DETROIT (AP) -Owner Mike Ilitch knew his Tigers were in trouble when center fielder and leadoff man Curtis Granderson broke his finger during spring training.
“Being in sports all my life, a lot of times, you start off with a little bit of a quirk. And he’s our spark plug,” Ilitch said before Detroit played Tampa Bay on Friday night. “And I said, ‘Man, with this cold weather coming up and our spark plug out of the lineup, I’m worried about our start.”’
He had reason to be concerned; Detroit, picked by many to reach its second World Series in three years, came out of the gate with seven straight losses. The Tigers never recovered, and were in last place in the AL Central as the season’s final weekend begins.
Ilitch could never have guessed the team would perform so badly the remainder of the season.
“I didn’t foresee to have all the holes that we did. I mean, beyond my wildest dreams, I didn’t anticipate that,” Ilitch said. “I thought we had a good, nice, solid foundation that we were going to build from and keep the ballclub up, contending all the time. But it didn’t work out.”
he’ll turn his attention to correcting all the mistakes the team made.
“We’ve got to get back on the ball and see if we can get ourselves restructured now, correct all the mistakes that we made,” he said. “We’ve got to go back over, I’ve got to go back over, everything that we’ve done.
“And now everybody will learn and be reminded that we’re not in a normal business, and anything can happen. And I think it humbled everybody. So we’ll have to pay the price.”
Ilitch said he didn’t know what changes would be made, but added that reducing the team’s $138 million payroll will not be his first priority.
“That would be the last thing that I’m going to look at, I mean, I’m not afraid to go out and spend money,” he said. “It’s been very costly, but I’m not going to change my ways.”
That said, don’t expect the Tigers to add a lot of payroll this winter.
“I don’t know if this year is the year to go after people. I’m more concerned about getting the team in shape and seeing who we’ve got and who are the real Detroit Tigers,” he said.
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