# 2000 Detroit Tigers season

The 2000 Detroit Tigers season was the team's 100th season and their first season at Comerica Park, after having played at Tiger Stadium since 1912, at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Trumbull Avenue (also site of their previous stadiums since 1896).

## Offseason

* November 2, 1999: Juan González was traded by the Texas Rangers with Danny Patterson and Gregg Zaun to the Detroit Tigers for Frank Catalanotto, Francisco Cordero, Bill Haselman, Gabe Kapler, Justin Thompson, and Alan Webb (minors).
* November 15, 1999: Luis Polonia was signed as a free agent with the Detroit Tigers.
* November 29, 1999: Mike Oquist was signed as a free agent with the Detroit Tigers.
* March 7, 2000: Gregg Zaun was sent to the Kansas City Royals by the Detroit Tigers as part of a conditional deal.
* March 13, 2000: Mike Oquist was released by the Detroit Tigers.
* March 26, 2000: Mike Oquist was signed as a free agent with the Detroit Tigers.

## Regular season

* On October 1, 2000, Dusty Allen hit a home run in the last at-bat of his career.
| Honored 2000 Harry Heilmann OF: 1914-29 Heinie Manush OF: 1923-27 | Honored 2000 Hughie Jennings M: 1907-20 Sam Crawford OF: 1903-17 | Honored 2000 Mickey Cochrane C: 1934-37 M: 1934-38 George Kell 3B: 1946-52 | Honored 2000 Ernie Harwell Broadcaster: 1960–2002 | Honored 2000 |

### Comerica Park

Groundbreaking for a new ballpark to replace Tiger Stadium for the Detroit Tigers was held on October 29, 1997, and the new stadium was opened to the public in 2000. At the time of construction, the scoreboard in left field was the largest in Major League Baseball. In December 1998, Comerica Bank agreed to pay US$66 million over 30 years for the naming rights for the new ballpark. Upon its opening, there was some effort to try to find a nickname for the park, with the abbreviation CoPa suggested by many, but that nickname has not gained widespread acceptance.

#### First game

The first game at Comerica Park was held on Tuesday, April 11, 2000, with 39,168 spectators attending, on a cold snowy afternoon. Grounds people had to clear snow off the field from the night before. The Tigers defeated the Seattle Mariners by a score of 5-2. The winning pitcher, like in the final game at Tiger Stadium was Brian Moehler.

### April 22

The Tigers were involved in a pair of bench-clearing brawls in a 14–6 loss to the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park on April 22. Both were fueled by pitchers hitting batters. The tensions began in the sixth inning with Carlos Lee and Jeff Weaver who continued to jaw with Lee after being subbed out. A retaliatory pitch thrown by Jim Parque to Dean Palmer one inning later in the seventh began the first brawl which moved into shallow right field and included Keith Foulke being punched by Bobby Higginson and sustaining a cut under his left eye that needed five stitches to close. Four batters after Tanyon Sturtze hit Deivi Cruz in the ninth, the second brawl erupted when Bob Howry did likewise to Shane Halter. Among the eleven ejections were the Tigers' Weaver, Palmer, Robert Fick, Danny Patterson and Doug Brocail and White Sox's Sturtze, Howry, Magglio Ordóñez, Bill Simas, manager Jerry Manuel and bench coach Joe Nossek.
In the harshest penalty for a brawl in MLB history, a combined 16 members of the Tigers and White Sox were suspended for a total of 82 games five days later on April 27. Tigers coach Juan Samuel incurred the longest at 15 for throwing punches rather than serving as a peacemaker, while the opposing managers Manuel and Phil Garner each received eight. Palmer was also assessed eight for participating in the second brawl despite having already been ejected. Other suspended Tigers were Higginson and Fick for five each, Brocail for four and Juan Encarnación, Karim García and Luis Polonia for three. Ordóñez was the White Sox player receiving the longest suspension at five, while Lee, Parque, Foulke, Sturtze and Howry got three each.

