 at-bats, batted cleanup the first four games in the biggest series of the season (Detroit vs. Boston last weekend). He fits in perfectly because there are no Tigers among the AL leaders in home runs and RBI, and only one among the batting leaders (Trammell, ninth at .314).

“You go position by position and we ought to beat them,” Boston left fielder Mike Greenwell said. “We have four guys that would be leading them in almost every category.”

Yet the Tigers continue to win, consistently and efficiently, and under any circumstances.

“We’re like those Baltimore teams in the early ‘80s,” pitcher Morris said. “We find a way to beat you, and it frustrates the hell out of some people.”

Finding a way is winning eight games when their pitchers allow six runs in each. It’s winning 18 games when the offense scores three or less. It’s winning by 9-6, 8-6 and, three times, by 7-6. It’s winning five 2-1 games and three 1-0 games. It’s a team whose motto is “New day, new way.”

“On paper, we have no business being in a pennant race,” Morris said. “If you look at the roster, you’ll say, ‘Hey, we aren’t worried about these guys.’ ”

At the same time, many others say the Tigers kill you softly. They point to players such as Alexander, the dour junkballer who has put together a quiet 20-6 record since General Manager Bill Lajoie got him from Atlanta a year ago.

“You go up there and see what he’s throwing and say, ‘Well, looks like a couple of hits today,’ ” Boston second baseman Marty Barrett said. “About three hours later, you’re going up the tunnel oh for four and have no idea how it happened.”

Barrett has seen the Tigers do such things enough that, like a lot of others, he does not buy the theory that the Tigers are a terrible team that wins on grit, determination and luck.

“That’s just Sparky,” he said. “He likes to make everyone think they’re the dark horse. You’d have to be stupid to believe that. They have the best starting pitching in the league. They have an outstanding bullpen. And they have great defense and clutch hitting. You give him the Chicago White Sox pitching staff and maybe he’d be right. But when he’s got five guys capable of winning 15 to 20 games, he’s going to be in there all the way.”

Indeed. Detroit starters may be the best this side of Shea Stadium, coming into this week 52-38 with a 3.66 ERA. This despite a three-month slump by Morris (10-11), who allowed but three earned runs in his last 33 innings and appears ready for the stretch run.

The bullpen, led by sinkerballer Mike Henneman, may also be the AL’s best. Detroit relievers have converted 27 of 32 save chances.

Combine that pitching staff with a manager who has won 1,679 games, seven divisions and five pennants and a defense that has allowed only 39 unearned runs, and it’s obvious the Tigers need only a bit of offense.

Which is what they got in beating Boston four times in five games to open up a three-game lead in the American League East. They scored 11 runs in the first game, but then got by in games of 3-1, 3-2 and 4-2 before losing 3-0 in 10 innings.

“We’re going to have our spurts, but this is just not a club that’s going to be dominant offensively,” Trammell said.

Anderson, the only certain Hall of Famer in his clubhouse, knows this and protects his pitching staff fiercely. His starters have pitched on less than four days rest only twice all season (none since April 21), and his relievers have worked the fewest innings in the American League.

But he must be protective because the offense is so thin. When the Tigers won the East by 15 games in 1984, they got 60 homers and 189 RBI from Kirk Gibson and Lance Parrish. Both have departed through free agency, and essentially haven’t been replaced.

The farm system has produced Henneman (19 saves) and sensational Jeff Robinson (13-5), but not many everyday players. Salazar and Sheridan have been lifesavers, and Dwayne Murphy, an unsigned free agent last winter, has looked good since being called from Toledo two weeks ago.

They’re squeezing one more season from Evans, Knight, Lou Whitaker, Chet Lemon, etc., and when spring training comes in 1989, they’ll try to patch together another team.