Over the weekend, Brandon Inge cemented his place forever in Tigers lore becoming the new strikeout king in club history. His 1,100th K put him above Lou Whitaker in the all-time list. Inge has been an unstoppable striking out machine in his 10 years as a Tiger, he achieved the record despite only having about 50% of the career at-bats of Whitaker (4,314 for Inge, 8,570 for Lou). A staggering 25.5% of his plate appearances ended with him striking out. With the Tigers basically out of the Central race since shortly after the All-Star break, the race for 1,100 was one of the few things that kept me tuning in each and every night.
Inge’s signature move has to be the check swing strikeout. I recently went back and reviewed all 1,100 K’s and 692 came via the check swing. If you threw him a down and away slider the chances were 94% he’d flail his bat awkwardly and we’d have to check with Randy Marsh at first base to see if he went.
The season concludes in a week, and there is a chance this might be the last time we see Inge sporting the Old English D. It’s definitely been the most baffling career of any player that I can remember. He struggled to a comic degree at the plate (.237 avg., below avg. power #’s) despite playing 3B (a position that is usually occupied by a team’s slugger). In the field, he routinely made the spectacular plays but struggled with the routine ones. Despite all these negatives, no one can question that Inge STILL is probably the most popular player on the team despite having both an MVP candidate and a perennial Cy Young contender. It’s crazy, but when Inge goes 1-4 with a K and runs away with the Mickey D’s player of the game voting on a nightly basis, it’s a testament to how much people in Detroit adore Inge.
Inge now has two records. The strikeout crown, and, of course, he is the runaway leader in most extreme arm tat’s in Tigers history. So, when you are soaking up the rest of Tigers baseball action this week, raise your Schmitt’s and salute the man who has K’d the most since they started playing baseball in Detroit since 1894.
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