Retroactive Review: The 2012 World Series

Jose Valverde had a disastrous 2012 postseason. (via Cbl62)

Jose Valverde had a disastrous 2012 postseason. (via Cbl62)

For this edition of Retroactive Review, I’ll be mixing things up a little bit. Rather than taking a look at another baseball-themed movie, a book or a different piece of media, I’ll be looking back at the 2012 World Series.

The Detroit Tigers are my favorite team and I’d been thinking about the Tigers’ last World Series appearance lately. Was it truly the team’s best chance to win a title with the core of Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera, Max Scherzer, Doug Fister and Victor Martinez? Or did the true missed opportunity for a championship come a year later, when they failed to beat Boston in the American League Championship Series? How has the passage of time clouded or enhanced our recollections of the 2012 World Series?

The 2012 World Series featured a frustrating, somewhat uninspiring Detroit Tigers team that stumbled for much of the season and managed to swipe the AL Central crown from the Chicago White Sox only when the division-leading Sox swooned in late September. Meanwhile, following a disappointing 2011 season, the impressive San Francisco Giants overcame 2-0 and 3-1 deficits in the NLDS and NLCS to return to the World Series after a season-long absence.

The role of closer had become somewhat of a thorn in the Tigers’ side as the once-reliable José Valverde plummeted off a cliff into steep decline during the postseason. Though Valverde’s ERA was nowhere near what it was in 2011, his overall performance was similar, even though he battled his control in the first half. Once the postseason came around though, those issues cropped up again. Valverde struggled mightily to command his split-fingered fastball, blowing a 3-0 lead in the ALDS and a chance to move on to face the New York Yankees in the ALCS. The Tigers needed ace Justin Verlander to pitch them into the Championship Series the following night.

Once in the ALCS, Valverde had a memorable Game One, as he fell victim to the long ball and blew a non-save situation, turning a 4-0 lead into a 4-4 tie. After that disastrous appearance, manager Jim Leyland never handed Valverde the ball again in a save situation, turning to a closer-by-committee that was mostly just left-hander Phil Coke against the lefty-heavy New York Yankees lineup.

The Giants had their own set of issues in the NLDS and NLCS. The Giants stumbled against the Cincinnati Reds in the first two games of the NLDS. Giants super fan Harley Marie recalls attending Game One. “Matt Cain was on the mound after an incredible year including the franchise’s first perfect game and the Giants had ended the regular season on an unbelievable winning run,” Marie said. “It genuinely felt like they couldn’t lose no matter what you threw at them. Buster Posey was probably going to be the MVP only a year after a horrific crash at home plate made us all stop and think, if just for a moment, that he might never play again. Outside, there were actual fighter jets flying overhead, rehearsing for the air show that weekend like something out of a movie. Fans and players alike looked up to watch. Everything was so picturesque and perfect and I was confident. Obviously that didn’t last long.”

After dropping the first two games at home, San Francisco set out on the road facing elimination. The Giants took Game Three in extra innings and tied the series with an 8-3 win on the back of Tim Lincecum’s strong relief performance, and stunned the Reds in Game 5. Lincecum, once one of the best starters in the NL, would become a pivotal member of the Giants’ bullpen in the World Series.

The Giants would also need the maximum number of games to dispatch the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS, though it was only a close series in that sense. In five of the seven games, the margin of victory was five or more runs. One moment from it lasts with Marie. “Marco Scutaro holding his arms out in the rain, opening his mouth and looking up with the joy of a child,” said Marie. “I think that’s going to stay with me for the rest of my life. I don’t know if I will ever see anything like it ever again.”

Tigers ace Justin Verlander would get the ball in Game One of the World Series, opposite the Giants’ Barry Zito. Verlander had been on the big stage before, with mixed results. In his rookie season, Verlander started Game Five of the 2006 World Series and carried a 2-1 lead into the fourth inning, when the St. Louis Cardinals pounced for two unearned runs, thanks to a fielding error by Verlander himself. He had a hard time shaking the casual fans’ perception that he wasn’t a big game pitcher, and 2012’s Game One was his chance to shut some people up. He was coming off a season almost as good as his MVP year while Zito, who was never able to live up to the record contract he signed after the 2006 season, struggled.

Verlander’s Game 1 start was memorable for the Tigers indeed, but for all the wrong reasons, as Pablo Sandoval had a game for the ages. Sandoval hit three home runs—two of them off Verlander—to join Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson and Albert Pujols as the only players in major league history to hit three homers in a World Series game.

Sandoval was also the first to hit them in his first three plate appearances. Marie remembers it well. “My family was actually hosting a get together in the other room and one of the guests came over to tell me to be quiet because I was screaming so loud at the TV,” Marie said. “I was incredibly offended and then in turn incredibly validated when half of the other guests came over to watch the rest of the game and Panda’s third homer with me.”

