As I write this blog on June 15th, the Detroit Tigers have just won their 43rd game of the 2006 season. Big deal, right? Well, it so happens the Tigers are in first place in the AL Central, and own the best record in Major League Baseball.
But that’s not why this odd milestone in mid-June is important. In the entire 2003 season, all the Tigers could do was win 43 games TOTAL. In compiling a record of 43 wins and 119 losses, the Tigers flirted with infamy, coming close to being the worst team ever. (The expansion ’62 Mets still hold that honor, having dropped 120 games that year).
My 15 year-old son and I went to two Tiger games this week. He’s never been very excited about baseball – or the Tigers – due in part to the reality that they’ve been the worst team in baseball for pretty much his entire life. When he asked me for money to buy a Tigers cap the other night, I almost cried.
So how do you explain this turnaround? Well, the Tigers picked up the old wizard Kenny Rogers as a free agent in the off-season. And All-Star Magglio Ordonez has recovered from serious knee surgery a couple of years ago. Some of the Tigers’ young pitchers have developed nicely, and as karma would have it, they’ve gotten hot at the same time.
But the real explanation that everyone here in Motown acknowledges is that the Tigers changed PD’s – I mean, managers – during the winter. Wily veteran Jim Leyland has come in and set a new tone here in Detroit. He respects the tradition of the old English D, he lays down the law when he has to, and he has simply raised the bar, and with it, everyone’s expectations. Leyland has vision, and seems to know which buttons to push and when to push them – just like all the great programmers we’ve ever worked with.
A few years ago, a GM of a successful Classic Rock station called to let me know his PD had resigned to take a job that paid more money. Things were going very well with this station, and the competition wasn’t all that great, which led to this question from the GM: "How good a PD do we really need for this station anyway?"
How do you answer a question like that? How can you explain the magic a programmer can muster, the special touches that transcend Selector, making out weekend schedules, and moving promos in and out of the studio? I didn’t have an answer that day, but I do now.
It’s Jim Leyland, and the 2006 Detroit Tigers. Now you may all laugh at this blog in September if the Tigers have somehow managed to botch this season. But think about this: with 94 games to go, if the Tigers play .500 baseball the rest of the way, they’ll win 90 games – something they haven’t accomplished since 1987.
With a record like that, they could end up in the playoffs. Now, that would be a great book… I mean, season.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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