The Year Kenny Rogers Owned the Post-Season at Age 41

Such is the fickleness of the sports fan that one year, Kenny Rogers was vilified in Detroit, and the next, the good people of Motown couldn't get enough of him.

When Rory Brown from Bleacher Report asked me to write an article chronicling the exploits of an athlete who was long in the tooth yet didn't perform like it, it didn't take me long to think of such an instance.

I'm a Detroiter. And always will be. If work or something else takes me out of this town, that's fine—but you won't be able to take the town out of me.

It wasn't much fun to be a Tigers follower from 1994 thru 2005. Twelve seasons of losing baseball. And not just losing baseball; losing baseball of monolithic proportions.

One hundred and nine losses in 1996. One hundred and six losses in 2002.

Then, the mother of all losing seasons, save one: 119 losses in 2003.

I'll one day be able to tell my grandchildren that I once saw an MLB team sink to 80 games below .500. The '03 Tigers, at one point, were 38-118. I still can't believe it, even as I type it.

Then came 2006.

In '05, the Tigers hosted the All-Star game for the first time since 1971. A couple weeks before the game, Rogers, in an uncontrolled fit of anger, attacked a TV camera man. In front of other TV camera men.

The video of Rogers' assault swept the Internet and television networks like a brush fire.

As fate would have it, Tigers pitcher Jeremy Bonderman was having himself a fine year, and there was some talk that he might, just might, be named to the American League team, representing the host team.

But AL manager Terry Francona selected Rogers over Bonderman, even as Rogers's attack remained fresh in everyone's minds.

When the teams were introduced at Comerica Park that July night, Rogers was booed. Loudly, and roundly. You could practically imagine an angry mob with pitchforks and torches gathering outside the park.

Fast forward to December of 2005.

The Tigers were looking for some veteran presence for their young pitching staff. Someone who'd been through the wars, so to speak.

The announcement came down: the Tigers had signed—drum roll, please—veteran lefty Kenny Rogers!

Rogers had just turned 41. Sure, he was an All-Star in 2005 for Texas, but...he was 41!

Some thought the Tigers went overboard in the veteran department.

Fast forward again, to the 2006 playoffs. The Tigers were in the post-season for the first time in 19 years. And they made it largely because of Rogers, who reported in excellent condition and won himself 17 games and had a fine ERA of 3.84.

Edging closer to age 42, Rogers took the hill for Game Three of the ALDS against the Yankees, in Detroit. The joint was jumping, the Tigers having split the first two games in New York.

Rogers was, in a word, awesome.

I was there, and I've never seen or heard Comerica Park like that. Rogers started mowing the Yankees down, and the more he did it, the more the crowd roared. And the more the crowd roared, the more emotion Rogers showed.

Fist-pumping. Yelling. Telling the Yankees hitters where they could go.

And that was Rogers!

Kenny out-dueled Randy Johnson that night, and it wasn't even close. 7-2/3 innings, five hits, two walks, eight strikeouts.

And no runs.

The Tigers won the series, and faced Oakland in the ALCS.

Rogers pitched Game 3, the Tigers already ahead 2-0 in the series.

This time on the hill, Rogers was even better than he was against the Yankees. Again the game was in Detroit. Again the crowd roared as Rogers silenced the A's bats. And again Rogers wore his emotions on his sleeve. He almost seemed to be pitching angry.

The line: 7-1/3 innings, two hits, two walks, six strikeouts.

And no runs.

The Tigers swept the ALCS and would meet the Cardinals in the World Series.

Manager Jim Leyland stuck with Justin Verlander for Game One, even though the Tigers had a week off and Leyland could have started anyone he wanted.

Verlander wasn't sharp, and the Tigers lost.

Leyland handed the ball to Rogers for Game Two, the Tigers already in a "must win" situation after just one game.

Rogers, despite a mini-controversy involving a strange substance on his palm—which he cleaned off in the second inning—picked up where he left off after demoralizing the Yankees and the A's.

The hometown crowd again fueling him, Rogers continued his brilliance. In a game the Tigers absolutely had to have, Rogers came through once more.

Eight innings. Two hits. Three walks. Five strikeouts.

And no runs.

The post-season totals for Kenny Rogers in 2006 go like this: 23 innings pitched; nine hits allowed; seven walks; nineteen strikeouts.

And no runs.

In fact, Rogers set a new MLB record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched in the playoffs.

In a move that will be second guessed till the cows come home, Leyland chose not to give Rogers the start in Game Five, even though, thanks to a rainout, he would have been pitching on four days' rest.

Leyland's hope was that the Tigers would win Game Five, bring the series back to Detroit, where he would start Rogers, who would force a deciding Game Seven.

Verlander started, pitched decently, but ill-timed errors by Tigers relief pitchers proved too much to overcome. The Cardinals won the series in five games.

So we'll never know if Kenny Rogers, at age 41, could have extended his scoreless streak in the post-season in 2006. It's frozen in time, at 23 innings.

And I don't remember anyone in Detroit talking about cameramen being attacked or All-Star spots being stolen, when Rogers grabbed the spotlight in the '06 playoffs and wouldn't let go.