HOUSTON — Wednesday morning, A.J. Hinch strolled through the bowels of Minute Maid Park and recounted some of the memories. He stamped many victories in this building, achieved great heights and also fell to the lowest point of his life. Some of his starkest recollections are the ones few think about, the ones people don’t ask about, the ones that hurt. Like when he met Alex Cora, his former bench coach, in a side hallway. He hugged Cora after his Red Sox bounced the Astros from the postseason in 2018.
Advertisement
Another he has mentioned over the years: the searing image of the right-field foul pole. That’s where Howie Kendrick’s seventh-inning, go-ahead blast ricocheted in Game 7 of the 2019 World Series, the one where Hinch pulled Zack Greinke after 6 1/3 innings and never deployed Gerrit Cole.
Five years and what feels like a lifetime later, Hinch perched atop the dugout step as Parker Meadows’ sixth-inning homer towered into the air and tracked toward the same pole. Hinch, now the manager of the Detroit Tigers, facing the team that fired him for his role in a startling sign-stealing scandal, gained a new view of that pole that once haunted him.
Meadows’ ball clanked off the yellow beam and sent a sharp thud reverberating through the building.
“Way better on this side of it than the other side,” Hinch said.
Parker Meadows doinks one off the foul pole!@Tigers lead! #Postseason pic.twitter.com/JQh3XumoZa
— MLB (@MLB) October 2, 2024
That was the poetry and symmetry of this game at work. Hinch’s Tigers scrapped through more ups and downs until Colt Keith threw to Spencer Torkelson for the game’s final out. A team not supposed to be here has thrived thanks largely to a manager who helped mold the dynastic Astros he just defeated. “Baseball can be incredible,” Hinch said. “Baseball can be cruel.”
In Detroit, Hinch’s next chapter has turned from challenging and frustrating to enthralling and fulfilling.
It was less than two months ago when Hinch called an August team meeting, a card he rarely plays in the grind of a long season. “When team meetings happen, usually things aren’t going well, and you’re like, well, what is this going to be?” right-handed pitcher Beau Brieske said. “What is it going to be like?”
The doors closed and the players braced themselves. But rather than an ass-chewing or a stern lecture, Hinch posed a question to his young team, one that was dismantled at the trade deadline but also one that had gotten Riley Greene, Parker Meadows and Kerry Carpenter back and healthy. The final six weeks, he said, could turn into a glorified instructional league. Or, with a flip in mindset and an improvement in play, these Tigers could author a much different story.
Advertisement
“What kind of team,” Hinch asked, “do you want to be?”
Players who were in the room recall some of the themes. They were told not to worry about the stats and contracts. “All of that stuff will take care of itself if you go out there and you play for one another and you go out there and win,’” Brieske recalled Hinch saying. They were told to focus on their roles. To trust their coaches and improve their deficiencies. The messages were not unique in the zeitgeist of locker-room speeches, but something about the timing and the framing made the words hit.
“It was more so just asking us and having everyone look in the mirror and ask, ‘What am I doing to be a part of a winning team?’” Brieske said. “Because at that time, we were not a winning team.”
Less than two months after that meeting, after a mesmerizing 31-11 run to claw back from the depths of baseball obscurity, the Tigers clinched their playoff destiny. Before Hinch popped champagne that night, he returned to the question he once asked his players.
What kind of team did they want to be?
“I guess you wanted to be a playoff team,” he said to kick off what became a rousing party.
Footage of the speech went viral among Detroiters. The images from that night, when a city fell in love with baseball again, may be defining flashpoints for a generation of fans who endured 10 years without the thrill of victory.
I GUESS WE WANTED TO BE A PLAYOFF TEAM pic.twitter.com/MaaFrcO5st
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) September 28, 2024
“To have him say that at that point, and to actually be a playoff team, was pretty special,” said Matt Vierling, the only player on the postseason roster who had experienced the playoffs before.
Now, after defeating the Houston Astros 5-2 in Game 2 of the AL Wild Card Series, Hinch and the Tigers march toward their ALDS matchup with the Cleveland Guardians.
Advertisement
Their latest victory encapsulated their uphill journey. Tyler Holton worked as an opener. Hinch built pitching bridges from inning to inning. The Tigers used seven arms by the time all was said and done. No pitcher faced the same hitter twice. A lineup with minimal punch stayed in the fight, took its lumps but kept working toward its own haymaker. An unlikely cast of Brenan Hanifee, Brant Hurter, Beau Brieske, Will Vest and Andy Ibáñez played starring roles.
The Tigers’ wide-open approach to pitching — “chaos,” you may have heard it called — challenges the game’s conventions, breaks its norms and just keeps working. The pinch-hitting and the bulk relievers and the prescient lineup construction are a large part of what has made the Tigers who they are.
“I would say it’s been working,” Brieske said, “and you definitely trust the guy that’s making the decisions because, in my eyes, I think he’s the best at it.”
Think back to those players who defined the Tigers’ Wild Card Series victory. Hanifee was a waiver claim. Hurter was a seventh-round selection. Brieske was drafted in the 27th round, Sean Guenther was another waiver pickup who missed nearly two years with Tommy John surgery. Ibáñez was a castoff who had a brutal second half but saved his finest act, a three-run double in a two-strike count against Josh Hader, for the optimal time.
“I think it just goes to show,” Brieske said, “that when you have a group of guys that are playing for each other and there’s a common goal amongst us all, it doesn’t really matter where you came from or what round you were picked or how much money you got when you signed.”
"I'm not sure who, but somebody let the @Tigers get hot!"
A.J. Hinch gets the clubhouse fired up 😤 pic.twitter.com/QLEIf30RMz
— MLB (@MLB) October 2, 2024
Wednesday evening, amid another champagne celebration, Hinch stood off to the side, goggles atop his head, while his youthful players caroused in the center of the room.
Thursday morning, Houston sports talk stations memorialized the Astros and languished over Hinch, still a popular figure in the city, getting playoff vengeance.
Advertisement
The memories and the controversy from his days in Houston will never fade.
Here now is the chance for a new legacy in Detroit.
“Our city is built on grit,” Hinch said. “I remember saying that I wanted to have a team that the city was proud of. I hope the city is pretty proud of what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.”
(Photo: Tim Warner / Getty Images)
Cody Stavenhagen is a staff writer covering the Detroit Tigers and Major League Baseball for The Athletic. Previously, he covered Michigan football at The Athletic and Oklahoma football and basketball for the Tulsa World, where he was named APSE Beat Writer of the Year for his circulation group in 2016. He is a native of Amarillo, Texas. Follow Cody on Twitter @CodyStavenhagen
