1995 Detroit Tigers season

The 1995 Detroit Tigers season was the team's 95th season and the 84th season at Tiger Stadium. The Tigers finished in fourth place in the American League East with a record of 60–84 (.417). The strike-shortened 1995 season was the last for Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson and longtime second baseman Lou Whitaker, who each retired at the end of the season, as well as Kirk Gibson who retired in August 1995.

1995 Detroit Tigers
League	American League
Division	East
Ballpark	Tiger Stadium
City	Detroit, Michigan
Owners	Mike Ilitch
General managers	Joe Klein
Managers	Sparky Anderson
Television	WKBD (George Kell, Al Kaline, Jim Price) PASS (Ernie Harwell, Jim Price, Fred McLeod)
Radio	WJR (Frank Beckmann, Lary Sorensen)
← 1994 Seasons 1996 →

Regular season

The pitching continued to be a liability; they were outscored by their opponents 844–654. Only the Minnesota Twins allowed more runs in the American League.

Despite their inconsistencies, the surprising Tigers found themselves just three games out of first place after beating Kansas City, 4–2 on July 9. However, when play resumed after the All-Star break, the Tigers went into free-fall, winning only 23 of their last 74 games. The Tigers drew 1,180,979 fans to Tiger Stadium in 1995, ranking 11th of the 14 teams in the American League.

The Tigers set a new major league record for most home runs by a losing team when they hit seven homers in a 14–12 defeat to the Chicago White Sox on May 28.^[1]

Season standings

• v
• t
• e

AL East

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Boston Red Sox	86	58	.597	—	42‍–‍30	44‍–‍28
New York Yankees	79	65	.549	7	46‍–‍26	33‍–‍39
Baltimore Orioles	71	73	.493	15	36‍–‍36	35‍–‍37
Detroit Tigers	60	84	.417	26	35‍–‍37	25‍–‍47
Toronto Blue Jays	56	88	.389	30	29‍–‍43	27‍–‍45

Record vs. opponents

1995 American League record Source: MLB Standings Grid – 1995 v t e
Team	BAL	BOS	CAL	CWS	CLE	DET	KC	MIL	MIN	NYY	OAK	SEA	TEX	TOR
Baltimore	—	4–9	9–4	6–1	2–10	8–5	4–5	7–5	3–6	6–7	5–7	6–7	4–1	7–6
Boston	9–4	—	11–3	5–3	6–7	8–5	3–2	8–4	5–4	5–8	8–4	7–5	3–4	8–5
California	4–9	3–11	—	10–2	3–2	6–2	5–7	5–2	8–5	7–5	6–7	7–6	6–7	8–2
Chicago	1–6	3–5	2–10	—	5–8	8–4	8–5	6–7	10–3	3–2–1	7–5	4–9	5–7	6–5
Cleveland	10–2	7–6	2–3	8–5	—	10–3	11–1	9–4	9–4	6–6	7–0	5–4	6–3	10–3
Detroit	5–8	5–8	2–6	4–8	3–10	—	3–4	8–5	7–5	5–8	2–3	5–5	4–8	7–6
Kansas City	5–4	2–3	7–5	5–8	1–11	4–3	—	10–2	6–7	3–7	5–8	7–5	8–6	7–5
Milwaukee	5–7	4–8	2–5	7–6	4–9	5–8	2–10	—	9–4	5–6	7–2	3–2	5–7	7–5
Minnesota	6–3	4–5	5–8	3–10	4–9	5–7	7–6	4–9	—	3–4	5–7	4–8	5–8	1–4
New York	7–6	8–5	5–7	2–3–1	6–6	8–5	7–3	6–5	4–3	—	4–9	4–9	6–3	12–1
Oakland	7–5	4–8	7–6	5–7	0–7	3–2	8–5	2–7	7–5	9–4	—	7–6	5–8	3–7
Seattle	7–6	5–7	6–7	9–4	4–5	5–5	5–7	2–3	8–4	9–4	6–7	—	10–3	3–4
Texas	1–4	4–3	7–6	7–5	3–6	8–4	6–8	7–5	8–5	3–6	8–5	3–10	—	9–3
Toronto	6–7	5–8	2–8	5–6	3–10	6–7	5–7	5–7	4–1	1–12	7–3	4–3	3–9	—

Notable transactions

Gabe Kapler

• April 3, 1995: Kent Bottenfield was signed as a free agent with the Detroit Tigers.^[2]
• April 7, 1995: Joe Boever was signed as a free agent with the Detroit Tigers.^[3]
• April 7, 1995: Kirk Gibson was signed as a free agent with the Detroit Tigers.^[4]
• April 13, 1995: Tony Phillips was traded by the Detroit Tigers to the California Angels for Chad Curtis.^[5]
• April 17, 1995: Juan Samuel was signed as a free agent with the Detroit Tigers.^[6]
• June 1, 1995: Mark Mulder was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 55th round of the 1995 amateur draft, but did not sign.^[7]
• June 1, 1995: Gabe Kapler was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 57th round of the 1995 amateur draft. Player signed June 10, 1995.^[8]
• August 7, 1995: Buddy Groom was traded by the Detroit Tigers to the Florida Marlins for a player to be named later. The Florida Marlins sent Mike Myers (August 9, 1995) to the Detroit Tigers to complete the trade.^[9]
• August 10, 1995: Mike Henneman was traded by the Detroit Tigers to the Houston Astros for a player to be named later. The Houston Astros sent Phil Nevin (August 15, 1995) to the Detroit Tigers to complete the trade.^[10]
• September 8, 1995: Juan Samuel was traded by the Detroit Tigers to the Kansas City Royals for a player to be named later. The Kansas City Royals sent Phil Hiatt (September 14, 1995) to the Detroit Tigers to complete the trade.^[6]