### Season standings

vteAL Central :
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
| Chicago White Sox | 95 | 67 | .586 | — | 46‍–‍35 | 49‍–‍32 |
| Cleveland Indians | 90 | 72 | .556 | 5 | 48‍–‍33 | 42‍–‍39 |
| Detroit Tigers | 79 | 83 | .488 | 16 | 43‍–‍38 | 36‍–‍45 |
| Kansas City Royals | 77 | 85 | .475 | 18 | 42‍–‍39 | 35‍–‍46 |
| Minnesota Twins | 69 | 93 | .426 | 26 | 36‍–‍45 | 33‍–‍48 |

### Record vs. opponents

2000 American League recordvte Source: AL Standings Head-to-Head :
| Team | ANA | BAL | BOS | CWS | CLE | DET | KC | MIN | NYY | OAK | SEA | TB | TEX | TOR | NL |
| Anaheim | — | 7–5 | 5–4 | 4–6 | 3–6 | 5–5 | 6–6 | 7–3 | 5–5 | 5–8 | 5–8 | 6–6 | 7–5 | 5–7 | 12–6 |
| Baltimore | 5–7 | — | 5–7 | 4–6 | 5–4 | 6–4 | 3–7 | 6–3 | 5–7 | 4–8 | 3–7 | 8–5 | 6–6 | 7–6 | 7–11 |
| Boston | 4–5 | 7–5 | — | 7–5 | 6–6 | 7–5 | 4–6 | 8–2 | 6–7 | 5–5 | 5–5 | 6–6 | 7–3 | 4–8 | 9–9 |
| Chicago | 6–4 | 6–4 | 5–7 | — | 8–5 | 9–3 | 5–7 | 7–5 | 8–4 | 6–3 | 7–5 | 6–4 | 5–5 | 5–5 | 12–6 |
| Cleveland | 6–3 | 4–5 | 6–6 | 5–8 | — | 6–7 | 5–7 | 5–8 | 5–5 | 6–6 | 7–2 | 8–2 | 6–4 | 8–4 | 13–5 |
| Detroit | 5–5 | 4–6 | 5–7 | 3–9 | 7–6 | — | 5–7 | 7–6 | 8–4 | 6–4 | 7–2 | 4–5 | 5–5 | 3–9 | 10–8 |
| Kansas City | 6–6 | 7–3 | 6–4 | 7–5 | 7–5 | 7–5 | — | 7–5 | 2–8 | 4–8 | 4–8 | 5–5 | 3–7 | 4–6 | 8–10 |
| Minnesota | 3–7 | 3–6 | 2–8 | 5–7 | 8–5 | 6–7 | 5–7 | — | 5–5 | 5–7 | 3–9 | 4–6 | 8–4 | 5–4 | 7–11 |
| New York | 5–5 | 7–5 | 7–6 | 4–8 | 5–5 | 4–8 | 8–2 | 5–5 | — | 6–3 | 4–6 | 6–6 | 10–2 | 5–7 | 11–6 |
| Oakland | 8–5 | 8–4 | 5–5 | 3–6 | 6–6 | 4–6 | 8–4 | 7–5 | 3–6 | — | 9–4 | 7–2 | 5–7 | 7–3 | 11–7 |
| Seattle | 8–5 | 7–3 | 5–5 | 5–7 | 2–7 | 2–7 | 8–4 | 9–3 | 6–4 | 4–9 | — | 9–3 | 7–5 | 8–2 | 11–7 |
| Tampa Bay | 6–6 | 5–8 | 6–6 | 4–6 | 2–8 | 5–4 | 5–5 | 6–4 | 6–6 | 2–7 | 3–9 | — | 5–7 | 5–7 | 9–9 |
| Texas | 5–7 | 6–6 | 3–7 | 5–5 | 4–6 | 5–5 | 7–3 | 4–8 | 2–10 | 7–5 | 5–7 | 7–5 | — | 4–6 | 7–11 |
| Toronto | 7–5 | 6–7 | 8–4 | 5–5 | 4–8 | 9–3 | 6–4 | 4–5 | 7–5 | 3–7 | 2–8 | 7–5 | 6–4 | — | 9–9 |

### Notable transactions

* May 10, 2000: Rich Becker was signed as a free agent with the Detroit Tigers.
* July 31, 2000: Luis Polonia was released by the Detroit Tigers.

