contrarian23, I share youy skepticism on the motivational stuff, but I can't agree that the early-mid '80s Tigers were an "underachieving" club. In my opinion they had above average talent, had the one great season in '84, made the playoffs again in '87 (Gibson's last season before moving on to LA), and were otherwise a decent .500+ team until 1989 when they started aging and losing their talent through free agency. Consider that no player on the '80s Tigers is in the Hall of Fame, while their American League rivals had the following playing at or near their peaks in the 1980s:
Brett, Henderson, Ripken, Murray, Yount, Molitor, Winfield, Boggs, Blyleven, Rice, Puckett (all in the HOF) plus Mattingly, Guidry, Stieb, Saberhagen, Clemens and Dwight Evans.
(Most of the above played in the AL East, too.)
I've honestly never heard of the '80s Tigers referred to as an underachieving team. I also assumed most people thought of the '84 team as overachievers...
4/26/2014 1:53 PM (edited)