Looking back at Detroit Tigers whose hot starts were simply a mirage.
Detroit Tigers fans love Halloween, and what’s not to like? Eating candy, wearing costumes, and getting the Silver Shamrock song stuck in your head. It’s an objectively great time of year.
And Halloween wouldn’t be complete without pumpkins, of course. But how to incorporate pumpkins into baseball? Could we talk about pitchers who carve up their opponents? Or maybe compare players to horrific pumpkin spice food? Or, perhaps we could do a whole post celebrating Tigers minor leaguer Jack O’Loughlin, who comes closer to being named Jack-o’-lantern than anyone in baseball history.
But no, let’s settle for the great idiom “turn into a pumpkin.” It comes from the classic folk tale Cinderella (If you’re unfamiliar with the story, here’s a quick explainer) and it simply describes when something seemingly impressive turns out to be very plain.
There are a few current Detroit Tigers with a High Pumpkin Probability (HPP), but we’ll ignore them for now and focus on five former Tigers who looked like stars, but turned into pumpkins.