1966 Detroit Tigers season
| 1966 Detroit Tigers | |
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| Owner(s) | John Fetzer |
| General manager(s) | Jim Campbell |
| Manager(s) | Chuck Dressen, Bob Swift, Frank Skaff |
| Local television |
WJBK (George Kell, Ray Lane) |
| Local radio |
WJR (Ernie Harwell, Gene Osborn) |
| < Previous season Next season > | |
The 1966 Detroit Tigers season was the 66th consecutive season for the Detroit franchise in the American League. The Tigers, who had finished fourth in the ten-team AL in 1965 with an 89–73 record, won one fewer game in 1966, going 88–74, but moved up to third in the league, ten full games behind the eventual world champion Baltimore Orioles.
The 1966 season saw the maturation of the core of the 1968 world champion Tiger club, and the addition of starting pitcher Earl Wilson, a future 20-game winner. But it was marred by the in-season illnesses, ultimately fatal, that struck manager Chuck Dressen and his immediate successor, interim pilot Bob Swift.
Dressen, 71, suffered a heart attack on May 16 (his second heart attack in two years), with Detroit 16–10, three games behind the Cleveland Indians. He was admitted to a Detroit hospital and third-base coach Swift, 51, took the reins as acting manager, as he had done in 1965. Under Swift, the Tigers won 32 of their next 57 games. But during the July 11–13 All-Star break, with Detroit in second place, eight games behind Baltimore, Swift was hospitalized for rapid weight loss and what was first suspected to be food poisoning. However, tests revealed that he was suffering from lung cancer and he was forced to step aside. Dressen died August 10, and Swift succumbed October 17.
Another Tiger coach, Frank Skaff, finished the season as acting manager, with the team playing only one game above the .500 mark for him, at 40–39. The Tigers eventually hired Mayo Smith as their new manager for 1967, and Smith would lead them to within one game of the 1967 pennant and the 1968 world title.
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