The next few games went marginally better than the opener but unfortunately for the Tigers, their offense — which hadn’t shown up for much of the postseason — remained worryingly absent. The Tigers would need to mount a legendary comeback if they were to claim the franchise’s fifth World Series title.

That comeback wasn’t to be, as the Giants completed their sweep in extra innings. The lasting image from Game Four was of the final at-bat, with Miguel Cabrera, the fearsome AL Triple Crown winner, staring at a called strike three to end the game and the season.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

While the outcome of the series wasn’t terribly surprising—the Giants were a good team, after all—what was surprising was how little of a fight the Tigers put up. “I remember Game Two as the turning point,” said Grey Papke, managing editor of Tigers blog Walkoff Woodward.

“It was tight and close and so important after losing Game One,” said Papke. “I remember having chances early against Madison Bumgarner (who hadn’t had a great regular season or postseason), Prince Fielder getting thrown out at the plate, and Fister taking a line drive off his head and acting like nothing happened. The thing I remember most was Gregor Blanco’s bunt in the seventh inning, where he was openly trying to give them an out with two on and none out in a 3-1 count and the thing managed to go right up the third base line, look like it was going to go foul, and then somehow didn’t. It loaded the bases, led to the first run, and from that moment on it felt like every little break was going to go San Francisco’s way and we were just swimming upstream against the current.”

Looking back at the series with a few years in the rear view mirror, it’s somewhat obvious what the main factors were. The Tigers’ starting pitching, which had carried them through the earlier rounds of the playoffs, faltered just enough, while the Giants’ pitching was superb. Bumgarner was just beginning to emerge as a great pitcher. The Giants also got strong performances from unlikely heroes in Zito and Ryan Vogelsong. Perhaps most importantly, the Giants’ former Cy Young Award winner, Lincecum, transitioned to the bullpen and became a lights-out relief ace.

The Giants also got stellar outfield play, particularly from Blanco. He made two spectacular diving catches in Game One and had amazing running catches in Games Three and Four to rob extra bases. Blanco also provided the Giants the only run they’d need in Game Three with an RBI triple in the second inning. Sandoval might have taken home the hardware as World Series MVP, but Blanco was perhaps just as dynamic on the defensive end of the spectrum.

Neither team was really what one would consider a “favorite” to make it to the World Series and capture the crown, for different reasons. The perception of that 2012 Tigers team as a group of underachievers who got lucky due to a White Sox collapse have been hard to shake and, truth be told, I don’t remember enjoying that season much at all. There are a few sporadic memories that stand out. One is Andy Dirks’ takeout slide to help the Tigers beat the Royals and take the division lead from Chicago.

Ironically, this slide would likely be deemed illegal today. And there’s also Miguel Cabrera’s march toward the Triple Crown.


Mostly though, I remember the 2012 season as stressful and disappointing, the run to the World Series notwithstanding. This was after all, the one year in the Tigers four-year division-winning streak in which they won fewer than 90 games.

I don’t look at that year as a major missed opportunity. Despite the World Series appearance, I never really felt confident about the Tigers’ chances. Papke echoed these concerns. “I can tell you the exact date I’d lost faith in them winning the division (Sept. 17!) so I was really just happy to be there and let the chips fall where they may,” Papke said.

I think the sweep of the Yankees built up fan expectations. “Absolutely, for several reasons,” Papke concurred. “One, the Tigers had just obliterated the Yankees and made it look quite painless in the process. Plus, San Francisco’s lineup wasn’t as good as New York’s on paper, and Justin Verlander was starting Game One.”

These factors made it easier for us Tigers fans to ignore or gloss over the fact that the team was not hitting very much or that the bullpen had become a serious problem. The Giants were a better team that won a tougher division, too, and I think many Tigers fans overlooked them. That’s not to say that Giants’ fans were super confident. “I was intimidated as all hell,” Marie confesses to feeling at the time. “Cabrera was going to hit 17 home runs and Verlander was gonna throw another no-hitter and the Giants were finally going to fall off that cliff they’d been standing on for the entire postseason up to that point, I was sure of it.”

And then the series was more or less over before they got back to Detroit.

The true missed opportunity to me, for Jim Leyland and that particular core of players, was 2013. That year, they truly were one of the stronger teams in baseball, and boasted a spectacular starting rotation. Again, they had bullpen problems but jettisoned the troublesome Valverde by mid-June. With about a week to go in the season, they had a 4.5 game lead over the Cleveland Indians.

That 2013 team had its share of problems in the postseason, too. Slugger Miguel Cabrera had what was essentially a sports hernia—something the team denied for months—and was a shadow of his former self. Cabrera would require surgery in the offseason to repair his core muscle. Even without Cabrera operating at his full capacity, the Tigers still looked like a team with a good shot at reaching the World Series. Unfortunately for them, the bullpen beast struck again and dramatically altered what could have been a truly magical season.

