For all of the Tigers’ success under Mike Ilitch, his tenure as owner started a lot like his son’s.
Ilitch bought the Tigers in 1992 and watched them finish below .500 in all but one of the next 13 seasons. They would finish .500 or better in all but one of the nine seasons after that, starting with a trip to the World Series in 2006. He ultimately presided over one of the best eras of baseball in franchise history.
Chris Ilitch assumed ownership of the team after Mike Ilitch passed away in 2017; the Tigers are stumbling through their sixth straight losing season since.
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Asked what Mike Ilitch might say about the current state of the franchise, Tigers legend Willie Horton, who’s in his 20th season serving as a special assistant to the club’s GM, went to bat for Chris Ilitch -- who came under fire earlier this month when he praised the club's "the progress" in 2022.
“Leave him alone,” Horton told 97.1 The Ticket last week during an interview to promote his new autobiography, ‘Detroit’s Own Willie the Wonder: the Tigers’ First Black Great. “I’m still part of the Tigers and I really appreciate Chris and the organization, how they took time. Right now, we’ve got some very good ballplayers, not only with the Tigers at the top level but all the way through our minor leagues. Thank our scouting department that we got some good players down through the minor leagues.”
This year was supposed to mark the end of the Tigers’ rebuild, which began the year Chris Ilitch took over. He said as much on the eve of Opening Day. Instead, the Tigers are buried at the All-Star break in the worst division in baseball.
But Horton, a four-time All-Star and a 1968 World Champion who earned the Tigers’ highest honor with a statue at Comerica Park and the retirement of his No. 23 in 2000, believes the franchise is on the verge of another long run of success.
And Horton might know: the Tigers finished above .500 in eight of his first nine seasons, starting with his official rookie campaign in 1965.
“You got to win, but where we’re at today, it took us five years to get here,” he said. “My concern now, I hope they don’t mess with none of the players we got. We got some very good players. Only thing is, the players got to learn how to play for each other, like we had to learn. We had to go through a period of time like that and I think what helped us, the majority of us came from TigerTown. We knew each other as kids and maybe caught on a little quicker than most guys.
"But this team right now, I think after this year — and I still got faith in this year, we got a lot of games left -- but after this year, we’re going to turn this around for the next 12 or 14 years.”
The Tigers haven’t enjoyed a run like that since posting 11 straight winning seasons from the late ‘70s to the late ‘80s, an era that included their most recent World Championship. Their next one, if you trust in Horton, might be just around the corner.
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