Success for Detroit sports teams

LINDSEY ZARKA
GRAPHIC DESIGNER

JACK JONES
STAFF WRITER

10/28/2024

Detroit Sports are having a resurgence this year as many of the Detroit sports teams have been finding success to begin and end their seasons. The Tigers had an exciting and somewhat disappointing end to their up-and-down season after a surprise playoff berth. 

The Lions are off to a promising start as they have blazed through their last three games with victories. The Redwings have come out to open the season with up-and-down games but have playoff hopes after improving the previous few seasons. 

The Detroit Pistons, who struggled last year, played their first game this past weekend and are looking to improve and move upwards to join the rest of the Detroit teams on their upward trajectory. 

The Detroit Tigers season came to an end on October 12, in a tough playoff loss to the Cleveland Guardians. The Tigers went into the 2024 season with expectations of growth as a young team looking to find success. The season was up and down going 86-76 during the regular season.  An explosive and surprising run by the team in August through September led to a playoff berth for the first time since 2014, gaining a wildcard spot where they swept the Houston Astros. 

They then battled hard against a tough Cleveland Guardians team, losing in a 3-2 series. While the ending of the playoff run was tough to swallow, the Team gained confidence and success and will look to build on it heading into the 2025 season. 

The Detroit Lions had a similar story last year, ending the 2023-2024 season with an NFC North Championship for the first time in the team’s history, entering the playoffs and reaching the NFC championship where they suffered a heartbreaking loss to the San Francisco 49ers. This year the Lions came out with expectations of success and they have lived up to the billing, roaring to a 5-1 start through seven weeks, The first time the team has managed back-to-back 5-1 starts since moving to Detroit in 1934.

Most recently the team won a close game against NFC North rival Minnesota Vikings with a last-second field goal to win the game overcoming the loss of star pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson to injury. The Lions offense is rolling and looks to continue its success against the Rival Green Bay Packers this weekend and eventually to a playoff and Super Bowl victory. 

Hockey season has also just begun and the Detroit Red Wings are also looking to build on the success of their previous season during which they went 41-32 and just missed out on a wildcard berth after losing a tiebreaker. The team has continued to grow and improve under general manager, Steve Yzerman, who has overseen the team’s improvement over the last five years. The team aims to get into the playoffs this year to end the teams nine year playoff drought. They have opened the season struggling going 2-3 through five games and now look to rebound with a victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday.

Both the Alma College Football and Baseball teams look to take inspiration from the Detroit professional sports going into and continuing their seasons. Alma college football has opened 4-2 and looks to continue shining throughout the remainder of the season. Alma college baseball hopes to capture some of the Tigers success heading into the 2025 season after a tournament loss to Hope college the previous season after having a 24-18 season.