After 2013, it became apparent that ace (ace 1A?) Max Scherzer wouldn’t sign a long-term deal to stay in Detroit beyond the 2014 season. Prince Fielder was offloaded onto the Texas Rangers for Ian Kinsler in November and roughly two weeks later, Fister was traded to the Washington Nationals in an oft-maligned trade for Robbie Ray, Ian Krol and Steve Lombardozzi. The Tigers would add Cy Young Award winner David Price in a July deadline deal, but the team—particularly their once dominant rotation—would look fundamentally different in the coming years.

Writing this review afforded me the opportunity to do something I didn’t do back in 2012 and actually watch the 2012 World Series. I watched only a couple of the games live; after the first two losses, I decided perhaps I could influence the team’s “mojo” by listening to the rest of the series on the radio. Obviously, it didn’t work.

Only four players from the 2012 Tigers World Series team are still on the current roster — Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander, Anibal Sanchez, and Victor Martinez. And Martinez didn’t even play in 2012; he spent the entire year on the disabled list after tearing his ACL. Fielder, Fister and Rick Porcello were shipped off in major trades. Scherzer, Omar Infante and Delmon Young were allowed to walk. Supposed “sparkplug” Quintin Berry was demoted to Triple-A before the following season and was designated for assignment; Berry ended up a member of the 2013 World Champion Red Sox.

The Tigers’ team wasn’t the only team that’s changed since October of 2012. Fox Sports’ longtime color analyst, the oft-criticized Tim McCarver, left the Fox booth after the 2013 season and was replaced by the oft-criticized Harold Reynolds, and also Tom Verducci. Reynolds is regarded so poorly that fans set up a Twitter account, Harold Reynolds Says, an account dedicated to tweeting the nonsensical things that sometimes find their way out of Reynolds’ mouth. Reynolds’ tenure as Buck’s color analyst didn’t last long, as both he and Verducci were replaced by John Smoltz for the 2016 season.

You can count me as one of many fans who disparaged Tim McCarver. Never in my wildest dreams did I think anyone would make me long for McCarver in the Fox booth, but Reynolds did just that. McCarver and Buck had built up a solid partnership over the course of a decade and a half, despite the many criticisms of both. Buck was often accused of not showing enough enthusiasm or “hating” the teams whose games he called. McCarver received criticism for comments about players and managers, as well as the quality of his analysis. Buck and McCarver both received attention for their work during the 2006 World Series, particularly their St. Louis connections and their focus on Kenny Rogers and whatever the heck was on his hand (dirt? pine tar? who knows). Despite all that, Buck and McCarver enjoyed a long, fairly successful partnership before McCarver’s departure. Rewatching the 2012 Series actually had me longing for the days of the Buck/McCarver tandem.

Admittedly, this isn’t as much an endorsement of McCarver as it is an indictment of Reynolds, and perhaps Smoltz will wash these memories away this October. But McCarver had his moments, dropping in nuggets of wisdom, interesting tidbits, and information he picked up during his pregame preparation that the audience may not have been aware of — such as Verlander’s late-season injury scare in September of 2012, going so far as to note it involved his left shoulder. At other times, he noted the scouting report on Delmon Young and sliders. In Game One alone, McCarver made note of the home plate umpire’s strike zone tendencies and offered a few amusing anecdotes from his playing career, all in the top half of the first inning.

References & Resources


You can find Alexandra Simon ranting about things at @catswithbats, and tweeting about the Tigers on @glasshalffulmer.
8 Comments
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Carl
7 years ago

Alexandra,

I believe that Miguel Cabrera would be a 4th Tiger still on the roster from the 2012 World Series Team.

Paul Swydanmember
7 years ago
Reply to  Carl

Thank you. Totally my fault, I conflated that with something else during the editing process.

Greg Simonsmember
7 years ago

Good catch, Carl. The article has been updated to correct this error.

John
7 years ago

The window for a World Series title in Detroit slammed shut when David Ortiz deposited Joaquin Benoit’s middle of the plate change up into the Red Sox bullpen in 2013. That team was Detroit’s best.

actmanfxb
7 years ago
Reply to  John

His sHR deposited the ball and tori hunter into that bullpen!!

Joe Pancake
7 years ago

An interesting tidbit from that World Series: Phil Coke, who was pretty lousy during the regular season, set a series record by striking out six straight batters. That’s just baseball being baseball.

“They say lead-off walks always come back to haunt a pitcher. You’d be surprised at how often they are right.” —Tim McCarver

joser
7 years ago
Reply to  Joe Pancake

“Catchers don’t catch sinkers that don’t sink” —Tim McCarver

actmanfcb
7 years ago

His HR deposited the ball and Tori Hunter Sr. Into that bullpen!!!