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The Enchanted Season
The inside story of the Detroit Tigers' unforgettable 1984 season
In 1984, fantasy became reality in the Motor City. Led by ace Jack Morris, a historic season from lefty Willie Hernandez, and a thumping lineup powered by Kirk Gibson, Chet Lemon, and Lance Parrish, the Detroit Tigers turned a sportscaster’s sarcastic “Bless you boys” remark into a rallying cry. The Tigers led the American League East from start to finish – starting the season 35-5 and finishing with 104 wins to take the division by 15 games. They topped Kansas City in the ALCS and the San Diego Padres in the World Series to capture Detroit’s first World Series Crown since 1968. A key cog to this unforgettable season was Parrish, the all-star catcher who slugged a team-leading 33 home runs. Told from the perspective of Parrish himself and the expertise of award-winning Tigers scribe Tom Gage – who covered the 1984 Tigers for the Detroit News -- The Enchanted Season takes readers onto the field and inside the locker room, from the spring training trade for Hernandez to Morris’s April no-hitter to Gibson’s October home run to seal the Tigers’ clinching Game 5. Sharing insight on manager Sparky Anderson’s leadership, the magical keystone combination of Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker, the power and speed of Lemon and Gibson, and much more, this essential read provides fans a new look back at the year the Tigers roared.
In 1984, fantasy became reality in the Motor City. Led by ace Jack Morris, a historic season from lefty Willie Hernandez, and a thumping lineup powered by Kirk Gibson, Chet Lemon, and Lance Parrish, the Detroit Tigers turned a sportscaster’s sarcastic “Bless you boys” remark into a rallying cry. The Tigers led the American League East from start to finish – starting the season 35-5 and finishing with 104 wins to take the division by 15 games. They topped Kansas City in the ALCS and the San Diego Padres in the World Series to capture Detroit’s first World Series Crown since 1968. A key cog to this unforgettable season was Parrish, the all-star catcher who slugged a team-leading 33 home runs. Told from the perspective of Parrish himself and the expertise of award-winning Tigers scribe Tom Gage – who covered the 1984 Tigers for the Detroit News -- The Enchanted Season takes readers onto the field and inside the locker room, from the spring training trade for Hernandez to Morris’s April no-hitter to Gibson’s October home run to seal the Tigers’ clinching Game 5. Sharing insight on manager Sparky Anderson’s leadership, the magical keystone combination of Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker, the power and speed of Lemon and Gibson, and much more, this essential read provides fans a new look back at the year the Tigers roared.
- GenresSportsBaseballNonfiction
256 pages, Hardcover
Published June 11, 2024
8 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 27, 2024
This book had very little about Lance Parrish and was mostly just a play-by-play of the 1984 season. There were random chapters that went back to Parrish's earlier career, but they were not in chronological order and I could not understand why they were thrown in where they were. To me, it interrupted the flow of the book. I would have loved more of Parrish's thoughts and feelings rather than so many descriptions of specific plays from certain games each month of the season. I love the Tigers and was looking forward to reading this, but it did not live up to my expectations.
July 30, 2025
Very dense read…a lot of “play by play/boxscore writing”. I had to set it down every couple of chapters. Wish there were more personal stories about the season, but it was still fun reliving the 1984 Tigers through this book.
May 24, 2025
The 84 Tigers are the first team I truly remember following. Learning more about Lance and the rest of my childhood baseball hero’s was amazing!
June 8, 2024
You can also see this review, along with others I have written, at my new blog, Mr. Book's Book Reviews.
Thank you Triumph Books for providing this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
Mr. Book just finished The Enchanted Season: The Detroit Tigers’ Historic 1984 World Series Run and My Life as The Big Wheel, by Lance Parrish, with Tom Gage.
In 1984, I was a 13-year-old whose world revolved around baseball and was obsessed over the Yankees. So, at the time, I have to admit I did not enjoy the 1984 Tigers season. However, the time the regular season ended, I was rooting for them in the postseason. Even back then, I was a huge student of the history of the game and knew that a team that had been that dominant in a season deserves a championship. Now, as a much older baseball historian, I still appreciate the 1984 Tigers’ place as one of the most dominant single-season champions in history and have learned to keep my Yankees bias out of the equation.
The book got off to a very interesting and original start. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any book, on any subject, that started off from the point of view of a three-day old child. The uniqueness of that start to the book almost matches the uniqueness of the Tigers’ 35-5 start to the season. OK, technically, it was the prologue, but I don’t remember every seeing any prologue get started like that.
I had never heard the story about Lance Parrish serving as Tina Turner’s “bodyguard” for a day. Then, when he made his first trip to Yankee Stadium as a rookie, that was all that the press wanted to ask him about.
I enjoyed the story of Tigers GM Jim Campbell’s phone call after Jack Morris’s no hitter, even though that no hitter is still a sore spot for me. That was the first Saturday afternoon Game of the Week, in an era in which very few games were televised, even Yankees games. I wanted to watch the game, but had to attend a bar mitzvah of a hebrew school classmate I never spoke to. I was even more upset. I didn’t know at the time, but I wouldn’t be able to actually see a no hitter until Dwight Gooden in 1996 (don’t get me started on why I couldn’t watch Righetti and Abbott’s no hitters). But, I did enjoy reading about the game in the book.
I love all of the little good tidbits that fill a good history or baseball book. One thing I hadn’t realized before reading this book was, when the Tigers finally lost after their season-opening 9-game winning streak, that was Bret Saberhagen’s first MLB win.
In addition to the 1984 Tigers, there was also other good information throughout the book about Lance Parrish’s career, such as the story about the time that he bought a motorcycle with one of his first paychecks early in his minor league career.
