DETROIT ― The last time the Tigers played on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball” was Aug. 18, 2024. By that point, they already had been sellers at the trade deadline, and they entered the “Little League Classic” game against the New York Yankees in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, with a 60-64 record and still buried in the playoff chase.

Before that game, ESPN’s longtime baseball insider, Buster Olney, talked to The Detroit News about the need for the team to build for the future.

Like everyone else, he didn’t expect a bright future to come so quickly.

“You can run back my quotes, and I told you they would go on to to be the best team in baseball. You don’t have those at the ready? I can refresh your memory on how I predicted everything like this,” Olney said with a laugh this week.

“Really, it’s amazing. It’s just astonishing.”

The Tigers won that game last August against the Yankees, 3-2 on a walk-off, and went on to make a stunning trip to the postseason, beating the Houston Astros in the wild-card round before falling to the Cleveland Guardians in five games in the American League Division Series.

Starting with that win, the Tigers a major-league best 78-44 (after Saturday’s 10-5 win over the Minnesota Twins), including 52-32 this season, as they lead the AL Central by a whopping 10.5 games.

Olney spoke to The News again this week, about what’s transpired and about the road ahead for the Tigers, who are among the World Series favorites just past the halfway point of the season. Here are the highlights of our conversation, ahead of the Tigers’ first appearance on “Sunday Night Baseball” since that thriller of a game last August, with some light editing for clarity and brevity:

Question: How did the Tigers get here?

Answer: It’s neat to see, and you start with (Tarik) Skubal, and he’s become this aircraft carrier that every team would love to have at the front of the rotation. The surprising thing is the offense. Earlier in the year, I was texting with AJ (Hinch, Tigers manager) and I just mentioned to him, I kind of wondered if they would have trouble scoring runs, and he said, ‘No, we’re going to hit.’ … (That was even) after they had some injuries in spring training, especially with their outfielders, it’s impressive what they’ve built.

Q: So you didn’t see this coming in 2025, even after how 2024 finished?

A: I think when they we went into spring training and they asked for our picks, I think … I might’ve picked Kansas City to win. (ESPN’s baseball-writing staff went with Kansas City, by a slim margin over Detroit.) I definitely did not think of the Tigers as a juggernaut, especially following those injuries in spring training. … I was wrong about the Tigers last August, and I was wrong about the Tigers before the year started. They just keep on surprising.

Q: What do you make of the Javier Báez resurgence? He could start the All-Star Game?

A: I thought for sure at the time they called up the guys (in August 2024) … I thought for sure he was going to get released. It only made sense at the time that they would just say, ‘You know what, it hasn’t worked out. We’ll eat the money and move on and focus on developing younger players,’ because it was so bad. … It makes me happy that you have stories like this in baseball, because he goes from where he was last August (placed on the injured list shortly after the Yankees series, and done for the year with a hip injury), and now he’s one of the top vote-getters (among AL outfielders). Who would’ve guessed that? Isn’t that crazy? Who knows what Aaron Boone (Yankees manager, and the AL manager) is gonna do … but can you imagine if we get to the All-Star Game and there are four Tigers starters (Skubal, Gleyber Torres, Riley Greene and Báez)? That would be a stunner.

Q: The big talk here is, what do the Tigers do at the trade deadline next month?

A: On the face, because I think they’re sitting in such a great position, there’s nothing that Scott (Harris, Tigers’ president) has to do. They’ll run away with the division. I think if you were to draw up a spectrum of which teams are run through gut feel, Scott probably leans more toward the analytics side, which would suggest that they would be less likely to do something, because they don’t have to. However, in some respects, I think the answer to your question was the winter time, when they pursued Alex Bregman. You do wonder if in some form and fashion, with the Red Sox so absolutely going in the tank (since trading Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants), if that all of a sudden it becomes more of a reality (that they’d trade Bregman, too). … And why not go to the team with the best record in the American League and play for your former manager (Hinch, who managed Bregman in Houston).

Q: Bregman signed a three-year contract for $120 million with the Red Sox, and he can opt out after 2025. Hard to believe the Tigers would give up a ton for a guy who can opt-out, unless there are assurances he’ll stay in Detroit beyond the end of 2025.

