Tigers Don’t Go by Book; They Either Hit or Miss

“The Book,” that collection of conventional baseball axioms and theorems stored on every manager’s mental disk, says you flash the take sign in this situation:

Detroit Tiger second baseman Lou Whitaker, the team’s No. 2 hitter, is at bat with runners on first and second. One out and the Tigers trail, 3-1, in the eighth.

Angel pitcher Jim Abbott has walked the previous batter, Tony Phillips, on four pitches and has thrown two consecutive balls to Whitaker.

Abbott is obviously struggling. No. 3 hitter Alan Trammell is on deck, to be followed by Cecil Fielder, the American League’s second-leading home run hitter.

The book says you give Whitaker the take sign and hope for a walk to load the bases.

But that book wasn’t written for these free-swinging, home-run hitting, strikeout record-singeing Tigers, who lead the major leagues in home runs and the American League in strikeouts.

Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson gave Whitaker the green light with the count 2-0, and Whitaker sent the pitch through the intersection of center field and the bleachers for a three-run home run that gave the Tigers a 4-3 victory over the Angels Saturday night in Anaheim Stadium.

Max Venable leaped at the center-field wall for Whitaker’s drive and got his glove over the fence, but the ball just cleared Venable’s reach and rattled around the seats.

As if that wasn’t enough to torment Venable, Whitaker also turned Venable’s ninth-inning grounder into a game-ending double play that stranded the tying run at third.

Second baseman Whitaker, who has eight home runs this season, also homered against Fernando Valenzuela in Friday night’s 5-0 victory.

After Saturday’s game, Anderson scoffed at the idea of a take sign to Whitaker.

“No, we swing, we don’t take,” Anderson said. “We’re not that kind of club. This is totally the wildest club I’ve ever had. We just wail away. We throw everything we can at you and if we don’t hit, we try again tomorrow.”

Led by Rob Deer, Fielder, Pete Incaviglia and Mickey Tettleton, there is plenty the Tigers haven’t hit this season. The Tigers’ 373 strikeouts puts them on a pace to possibly break the American League record of 1,148 strikeouts, set by the 1986 Mariners, or the major league record of 1,203 strikeouts, by the ’68 Mets.

With such an emphasis on the long ball and so little on sacrifice bunts, hit-and-run plays and stolen-bases--moves that require decisions on the part of the manager--you’d think it might be easier to run these Tigers.

“If your nerves can take watching them swing, yeah, it is,” Anderson said. “But this will be 162 nights of terror. If you can take it long enough, you can make a lot of money and retire. If you can’t, you fall by the wayside.”

The wayside is where Anderson knew the Angels would fall Saturday once Venable hit that ninth-inning grounder toward the middle.

With Whitaker and shortstop Trammell, who have been together 14 years--the longest of any double-play combination in major league history--Anderson was confident the Tigers would win their fourth consecutive game.

“As soon as it was hit, we said the game’s over,” Anderson said. “In fact, one of our coaches started walking onto the field when he hit it. That was taylor-made.”