DETROIT -- The name of the book is "Numbers Don't Lie!"
And as the tumbling Tigers can currently attest, they don't.
It's ironic, at least to me, that as the Tigers confront the indigestion of what's now a six-game losing streak, a former Tigers' beat writer, Danny Knobler, has brought to town his new book about "the biggest numbers in Detroit Tigers' history."
Good or bad, they don't lie. They never did.
Good or bad, past or present, baseball's foundation is still built upon the numbers that make the game special.
Lately for the Tigers, of course, they've not been so special. Just ask J.D. Martinez, who drove in 10 runs in the first 11 games of this season, but has only 12 RBI in 42 games since.
Or ask Ian Kinsler, as he struggles to escape the clenches of the 5-for-53 slump he took away from Wednesday night's 6-1 loss.
Those are nasty numbers, to be sure, but not some of the biggest in Tigers' history. Knobler's book will let you know about those.
I'm not writing this particular column because Danny is a friend of mine -- but he is a friend of mine. We covered the Tigers at the same time from 1990, when he was hired by Booth Newspapers (now MLive) to 2008 when he left for CBSSports.com.
While I admired his work as a baseball writer, I enjoyed even more the way he wanted to know as much as he could about any topic that piqued his interest.
It didn't always have to be baseball.
On an off day in Baltimore one year, for instance, we drove out to a Civil War battlefield -- and based on the way Knobler educated himself that day, he could have written about the biggest numbers at the Battle of Antietam.
So when he told me he was writing a book about the Tigers (published by Triumph Books, $16.95), I knew it would be thorough.
What I did not know until this day -- while fighting the urge to say "it was Barzini all along" -- is that it would be fun to read as well.
Knobler has divided his book into 63 chapters of around 1,000 words each. I enjoy this format because it lends itself to short-burst reading sessions. While waiting for your bagel to toast, you can read a couple of chapters.
Danny knows his audience, though. In the introduction, he leads off by saying "If you grew up with the Tigers, you grew up with numbers. For one generation, it's 35-5. For another, it's 31."
The first stat, of course, refers to the record the Tigers had after the first 40 games of the 1984 season. The second is the number of games Denny McLain won in 1968.
For Danny, the first memorable number was 51 -- the number of home runs Cecil Fielder hit in 1990, Knobler's first year on the Tigers' beat.
"The idea for this book is to tell Tiger history through the numbers you remember, and even a few you don't," the introduction continued.
A number I was amazed at were the 60 doubles Charlie Gehringer hit in 1936. Nobody in the majors has hit as many as 60 in a season since, but Gehringer didn't even lead the majors that year. Joe Medwick had 64 doubles for the St. Louis Cardinals.
When I asked Knobler which chapter was his favorite, he replied that among several was one about the 12 players who survived the Tigers' 119-loss season in 2003, but were still around to play for the 2006 team that made it to the World Series -- including nine who were on the World Series roster.
Among the nine were three 2003 alums who started in Game 1: Craig Monroe in left field, Brandon Inge at third and Ramon Santiago at short.
It's a fun read -- from a writer who lived in Detroit long enough to know how steeped in numbers Tigers' fans are.
Good numbers, bad, they're all here. And, what the heck, there's no time like the present.
Reading beats watching in times like these.
