Tigers legend Kirk Gibson called into 97.1 The Ticket on Wednesday morning asking for more patience and positivity toward the baseball team, which has won three games in a row to pull back over .500 this season. To Gibson, "it seems like there's negativity on where they are, and I think they’re in pretty good shape now."
"From where we started and since Scott Harris has come in, I know he’s taken some criticism -- everybody has an opinion -- but we’re sailing along pretty good," Gibson said. "A lot of guys have improved, let’s keep supporting them. It’s hard to win. We’re not the Yankees. We’re the Tigers. We’ve played pretty good down there in Texas."
Gibson went on to praise the Tigers' top position-playing prospect Max Clark, the 19-year-old they selected third overall in last year's draft, and said, "I'm here to tell you that the development of the organization as a whole, these players have a way better opportunity to develop into good Major League players" than they did in the past.
Then Gibson harkened back to the 1984 World Series-winning team and Dave Bergman's "famous 13-pitch at-bat" that ended in a walk-off home run against the Blue Jays 40 years ago yesterday and said that the Tigers wouldn't have won that year if not for unsung players like Bergman and Darrell Evans.
"Our scrubs, as they were called, had a huge impact on 1984 and what we accomplished. And they’re looking for guys like that (now). Just look at the moves that were made to develop that team," Gibson said. "I’m just telling you, be patient."
Valenti took the opportunity to respond to Gibson to kick off Wednesday afternoon's show and said, "It was evident from the start, I don’t think Gibby was interested in a conversation. I think he was interested in propaganda. And that’s his prerogative. It’s no secret he’s a legend. He's also a guy that has worked in different capacities in and around his team. That’s fine."
"My point is, You don’t get to preach patience when you’re still telling me what happened 40 years ago. So I said, let me update this stat. Forget about 1984. How about 2014? A decade. Since you got blasted out of the playoffs, do you know that every team in the AL Central has won it except you? You don’t get to tell me about patience."
Valenti went on to say that while some fans might embrace Gibson's message that "this is fine, patience, we're the Tigers, we're not the Yankees, and it's all positive right now," for others, "patience is on the left and passion is on the right. It's not that negativity makes you a bad fan. It’s that you’re burning to win and you want more."
"Nobody asked you (to be the Yankees). I didn’t like the comment because it’s a straw man argument. No one has every suggested the Tigers should spend like the Yankees. They can’t. But when we are so far below league average, we’re having a different conversation," he added.