The Detroit Tigers were one of the original teams from Ban Johnson's minor league (Western League) that raised itself to major league status in 1901 by picking a few of the top players from the NL rosters. They signed New York Giant star Kid Gleason, a ten year NL veteran to go along with a line-up that included some of the league's top pitchers, Jack Cronin, Roscoe Miller, Ed Siever and Joe Yeager. Although the Tigers finished in 3rd place in the league's first season by posting a 74-61 record; they ended in the second division 4 of the following 5 years.

However, when Ty Cobb joined the Tigers in 1907 and as a rookie led the league in batting, hits, slugging percentage and stolen bases the team won or were in a pennant battle almost every year from then on.

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