“Detroit Tigers: Roar of ‘84” Documentary Makes National Debut April 27th on FSN 1

Fans celebrate the World Series victory parade in downtown Detroit in 1984.

Bless You Boys.

It’s time to do the wave again.

Thanks to a wonderful 53-minute documentary titled Detroit Tigers: Roar of ‘84 directed by long time Fox Sports producer and Detroit native Larry Lancaster, fans can relive, or otherwise learn about, the 1984 World Champion Detroit Tigers.

Just the third of only five teams in history to stay in first from Opening Day through Fall Classic, the film captures all the key moments of that magical spring, summer and fall when the Tigers lead by Jack Morris, Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Kirk Gibson, and Lance Parrish jumped out to a record setting 35-5 start and never looked back.

Narrated by none other than Motown legend Smokey Robinson, the film placed third for the audience award at the Detroit Free Press Film Festival two weeks ago and thankfully will have its national debut this Saturday, April 27th at 10 PM on Fox Sports 1 (FS1) following the Brewers- Mets game.

Interspersed with glimpses of historic black and white footage of the early days of Tiger baseball, the film deftly jumps to the phenomenon of Mark “The Bird” Fidrych and his injury replacement Jack Morris, the development of Whitaker, Trammell, Parrish, and Gibson, and later the shrewd moves by the team that landed manager Sparky Anderson, followed by the key acquisitions of slugger Darrell Evans, soon to be Cy Young and MVP reliever Willie Hernandez, and Dave Bergman prior to the 1984 season.

The documentary features new interviews with many members of the 1984 team local and national media personalities, clips of calls made by Tiger broadcasters Ernie Harwell and George Kell and the interesting perspectives of opposing players from that season, including one in particular.

With a replay of the scene, former Toronto catcher and current broadcaster Buck Martinez describes his exchange with Dave Bergman during the first baseman’s famous 10th inning, two out, 13-pitch, nine foul balls at bat before he hit a dramatic game winning homer at Tiger Stadium off of Roy Lee Jackson on ABC’s Monday Night Baseball. Sparky Anderson called it the greatest at bat he had ever witnessed while many observers believe it was the pivotal moment of the season since the pesky second place Blue Jays were just 4 ½ games behind Detroit at the start of the contest.

All in all, I think George Kell would have described Larry Lancaster’s endearing documentary as follows:

“This one is well hit………..way back…………it’s a home run!”

View a trailer of the newly released documentary >

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