An angry Gary Sheffield after being hit by a pitch.
It wasn't yet a banner year for the Tigers in 2008. In fact, it was the only year from 2006-14 that Detroit didn't play at least .500 baseball.
The World Series glow from ’06 had worn off and the team suddenly looked stale. Jacque Jones was brought in to provide a veteran presence in left field and instead played like an 11-year-old just swinging a bat for the first time.. Justin Verlander almost lost 20 games (11-17). Nate Robertson and Kenny Rogers pitched in 62 games while somehow combining for an ERA over 12. You’d think after taking the mound that many times, the ERA would naturally fall a little bit; Nate & Kenny defied the odds all year long.
In his Tigers debut, Dontrelle Willis issued a whopping 35 walks in just 24 innings on his way to a sky-high 9.38 ERA. (What a strange career he had.)
Limping to the finish line, the team arrived in Cleveland on Sept. 19 fresh off a win after dropping six in a row. The frustration building all season long finally came to a head.
Here was the situation:
The Tigers led 4-2, batting in the top half of the seventh. There's one out and nobody on. The starter for Cleveland, Fausto Carmona, was still on the mound, but tiring.
At bat for the Tigers was Gary Sheffield, who to that point, had done nothing notable in the game: a double play grounder in the second, a lazy infield pop in the fifth.
Neither team was very good and the game carried no weight in the standings.
But when an 0-1, 92-mph cutter rode in on the hands of Sheffield and dotted him, the night instantly became a thousand times more memorable.
Via the video below, let’s look back at highlights from one of the more bizarre Detroit Tigers scuffles in recent memory.
0:31 mark: Sheffield has walked almost the whole way from home to first still carrying his stick. And here is the Tiger batboy awkwardly looking on, not exactly sure what to do, appearing completely terrified in the process. You can practically see the thought bubble forming over his head. “Umm, Mr. Sheffield, when you are done looking like a serial killer, could you kindly hand over that bat? Unless you’re planning to use it to go murder that pitcher. In that case, you hang onto it.”
1:03: Carmona tries a pickoff. Sheffield is not a fan. All hell breaks loose.
1:18: Hey, it’s our good friend Jhonny Peralta jumping into the fray! Only, he’s still a Cleveland Indian at this point. As is the maniac we’re about to see next.
2:00: The catcher for Cleveland, and the man flipping out more than anybody on the field, is none other than Victor Martinez! He desperately wants a piece of somebody on the Tigers. Thankfully, his fellow countryman and future teammate Miguel Cabrera is there to hold him back.
Side note: Hey, Victor looks pretty good in that catching gear! If the Tigers do somehow reach the World Series this year, is it so crazy to think about throwing him behind the plate in a National League park? Remember that in 1968, one of only four title years for this franchise, the Tigers made a major defensive sacrifice in order to put the best offensive lineup on the field. Mayo Smith’s gamble to insert outfielder Mickey Stanley at shortstop was ranked #4 by ESPN in the Greatest Coaching Decisions of the 20th Century.
Back to the brawl!
2:18: Sheffield is back on the screen, this time sporting a healthy shiner under his left eye. Ouch! It made no sense for him to charge the mound (is it still considered “charging” when you come from first base??) and he paid a major price. Carmona: KO, Round 1.
Indians announcers: “Sheffield’s nose got bloodied by Carmona. But it was Sheffield who started the whole thing by screaming at him after he (Carmona) threw a ball over to first base to just chase him back.”
It's game on.
(3:14) Sheffield, now safely in the dugout, planning an ill-advised return to the field well after things have died down. You can see him pondering another bull-rush at Carmona; somehow it is a fairly quick-on-his-feet Gene Lamont that shuts the whole thing down.
3:29: “We’ll see. I would assume that Sheffield is ejected,” says the Indians analyst. Yes, I think it’s safe to say that, when a pitcher attempts a pickoff and the baserunner responds by trying to rip his head off, someone is gonna hit the showers. Brings to mind Bob Uecker’s classic line from Major League 2. “Dynamite drop-in, Monty...that broadcast school has really paid off!”
3:56: Replay of the pickoff. It’s actually relatively close. And believe it or not, Sheffield was still a pretty dangerous base-stealing threat here, even at age 39. He was 9-of-11 that year, and in the previous year, his first with Detroit, he was an impressive 22-of-27.
(Give yourself major props on the baseball knowledge front if you remember that Sheffield spent the following season, his last in the big leagues, with the New York Mets. That honestly doesn’t ring a bell for me at all.
He played for eight teams over a ridiculous 22-year career. If elected to the HOF one day, it’ll be interesting to see which cap he wears. I’d guess the Marlins because he won a championship there, but some probably remember him best as a Yankee or Dodger.)
4:07: Sheffield needs to work on his boxing technique. As he approaches Carmona, he decides to lower his head right into Carmona’s body. Was he just trying to make it easier for the massive 6-4, 270 lb. pitcher to whale on him? If so, he actually did a really nice job.
4:24: Say what you want about Brandon Inge and his lifetime .233 average, but the guy sure does defend his teammates during a brawl. Excellent takedown of Victor here. It’s clear Martinez wants to get after Sheffield, and Inge prevents him from getting involved at all. The newspapers always used to marvel at Inge’s abilities not just in baseball, but as a golfer, bowler, placekicker, etc. Apparently you can add Greco-Roman wrestling to the list as well.
4:55: Carmona giving the full Nolan Ryan/Robin Ventura treatment to poor Sheffield. He is getting bopped repeatedly on the head like one of those old Whack-A-Mole games at the arcade.
5:04: “I think Fausto got the best of him.” Not sure the words “I think” were needed in that sentence at all. Just say “Fausto beat the living #%&* out of Sheffield” and leave it at that.
As for the rest of the contest? Again, 2008 was not a pleasant year for the Tigers.
Armando Galarraga took a 5-2 lead into the bottom of the 8th. He was eventually replaced by Casey Fossum, who entered the game, threw five consecutive balls, then on pitch #6, served up a towering 3-run, game-tying blast to Shin-Soo Choo. The Indians would win in walk-off fashion one inning later, setting in motion another six-game Tigers losing streak.
The Tigers might have lost the battle that night, but they sure did win the war. Oh wait, that cliché doesn’t work here. They lost both. Really badly.
