Commentary: Guardians-Tigers turning into real rivalry

They are both longstanding, Great Lakes knockouts, who, depending on the time of the year, have been at each other's baseball and football throats for longer than you think. In many ways, the Guardians vs. the Tigers is becoming the baseball version of the Browns vs. the Steelers, minus the Steelers' Super Bowl trophies and the Browns' ... well, um, overcrowded quarterback room. While the rest of the sporting country obsesses over the football rivalry whose Midwestern version of the Hatfields and McCoys gives the rest of us the chance to wish that the Browns would finally, once and for all, win a championship, it's the Guardians and the Tigers who are emerging as the bellcows when it comes to the baseball version of why each city hates the other. Over the last two seasons, the Guardians and the Tigers have been more than willing, and deliciously able, to entertain us with their ongoing back-and-forth version of some good, old-fashioned hardball. The Guardians and Tigers have quietly established the return of baseball to this part of the country that in the way back was ground zero when it came time to sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame.'' The last two seasons have seen the Guardians and Tigers take it upon themselves to reinvigorate the grand old game. Two years ago it was the Guardians who did most of the heavy lifting when it came time to eliminate either Cleveland's team or Detroit's team. How was that done? Easy. Two years ago at winning time — the Wild Card Series — the Guardians simply outplayed the Tigers and sent the losers home. Last year, when it came time to win or go home, the Tigers dropped anchor and gave their Ohio cousins the bum's rush. All of that created a reversal of fortunes for both teams. The Tigers stuck out their chests, while the Guardians exhaled and went home. It seems perfectly proper that, in the last two years, these two Great Lakes teams have been forced to endure the best and the worst of what the game of baseball can provide, which is this: The winners get to keep playing, while the losers get to go home. Just ask the Guardians and the Tigers (not at the same time, however) how that feels. First it was the Tigers who took their medicine and then it was the Guardians. Don't ask. Just enjoy. That's why baseball is such a great game. Thus far in the 2026 season, neither the Guardians, nor their fans, or the Tigers, nor their fans, are having a rollicking good time. At the start of play Friday the Guardians were last in the American League in hitting, with a total of 530 hits, and last in the American League in batting average with a mark of .230. Cleveland is averaging just 4.04 runs per game, which is by far the worst in the American League and not a surprise, given the paucity of their offensive game overall. Cleveland hitters are also last in the league in slugging, last in OPS and 10th in on-base percentage. None of those numbers is surprising, but all of them would look a lot better if their owners were being more productive. There is also this: The Guardians are second in the league with 115 doubles, second in stolen bases (66, only one behind the Yankees), second in walks and they have the third-fewest strikeouts in the American League. On paper, that looks like a pretty decent team. But none of that changes the fact that the Yankees are still the Yankees, and New York has 255 more hits than the Guardians. Oh, yeah, and there is also this: At the start of play Friday, the Guardians were still the Guardians, which means that Cleveland's team is a middle-of-the-pack team, capable of producing big numbers, but also smaller numbers on any given day. The Guardians are the Guardians. Hey, a baseball player can be called worse. But that is a story for another day. Contact Jim Ingraham at (440) 329-7135 or jingraham4@gmail.com.