Third baseman
Brandon Inge of the Oakland A’s, who has toiled in the big
leagues for a dozen seasons, just had the week of his life. In a
five-game stretch, Inge hit .350 (7-for-20), with 4 homeruns and 16
RBI, including a walk-off grand slam homerun against the Toronto
Blue Jays. In four of those five games, Inge had 4 RBI apiece —
the first MLB player to accomplish this feat since Lou Gehrig did
late in the 1931 season. That year The Iron Horse
set an American League record with 184 RBI.
And yet despite Inge’s extraordinary run, it wasn’t good enough
to be named
AL Player of the Week. For that very same week, Texas Rangers
outfielder
Josh Hamilton arguably had the best seven days of his
big-league career. Between May 7 and 13, Hamilton hit .467
(14-for-30), with 8 homeruns and 18 RBI. Hamilton hit four homeruns
in a single game against the Baltimore Orioles — the first
big-league player to hit the ball over the fence four times in one
game since Carlos Delgado did it with the Blue Jays in 2003. As of
this writing, Hamilton is leading both leagues in batting average,
homeruns, and RBI (.402 BA, 18 HR and 44 RBI). Hamilton has a
legitimate chance to become MLB’s first Triple Crown winner since
Carl Yastremszki did it with the Impossible Dream Boston Red Sox in
1967.
Now, no one would argue that Inge is the same caliber player as
Hamilton, never mind Gehrig, who earned a Triple Crown during the
1934 season. Still, all things considered, it’s not bad for a guy
who was released by the Detroit Tigers less than three weeks ago.
Inge, who turns 35 on May 19, enjoyed a measure of revenge against
the team that drafted him in 1998 by hitting two homeruns and
driving in eight runs over two games.
Inge made his big-league debut with the Tigers in 2001 as a
catcher. Over his 12 years in Detroit, he squatted behind the
plate, and played all three outfield positions and second base, but
primarily third base. Over those 12 years, Inge was with the Tigers
through the good, the bad, and the ugly. And by ugly, I mean really
doggone ugly. Inge was a member of the 2003 Tigers team that lost
119 games, only one game fewer than the infamous 1962 New York
Mets.
But the Tigers’ fortunes turned three years later when GM Dave
Dombrowski hired Jim Leyland to manage the team. Leyland led one of
the most improbable turnarounds in MLB history in 2006, as the
Tigers captured their first AL pennant in 22 years. Inge was a
major offensive contributor, and his 27 homeruns were the second
most on the team. He would match that total in 2009, earning
his only All-Star Game selection
by way of the Final Vote.
However, Inge’s offensive production would decline. After
hitting only 13 homeruns in 2010, he had the worst season of his
career in 2011, hitting a paltry .197 with 3 homeruns and 23 RBI in
102 games. When the Tigers acquired veteran third baseman Wilson
Betemit from the Kansas City Royals shortly after the All-Star
Break, the Tigers designated Inge for assignment. Although he had
more than a decade of big-league service to his credit and could
have elected free agency, he accepted a demotion to the team’s
Triple-A affiliate in Toledo. At the time,
Inge stated:
I could have made the decision to not accept the assignment and
maybe get picked up by another team. But this is home, and this is
my team. I need to go down and work this out, but I’ll be back.
I’ll be back in September no matter what. That’s a definite.
Inge would return to the team on August 20 and hit a homerun in
his first game back. Over the final six weeks of the season, he hit
a respectable .283 (15-for-53),
raising his batting average nearly 20 points, although not
enough to get above The Mendoza Line. Nonetheless, in the 32 games
Inge played in August and September, the Tigers went 27-5 and won
the AL Central by 15 games over the Cleveland Indians. During the
post-season, Inge hit .318 (7-for-22), including a homerun in the
ALCS against the Texas Rangers.
Despite this late-season upswing, the writing was on the wall
for Inge when the Tigers signed free agent Prince Fielder to a
9-year, $214-million contract back in January. With Fielder
ensconced at first base, the Tigers moved the team’s other
superstar, Miguel Cabrera, to third base, leaving Inge once again
the odd man out. He struggled with what little playing time he had
left with the Tigers this season. In nine games, he hit .100
(2-for-20), with only a homerun to show for it. Exactly three
months after Fielder signed with Detroit, the Tigers released Inge
after nearly 14 years of service in both the major and minor
leagues. He was gracious with the
Detroit media following his release:
It’s one of those things you can kind of see how things are
going before they come. But, you know, it’s no hard feelings
whatsoever. This is my family; where I’ve been my whole career and
I’ll miss the guys. I will. But a chance to play maybe somewhere
else. It maybe a good thing, a good start for me personally but my
heart will always be in Detroit for 100 percent and forever.
I appreciate everything that’s happened here. Everything. Every
opportunity I’ve been given. The stuff we’ve accomplished.
Three days later, Inge got a call from the A’s, and now he’s
making the most of his opportunity. It is said that baseball is
game of inches. But sometimes baseball can also be a game of
Inges.
