The Detroit Tigers have won the AL Pennants 11 times in their history-making them one of the most successful winners.
At the end of each Major League Baseball season, one American League team wins the pennant, indicating that they have won the league’s championship and earned the opportunity to compete in the World Series against the winner of the National League. Until the 1968 season, the American League pennant was awarded to the club with the greatest win-loss record each year. After that, the American League Championship Series was established to determine the pennant winner.
Until a players’ strike forced the postseason to be canceled in 1994, the first modern World Series was played in 1903 and has been played every season since. It was on October 22, 2021, that the Houston Astros won the AL pennant.
When the American League split into two divisions for the first time in 1969, the teams with the best records in each division faced off in a five-game ALCS to determine the pennant champion.
In the center of the trophy was an eagle atop a silver baseball and gripping the American League’s flag. The trophy has had a pennant on top since 2017.
In honor of former league president Will Harridge, who served in that capacity from 1931 until 1958, the trophy bears his name. Changes were made in 1985 to make the ALCS best of seven, rather than best of four.
There was one additional postseason series introduced in 1995 as a result of MLB’s divisional restructuring into three leagues. AL Division Series pits the winners of each division against each other in a best-of-five series to determine which teams will face each other in the ALCS. A total of 66 World Series titles have been won by teams that won the AL pennant.
Here is a list of the years the Tigers have won the AL Pennants.
1907
1908
1909
1934
1935
1940
1945
1968
1984
2006
2012
