St. Paul Saints owner Mike Veeck has known Detroit Tigers president Dave Dombrowski for 30 years and includes him among his “closest friends.” They worked together with the Chicago White Sox in the 1970’s and Dombrowski helped Veeck with his alcoholism in the 1980s.
Veeck said the Tigers’ success starts with his friend who he describes as a “great judge” of talent. Unlike some presidents who aren’t well schooled in baseball, Dombrowski has an extraordinary mind for knowledge and details about players. He also doesn’t hesitate to “pull the trigger” on trades and speaks his mind, according to Veeck. “The thing I love about him is he tells you what he thinks of a player,” Veeck said. “He doesn’t care who is in the room.”
Veeck said Dombrowski “runs a scout driven organization” and that scouts, even low level ones, are loyal to their boss. When Dombrowski changes teams, they follow. Dombrowski built contending teams in Montreal and Florida in the 1990s and his 1997 Marlins won the World Series.
Veeck predicts the Tigers, a young team that made it to the World Series before losing to St. Louis, will be a force in the American League for the next few years.
What happened in the series where they lost to the Cardinals in six games? “They (as a young team) have got to learn to win,” Veeck said.