A: Everyone would have to understand … that he was going to opt out at the end of the year. And that would be tough (to make a trade), but I think the Tigers are so good and it’s been so long since they won a World Series, maybe that’s one of the deals they make. … Remember the Cubs in 2016 when they were run by an analytically driven front office and they’re the team that made the choice, ‘You know what, we need a finishing piece. (Closer) Aroldis Chapman. Let’s go get him.’ They wouldn’t have won the World Series that year without Chapman.

Q: And, interestingly, the Red Sox have Chapman, too, and the Tigers need relief help.

A: Maybe you do a two-for one.

Q: If there’s one team that could run down the Tigers in the AL Central, who is it?

A: It’s funny; I’m ready to put the pin in the division race, because Cleveland has struggled so badly offensively, and Kansas City’s offense is a mess. Kansas City, there’s a chance they follow the model of the Tigers last year and they trade a Seth Lugo, and the way (Jack) Flaherty was moved, and they begin to spin it forward a little bit. And the Twins … they kind of go as those big three go, with (Royce) Lewis, (Carlos) Correa and (Byron) Buxton. … If I’m going to choose one of those three teams, it’s Cleveland, but I don’t think they’re close.

Q: How do the Tigers stack up in the American League?

A: Tampa Bay, they are the freight train that’s coming in the American League. … They looked good against (the Tigers, taking two of three recently). … They look like they’re going to be the toughest out for the Tigers.

Q: Let’s look toward the World Series. The National League seems so much better than the AL this season. Is the champion coming from the NL?

A: It’s significantly better and it has a lot more depth, but I would say if your rotation starts with Skubal and you have Flaherty with his experience in the postseason at No. 2, that’s pretty good. I don’t think there’s any question the (NL) is better, but in an individual series, I can’t rule out either Tampa Bay or the Tigers. … I think the Yankees would have a really tough time in a (seven-game) series. … That’s the advantage (the Tigers have) when you have the best pitcher on the planet.

Q: Skubal (who starts Sunday night, as he did or the Tigers-Yankees Sunday-night game last August), that’s the elephant in the room. He’s under contract through the end of 2026, and nobody believes the Tigers can pay the suggested $400 million it might cost to keep him.

A: I would agree with you. … Enjoy the time you have left together.

DETROIT ― There are few bigger boosters for Detroit on the national scene than NBC Sports’ Mike Tirico, who was at Detroit Golf Club this month to preview the seventh playing of the PGA Tour’s Rocket Classic.

The News caught up briefly with Tirico, 58, the network’s lead host for golf coverage who lives in southeast Michigan, to talk about the success of the Rocket and the future of the tournament, which is under contract through 2026 with Rocket holding an option for 2027.

Here are the highlights of that interview, which has been edited lightly for length and clarity:

Question: What have you seen from the Rocket since it debuted in 2019?

Answer: Events take a while to figure it out, right? And this event had it figured out a lot better than most from the start. I keep leaning back on 2020, the COVID year, to be able to pull the event off, that was a very Detroit-centric moment for this event, ‘We’re going to make it through here.’ And it has stayed true to its creation, and stayed very true to the people of Detroit, which is really cool. And along the way, the best part to me, Tour players have come here and loved it. The guys who come here love being here. They love playing here. You get a lot of repeat customers. That says a lot about how this event is run. I can’t give enough credit to Dan (Gilbert) and all the Rocket folks. I mean, what they have put into this is more than most sponsors put in, and Detroit, again, has benefited from their efforts.

Q: You’ve been around the country (and the world), seen a lot of events. What do you make of how this event puts its city on display, as compared to other events?

A: Look, you have and you will again go to the suburbs when Oakland Hills hosts the U.S. Open (in 2034 and 2051) and all these USGA championships. … This has a different feel because it’s in the city limits. This has a different feel because there’s a city vibe. When you look at the gallery here, it looks different from the gallery that you see at most PGA Tour events. It’s just a fact. And I think that texture to this event makes it really unique and really cool. If you had the same event 35 weeks in a row, the (PGA) Tour would be monotonous and boring. I think the … ability to have that kind of feel to it really adds to this. And I love the fact it’s Detroit, and it’s stayed uniquely Detroit.

Q: It remains a weird time in golf, with the PGA Tour and LIV. They’re still trying to figure things out, and the Rocket still doesn’t have an extension. What kind of void would it be if the tournament went away?

