Chet Coppock's Fur Coat wrote:
But in Detroit, he was following Mike Illich's directive to go balls out to win a WS every single year until Illich died, and fuck the future after that. Everybody knew it, including the fans and the other teams.
Not many ownership groups are like that.
Very true. Illitch had played minor league baseball (iirc) and so took a greater interest in dickering with the roster of his baseball team than he usually did on the hockey side. Illitch's achilles heel was his loyalty.
One off-season during Dombrowski's tenure Tigers' grindy white-guy 3B Brandon Inge was about to enter free agency and, hopefully, be done in Detroit. Same deal with Magglio Ordonez, free agent who the Tigers had better options on the open market to replace.
In Inge's case, it woulda/coulda/shoulda been Adrian Beltre. Dombrowski, in an unusual move for him, held a presser on the Tigers last road trip in B'More to announce the Tigers would be extending offers to both Inge and Maggs, and that it was on orders from the owner. Dombrowski phrased it more diplomatically, something like "the owner had greater input into these personnel decisions than usual".
Beltre, fresh off a 1 year prove-something deal with the Red Sox, lingered in free agency til almost Spring Training, before signing with the Rangers. Inge bat .197 the next season, before being cut loose the year after. But not before the Tigers would lose to Beltre and the Rangers in the ALCS. Inge over Beltre and Franzen over Hossa were both loyalty decisions from the owner. Both prolly cost his teams return trips to their respective league's finals.