It finally happened.
Led by the power bat of J.D. Martinez, the slick fielding of Ian Kinsler and the sweet, sweet pitching of David Price and Rick Porcello, the 2014 Detroit Tigers — constructed by president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski — have won the World Series.
It may be four years late, they may be wearing different colors and playing for a different city — one spoiled in success, winning four World Series the past 15 years — but what's important is Dombrowski's vision has finally become realized and his club has reached baseball's pinnacle.
And the Tigers Boston Red Sox only needed five games to do it, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 on Sunday night, behind seven strong innings from Price and a seventh-inning home run from Martinez.
You may recall that this same group of Tigers — along with the likes of Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Victor Martinez, Eugenio Suarez, Torii Hunter and Anibal Sanchez — failed to win a single playoff game in 2014, when they were swept by the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Division Series.
You're welcome, Boston. We know you really needed this one.
It's been a big 13 months for former 2014 Tigers; this comes one year after Justin Verlander won the World Series with the Houston Astros and almost one week after Brad Ausmus, who went 314-332 as Tigers manager from 2014-17, became the Los Angeles Angels' new manager.
Meanwhile, the current Tigers are coming off a 64-98 season as they work to cut payroll, rebuild for the future and rejuvenate a farm system that's been left barren for years thanks to Dombrowski trade deadline deals meant to engineer long October playoff runs.
2019 will mark 35 years since Detroit's last World Series championship. It'll also mark 11 years since the Motor City enjoyed a major professional sports championship of any kind — and with the Detroit Lions at 3-4 after another miserable loss, the Detroit Red Wings one of the worst teams in hockey and the Detroit Pistons in total purgatory, that streak probably isn't ending anytime soon.
Hope you all have a happy Monday!
Rant about your Detroit sports fan blues to Brian Manzullo: bmanzullo@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BrianManzullo (WARNING: It's a lot of nonsense).
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