| Detroit Tigers | |
| Season: | 2000 |
| League: | American League |
| Division: | Central |
| Ballpark: | Comerica Park |
| City: | Detroit, Michigan |
| Owners: | Mike Ilitch |
| General Managers: | Randy Smith |
| Managers: | Phil Garner |
| Television: | WKBD (Frank Beckmann, Al Kaline) Fox Sports Detroit (Josh Lewin, Kirk Gibson, Tom Paciorek) |
| Radio: | Detroit Tigers Radio Network (Ernie Harwell, Jim Price, Dan Dickerson) |
The 2000 Detroit Tigers season was the team's 100th season and its first season at Comerica Park, after playing at Tiger Stadium since 1912, at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Trumbull Avenue (also site of their previous stadiums since 1896).
Groundbreaking for a new ballpark to replace Tiger Stadium for the Detroit Tigers was held on October 29, 1997, and the new stadium was opened to the public in 2000. At the time of construction, the scoreboard in left field was the largest in Major League Baseball.[6] In December 1998, Comerica Bank agreed to pay US$66 million over 30 years for the naming rights for the new ballpark. Upon its opening, there was some effort to try to find a nickname for the park, with the abbreviation CoPa suggested by many,[7] but that nickname has not gained widespread acceptance.
The first game at Comerica Park was held on Tuesday, April 11, 2000, with 39,168 spectators attending, on a cold snowy afternoon. Grounds people had to clear snow off the field from the night before. The Tigers defeated the Seattle Mariners by a score of 5-2. The winning pitcher, like in the final game at Tiger Stadium was Brian Moehler.
The Tigers were involved in a pair of bench-clearing brawls in a 14 - 6 loss to the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park on April 22. Both were fueled by pitchers hitting batters. The tensions began in the sixth inning with Carlos Lee and Jeff Weaver who continued to jaw with Lee after being subbed out. A retaliatory pitch thrown by Jim Parque to Dean Palmer one inning later in the seventh began the first brawl which moved into shallow right field and included Keith Foulke being punched by Bobby Higginson and sustaining a cut under his left eye that needed five stitches to close. Four batters after Tanyon Sturtze hit Deivi Cruz in the ninth, the second brawl erupted when Bob Howry did likewise to Shane Halter. Among the eleven ejections were the Tigers' Weaver, Palmer, Robert Fick, Danny Patterson and Doug Brocail and White Sox's Sturtze, Howry, Magglio Ordóñez, Bill Simas, manager Jerry Manuel and bench coach Joe Nossek.[8]
In the harshest penalty for a brawl in MLB history, a combined 16 members of the Tigers and White Sox were suspended for a total of 82 games five days later on April 27.[9] Tigers coach Juan Samuel incurred the longest at 15 for throwing punches rather than serving as a peacemaker, while the opposing managers Manuel and Phil Garner each received eight. Palmer was also assessed eight for participating in the second brawl despite having already been ejected. Other suspended Tigers were Higginson and Fick for five each, Brocail for four and Juan Encarnación, Karim García and Luis Polonia for three. Ordóñez was the White Sox player receiving the longest suspension at five, while Lee, Parque, Foulke, Sturtze and Howry got three each.[10]
| 2000 Detroit Tigers | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roster | |||||||||
| Pitchers | Catchers Infielders | Outfielders Other batters | Manager Coaches | ||||||
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in
| Player | G | AB | H | Avg. | HR | RBI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 154 | 597 | 179 | .300 | 30 | 102 | ||
| 156 | 583 | 76 | .302 | 10 | 82 | ||
| 141 | 547 | 158 | .289 | 14 | 72 | ||
| 145 | 524 | 134 | .256 | 29 | 102 | ||
| 150 | 523 | 139 | .266 | 7 | 51 | ||
| 126 | 464 | 120 | .259 | 14 | 58 | ||
| 115 | 461 | 133 | .289 | 22 | 67 | ||
| 80 | 267 | 73 | .273 | 6 | 25 | ||
| 105 | 238 | 62 | .261 | 3 | 27 | ||
| 92 | 238 | 58 | .244 | 7 | 34 | ||
| 60 | 208 | 57 | .274 | 13 | 37 | ||
| 91 | 186 | 51 | .274 | 7 | 31 | ||
| 73 | 173 | 44 | .254 | 2 | 24 | ||
| 66 | 163 | 41 | .252 | 3 | 22 | ||
| 41 | 142 | 39 | .275 | 2 | 14 | ||
| 46 | 123 | 37 | .301 | 4 | 24 | ||
| 40 | 106 | 33 | .311 | 1 | 8 | ||
| 26 | 40 | 7 | .175 | 1 | 2 | ||
| 8 | 17 | 3 | .176 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 18 | 16 | 7 | .438 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 3 | 5 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 11 | 3 | 1 | .333 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Pitcher Totals | 162 | 19 | 1 | .053 | 0 | 0 | |
| Team Totals | 162 | 5644 | 1553 | .275 | 177 | 785 |
Note: Individual pitchers' batting statistics not included
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 | 200.0 | 11 | 15 | 4.32 | 136 | ||
| 32 | 190.0 | 8 | 12 | 4.74 | 181 | ||
| 29 | 178.0 | 12 | 9 | 4.50 | 103 | ||
| 24 | 119.1 | 6 | 11 | 5.58 | 57 | ||
| 20 | 104.0 | 7 | 5 | 4.07 | 53 |
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | ERA | SO | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 47 | 156.2 | 10 | 6 | 4.88 | 74 | ||
| 67 | 109.2 | 4 | 9 | 5.25 | 81 | ||
| 12 | 34.1 | 0 | 1 | 4.19 | 20 | ||
| 9 | 24.0 | 0 | 1 | 7.50 | 11 | ||
| 2 | 5.1 | 0 | 1 | 21.94 | 1 |
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | SV | ERA | SO | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 67 | 64.0 | 2 | 4 | 42 | 3.52 | 67 | ||
| 69 | 74.1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4.72 | 71 | ||
| 58 | 56.2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 3.97 | 29 | ||
| 49 | 50.2 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 4.09 | 41 | ||
| 27 | 41.0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3.07 | 34 | ||
| 18 | 8.2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7.27 | 5 | ||
| 13 | 10.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.20 | 7 | ||
| 5 | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.00 | 3 | ||
| 3 | 4.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10.38 | 1 | ||
| 3 | 3.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.36 | 2 | ||
| 3 | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.00 | 1 | ||
| 2 | 2.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10.13 | 0 | ||
| 1 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ---- | 0 | ||
| Team Pitching Totals | 162 | 1443.1 | 79 | 83 | 44 | 4.71 | 978 |
See also: Minor League Baseball.