Roster

1995 Detroit Tigers
Roster
Pitchers 27 Pat Ahearne 43 Sean Bergman 26 Ben Blomdahl 37 Joe Boever 49 Brian Bohanon 33 Mike Christopher 44 John Doherty 46 Mike Gardiner 34 Greg Gohr 42 Buddy Groom 39 Mike Henneman 38 Dwayne Henry 32 José Lima 40 Felipe Lira 15 Brian Maxcy 21 Mike Moore 27 Mike Myers 36 C. J. Nitkowski 46 Clint Sodowsky 16 David Wells 30 Sean Whiteside 38 Kevin Wickander		Catchers 12 John Flaherty 25 Ron Tingley Infielders 17 Tony Clark 45 Cecil Fielder 10 Scott Fletcher 24 Travis Fryman 35 Chris Gomez  7 Shannon Penn 41 Steve Rodriguez  8 Juan Samuel 19,39 Franklin Stubbs  3 Alan Trammell  1 Lou Whitaker 20 Derrick White		Outfielders 29 Danny Bautista  9 Chad Curtis 22 Milt Cuyler 23 Kirk Gibson 28 Joe Hall  4 Bobby Higginson 42 Phil Nevin 18 Rudy Pemberton 13 Todd Steverson		Manager 11 Sparky Anderson Coaches 31 Larry Herndon (Hitting) 54 Jeff Jones (Bullpen) 52 Gene Roof (First base) 53 Dick Tracewski (Third base) 51 Ralph Treuel (Pitching)

Player stats

= Indicates team leader

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	John Flaherty	112	226	56	.248	4	22
1B	Cecil Fielder	136	376	94	.250	27	72
2B	Lou Whitaker	84	249	73	.293	14	44
3B	Travis Fryman	144	567	156	.275	15	81
SS	Chris Gomez	123	431	96	.223	11	50
LF	Bobby Higginson	131	410	92	.224	14	43
CF	Chad Curtis	144	586	157	.268	21	67
RF	Danny Bautista	89	271	55	.203	7	27
DH	Kirk Gibson	70	227	59	.260	9	35

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Alan Trammell	74	223	60	.269	2	23
Scott Fletcher	67	182	42	.231	1	17
Juan Samuel	76	171	48	.281	10	34
Ron Tingley	54	124	28	.226	4	18
Franklin Stubbs	62	116	29	.250	2	19
Tony Clark	27	101	24	.238	3	11
Phil Nevin	29	96	21	.219	2	12
Milt Cuyler	41	88	18	.205	0	5
Derrick White	39	48	9	.188	0	2
Todd Steverson	30	42	11	.262	2	6
Steve Rodriguez	12	31	6	.194	0	0
Rudy Pemberton	12	30	9	.300	0	3
Joe Hall	7	15	2	.133	0	0
Shannon Penn	3	9	3	.333	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Sean Bergman	28	135.1	7	10	5.12	86
Mike Moore	25	132.2	5	15	7.53	64
David Wells	18	130.1	10	3	3.04	83
José Lima	15	73.2	3	9	6.11	37
C. J. Nitkowski	11	39.1	1	4	7.09	13
Clint Sodowsky	6	23.1	2	2	5.01	14
Pat Ahearne	4	10.0	0	2	11.70	4

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Felipe Lira	37	146.1	9	13	4.31	89
Brian Bohanon	52	105.2	1	1	5.54	63

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Mike Henneman	29	0	1	18	1.53	24
Joe Boever	60	5	7	3	6.39	71
John Doherty	48	5	9	6	5.10	46
Brian Maxcy	41	4	5	0	6.88	20
Mike Christopher	36	4	0	1	3.82	34
Buddy Groom	23	1	3	1	7.52	23
Kevin Wickander	21	0	0	1	2.60	9
Ben Blomdahl	14	0	0	1	7.77	15
Mike Myers	11	1	0	0	9.95	4
Greg Gohr	10	1	0	0	0.87	12
Dwayne Henry	10	1	0	5	6.23	9
Mike Gardiner	9	0	0	0	14.59	7
Sean Whiteside	2	0	0	0	14.73	2

Awards and honors

All-Star Game

• David Wells, Pitcher, Reserve (First All-Star appearance)

Farm system

See also: Minor League Baseball

Level	Team	League	Manager
AAA	Toledo Mud Hens	International League	Tom Runnells
AA	Jacksonville Suns	Southern League	Bill Plummer
A	Lakeland Tigers	Florida State League	Dave Anderson
A	Fayetteville Generals	South Atlantic League	Dwight Lowry
A-Short Season	Jamestown Jammers	New York–Penn League	Bruce Fields
Rookie	GCL Tigers	Gulf Coast League	Kevin Bradshaw

^[11]