### Roster
## Player stats
### Batting

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 |
| Bobby Higginson | 154 | 597 | 179 | .300 | 30 | 102 |
| Deivi Cruz | 156 | 583 | 76 | .302 | 10 | 82 |
| Juan Encarnación | 141 | 547 | 158 | .289 | 14 | 72 |
| Dean Palmer | 145 | 524 | 134 | .256 | 29 | 102 |
| Brad Ausmus | 150 | 523 | 139 | .266 | 7 | 51 |
| Damion Easley | 126 | 464 | 120 | .259 | 14 | 58 |
| Juan González | 115 | 461 | 133 | .289 | 22 | 67 |
| Luis Polonia | 80 | 267 | 73 | .273 | 6 | 25 |
| Shane Halter | 105 | 238 | 62 | .261 | 3 | 27 |
| Rich Becker | 92 | 238 | 58 | .244 | 7 | 34 |
| Tony Clark | 60 | 208 | 57 | .274 | 13 | 37 |
| Wendell Magee | 91 | 186 | 51 | .274 | 7 | 31 |
| José Macías | 73 | 173 | 44 | .254 | 2 | 24 |
| Robert Fick | 66 | 163 | 41 | .252 | 3 | 22 |
| Gregg Jefferies | 41 | 142 | 39 | .275 | 2 | 14 |
| Billy McMillon | 46 | 123 | 37 | .301 | 4 | 24 |
| Hal Morris | 40 | 106 | 33 | .311 | 1 | 8 |
| Javier Cardona | 26 | 40 | 7 | .175 | 1 | 2 |
| Karim García | 8 | 17 | 3 | .176 | 0 | 0 |
| Dusty Allen | 18 | 16 | 7 | .438 | 2 | 2 |
| Eric Munson | 3 | 5 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 1 |
| Rod Lindsey | 11 | 3 | 1 | .333 | 0 | 0 |
| Gabe Alvarez | 1 | 1 | 0 | .000 | 0 | 0 |
| Pitcher Totals | 162 | 19 | 1 | .053 | 0 | 0 |
| Team Totals | 162 | 5644 | 1553 | .275 | 177 | 785 |
Note: Individual pitchers' batting statistics not included

### 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 |
| Jeff Weaver | 31 | 200.0 | 11 | 15 | 4.32 | 136 |
| Hideo Nomo | 32 | 190.0 | 8 | 12 | 4.74 | 181 |
| Brian Moehler | 29 | 178.0 | 12 | 9 | 4.50 | 103 |
| Dave Mlicki | 24 | 119.1 | 6 | 11 | 5.58 | 57 |
| Steve Sparks | 20 | 104.0 | 7 | 5 | 4.07 | 53 |

#### 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 |
| Willie Blair | 47 | 156.2 | 10 | 6 | 4.88 | 74 |
| C.J. Nitkowski | 67 | 109.2 | 4 | 9 | 5.25 | 81 |
| Adam Bernero | 12 | 34.1 | 0 | 1 | 4.19 | 20 |
| Mark Johnson | 9 | 24.0 | 0 | 1 | 7.50 | 11 |
| Dave Borkowski | 2 | 5.1 | 0 | 1 | 21.94 | 1 |

### Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts
| Player | G | IP | W | L | SV | ERA | SO |
| Todd Jones | 67 | 64.0 | 2 | 4 | 42 | 3.52 | 67 |
| Matt Anderson | 69 | 74.1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4.72 | 71 |
| Danny Patterson | 58 | 56.2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 3.97 | 29 |
| Doug Brocail | 49 | 50.2 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 4.09 | 41 |
| Nelson Cruz | 27 | 41.0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3.07 | 34 |
| Jim Poole | 18 | 8.2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7.27 | 5 |
| Allen McDill | 13 | 10.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.20 | 7 |
| Kevin Tolar | 5 | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.00 | 3 |
| Brandon Villafuerte | 3 | 4.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10.38 | 1 |
| Erik Hiljus | 3 | 3.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.36 | 2 |
| Sean Runyan | 3 | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.00 | 1 |
| Masao Kida | 2 | 2.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10.13 | 0 |
| Shane Halter | 1 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ---- | 0 |
| Team Pitching Totals | 162 | 1443.1 | 79 | 83 | 44 | 4.71 | 978 |

## Farm system

| Level | Team | League | Manager |
| AAA | Toledo Mud Hens | International League | Dave Anderson and Glenn Ezell |
| AA | Jacksonville Suns | Southern League | Gene Roof |
| A | Lakeland Tigers | Florida State League | Skeeter Barnes |
| A | West Michigan Whitecaps | Midwest League | Bruce Fields |
| A-Short Season | Oneonta Tigers | New York–Penn League | Gary Green |
| Rookie | GCL Tigers | Gulf Coast League | Kevin Bradshaw |