A: I think it’d be a void for the Tour. I really do. I think the fact that so many events look alike, and this one has something special to it. It’s what the Tour needs. They need more events like this, more (than just) non-signature events that are the same 50 guys playing against each other. This allows brand-building, great stories, to develop guys who change the course of their careers (for example, inaugural Rocket Classic winner Nate Lashley). In addition to getting big names here, you look at it, there’s no tournament in Chicago. You have no tournament in Cleveland. A lot of the big cities in the Midwest don’t have the PGA Tour on a regular basis. I think being here is something that should be a priority for the Tour, and (something) they should put a little more attention on. And I think if it wasn’t here, it would be a shame. And I hope we don’t have to talk about that day.

 

Rocket Classic

When: June 26-29

Where: Detroit Golf Club

TV: Thursday-Friday: Golf Channel, 3-6 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday: Golf Channel, 1-3 p.m., CBS, 3-6 p.m.

Defending champion: Cam Davis

Tickets: Starting at $73; details at RocketClassic.com

With just a single season in the books, the indoor golf league created by legends Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy already is expanding.

TGL announced plans for a new franchise Tuesday, and the league is welcoming Detroit into the fold. TGL announced that the Motor City Golf Club will start play in Season 3 in 2027.

The Detroit ownership group is led by Detroit Lions principal owner Sheila Ford Hamp and her sons Michael Hamp and Peter Hamp. Rob Walton, owner of the Denver Broncos, also is part of the ownership group, as are additional partners from the sports and Detroit community.

Michael and Peter Hamp were early investors in TGL.

“This is a great moment for Detroit sports and a proud moment for me personally,” Michael Hamp, co-owner of Middle West Partners and team governor for Motor City Golf Club, said in a statement. “My grandfather, William Clay Ford Sr., was an avid golfer, and I believe bringing a new format of the game he loved would make him really proud. I’m incredibly grateful for our partners at MGCC.

“It’s an honor to build this team together. Detroit’s fans are the most loyal in sports, and we’re excited to represent our city in TGL and build a team that Detroit fans will be proud to support.”

Other members of the Detroit ownership are Jordan Rose, president and founder of the Rose Law Firm; Kevin Kelleher, also of Middle West Partners; and Jay Farner, former CEO of Rocket Companies.

Player commitments for the Detroit franchise weren’t immediately announced Tuesday.

Season 1 of TGL, played in state-of-the-art, high-tech SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, featured six franchises: Atlanta Drive Golf Club, Boston Common Golf, Jupiter Links Golf Club, Los Angeles Golf Club, New York Golf Club and The Bay Golf Club. Featured players included Woods, McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Hideki Matsuyama, Max Homa, Tom Kim, Collin Morikawa, Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele and Ludvig Aberg.

Inaugural franchise owners included Venus and Serena Williams, Stephen Curry, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, the owners of the Boston Red Sox, and New York Mets owner Steve Cohen.

Each TGL franchise has a four-player roster, with three competing in each match ― the matches are broken up into sessions of alternate-shot format and head-to-head match play. Players hit tee shots and approach shots into massive simulator screens, while they play their shots around the green, including bunker shots, chips and putts, on a green surface that rotates and adjusts for each hole, depending on the hole’s layout.

The Atlanta Drive, led by Thomas, Cantlay, Billy Horschel and Lucas Glover, won the championship for Season 1 of TGL, which aired its matches on ESPN platforms. The league debuted in January 2025. Matches, which aired on Mondays and Tuesdays, averaged a little more than 500,000 viewers, modest numbers, though numbers that outpaced the programming in similar time slots on ESPN platforms in 2024.

TGL was created by TMRW Sports, the brainchild of Woods and McIlroy, as well as sports executive Mike McCarley, in partnership with the PGA Tour. Jason Langwell, who ran the Rocket Classic, Detroit’s PGA Tour stop, from 2019-24, joined TMRW Sports as chief revenue officer in July 2024, shortly after the completion of that year’s Rocket.

“Detroit is a fantastic sports town. The city has a championship legacy and Detroit fans are passionate about their teams and they’ll let you know it,” McCarley, CEO of TMRW Sports, said in a statement Tuesday. “The ownership group for Motor City Golf Club will utilize their deep ties to the community, and extensive expertise as NFL team owners to forge a TGL team that embodies Detroit’s culture for sprots and the region’s golf of golf. TGL’s inaugural season generated extensive interest in its expansion process and we’re proud to welcome Motor City Golf Club and its ownership group as we build on the league’s continued momentum in the years to come.”

TGL is continuing to explore expansion into additional markets, including possibly Chicago and Dallas.