The thorough coverage of each of the Tigers’ postseason games was one of the highlights of the book.
I did notice a glaring error in the book. Parrish wrote that Dan Quisenberry was 44 for 44 in save opportunities in 1984. He was actually 44 for 53 that year. His career high was converting 20 save opportunities in a row (in 1984), so he never had a 44 streak at any point. But, that stands out as an exception. It was the only factual error that I had found in the book.
You do not have to be a Tigers fan to enjoy this book, all you have to be is a baseball fan. I give this book an A. Goodreads requires grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).
This review has been posted at my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews, and Goodreads
Mr. Book originally finished reading this on June 7, 2024.
Thank you Triumph Books for providing this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
Mr. Book just finished The Enchanted Season: The Detroit Tigers’ Historic 1984 World Series Run and My Life as The Big Wheel, by Lance Parrish, with Tom Gage.
In 1984, I was a 13-year-old whose world revolved around baseball and was obsessed over the Yankees. So, at the time, I have to admit I did not enjoy the 1984 Tigers season. However, the time the regular season ended, I was rooting for them in the postseason. Even back then, I was a huge student of the history of the game and knew that a team that had been that dominant in a season deserves a championship. Now, as a much older baseball historian, I still appreciate the 1984 Tigers’ place as one of the most dominant single-season champions in history and have learned to keep my Yankees bias out of the equation.
The book got off to a very interesting and original start. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any book, on any subject, that started off from the point of view of a three-day old child. The uniqueness of that start to the book almost matches the uniqueness of the Tigers’ 35-5 start to the season. OK, technically, it was the prologue, but I don’t remember every seeing any prologue get started like that.
I had never heard the story about Lance Parrish serving as Tina Turner’s “bodyguard” for a day. Then, when he made his first trip to Yankee Stadium as a rookie, that was all that the press wanted to ask him about.
I enjoyed the story of Tigers GM Jim Campbell’s phone call after Jack Morris’s no hitter, even though that no hitter is still a sore spot for me. That was the first Saturday afternoon Game of the Week, in an era in which very few games were televised, even Yankees games. I wanted to watch the game, but had to attend a bar mitzvah of a hebrew school classmate I never spoke to. I was even more upset. I didn’t know at the time, but I wouldn’t be able to actually see a no hitter until Dwight Gooden in 1996 (don’t get me started on why I couldn’t watch Righetti and Abbott’s no hitters). But, I did enjoy reading about the game in the book.
I love all of the little good tidbits that fill a good history or baseball book. One thing I hadn’t realized before reading this book was, when the Tigers finally lost after their season-opening 9-game winning streak, that was Bret Saberhagen’s first MLB win.
In addition to the 1984 Tigers, there was also other good information throughout the book about Lance Parrish’s career, such as the story about the time that he bought a motorcycle with one of his first paychecks early in his minor league career.
The thorough coverage of each of the Tigers’ postseason games was one of the highlights of the book.
I did notice a glaring error in the book. Parrish wrote that Dan Quisenberry was 44 for 44 in save opportunities in 1984. He was actually 44 for 53 that year. His career high was converting 20 save opportunities in a row (in 1984), so he never had a 44 streak at any point. But, that stands out as an exception. It was the only factual error that I had found in the book.
You do not have to be a Tigers fan to enjoy this book, all you have to be is a baseball fan. I give this book an A. Goodreads requires grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).
This review has been posted at my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews, and Goodreads
Mr. Book originally finished reading this on June 7, 2024.
January 2, 2025
The Enchanted Season - Lance Parrish and Tom Gage
Just finished this excellent book about the Detroit Tigers 1984 Championship season, by Lance Parrish and Tom Gage. After some heavier books this was a welcome quick page turner.
The book takes us through the season, covering the 35-5 start, with a lot of personal insights from Lance, and details researched and recalled from Tom Gage, who was a beat reporter covering that team. Also lots of quotes with Kirk Gibson, Trammell, Morris and the rest of the core players. A must read for any Tigers fan, especially those of us that remember that phenomenal season. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Just finished this excellent book about the Detroit Tigers 1984 Championship season, by Lance Parrish and Tom Gage. After some heavier books this was a welcome quick page turner.
The book takes us through the season, covering the 35-5 start, with a lot of personal insights from Lance, and details researched and recalled from Tom Gage, who was a beat reporter covering that team. Also lots of quotes with Kirk Gibson, Trammell, Morris and the rest of the core players. A must read for any Tigers fan, especially those of us that remember that phenomenal season. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
July 4, 2025
The Enchanted Season is a must-read for any Detroit Tigers fan. Part biography, part inside look at the unforgettable 1984 championship run, Lance Parrish offers a candid and entertaining account of one of the greatest seasons in franchise history. Parrish’s perspective from behind the plate brings a fresh angle to familiar highlights, and his humble, down-to-earth storytelling makes you feel like you’re right there in the clubhouse. Whether you’re a lifelong Tigers supporter or just love baseball history, this book is an enjoyable, nostalgic trip back to a magical time.
June 22, 2024
Was fun reliving the Roar of '84 Tigers.
September 12, 2024
You would have to love baseball and the Detroit Tigers to enjoy this one. But why would you pick it if you didn’t. I’m a lifelong fan of the Tigers and I still learned quite a few things.
November 7, 2024
It was fun to relive that wonderful '84 season and see it through Lance's eyes.
December 13, 2024
Excellent; the detailed story of the Tigers 1984 championship interspersed with information about Parrish's career and family life
August 25, 2025
Oh, so much fun reliving the 1984 season!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews