Detroit 68

It has been 45 years since the 68 Tigers won a World Series, but we remember. And nearly three decades since that magical 84 team. Yes, we need another victor, Stat...

Dusting off the 1968 champions once again and discussing whatever actual or imagined impact they had on the city post-riots offers another reminder as to why the Tigers desperately need another World Series crown ASAP. Detroit needs some new baseball championship memories and quickly.

If they can’t win a title with the likes of Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander and Prince Fielder, it will be remembered for years as well — remembered as one of the biggest wastes of talent this town has ever seen. Seeing the hold that 1968 still has on Detroit applies even more pressure on 2013.

It’s much different with the Tigers than it is with the Lions in this city. Since the Lions haven’t won anything, nobody knows what they’re missing in the absence of a NFL championship since 1957. You have to be at least 60 years old to have any legible memory of that occasion. But the Tigers have living monuments honoring the march to the mountaintop.

Detroit is rumored to be a football town. But Detroit has always been a baseball town. What a gift would it be to Mike Illitch to give him Tigers and Wings world championships in the same year. And what an enormous gift for Detroit.