Ranking The Greatest Duos In Detroit Sports
By: Jamie Samuelsen
Tram and Lou.
Isiah and Joe.
Ernie and Paul.
Detroit has had some of the great pairings in sports history. But it's hard to imagine that they've ever had as many as they do now.
Over the weekend, the Tigers' Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder destroyed Red Sox pitching and paced the team to a 3-0 start. On Tuesday, they keyed a Tiger rally in the eighth that propelled them to a 4-0 record. As a result, they catapulted themselves to the top of the Detroit sports landscape and sent us into a frenzy searching for a nickname to capture their status. Wojo nominated "The Prince and the Popper" and "Miggy and Biggy". Both of those are outstanding ideas. I sense that "Miggy and Biggy" will stick a bit more. "The Prince and the Popper" might be a bit too cerebral. I can't picture an 8-year old at Comerica Park telling his Dad that "The Prince and the Popper" are coming to the plate next inning.
But nicknames aside, it's fascinating to take the past and the potential of Cabrera and Fielder and put them alongside the other great duos in Detroit right now. The other contenders are the Red Wings' Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg and the Lions' Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson. Datsyuk and Zetterberg have been called "The Euro Twins" although that nickname always seemed a little lazy to me. Stafford and Johnson don't have a nickname although I do have a nominee – "Best quarterback-receiver combo in the NFL." Think that'll stick?
The easy thing would be to just call it a three-way tie and be done with it. Each is spectacular in their own right. But instead, I'll try to rank them in particular categories and go from there.
Career Accomplishments
1) Datsyuk/Zetterberg
2) Cabrera/Fielder
3) Stafford/Johnson
The Wings duo has been together for nearly a decade. They've won one Cup together and Datsyuk has another that he won in 2002. Both are already Hall of Fame caliber players. Zetterberg has a Conn Smythe and Datsyuk had a stranglehold on the Selke and the Lady Byng. The other two duos can get there eventually, but they're not there yet.
National Popularity
1) Stafford/Johnson
2) Cabrera/Fielder
3) Datsyuk/Zetterberg
The NHL isn't that big nationally which explains the lower rankings for the Red Wings. The NFL is king. Both Stafford and Johnson are ESPN darlings and first round fantasy football players. Cabrera and Fielder are a little quiet in terms of national profile and interviews. But that might change if this season continues to go the wa that it seems to be going.
Reliance on each other
1) Stafford/Johnson
2) Cabrera/Fielder
3) Datsyuk/Zetterberg
Stafford and Johnson played together for a full season for the first time in 2011 and the results were pretty amazing. Stafford threw for over 5000 yards. Johnson had 96 catches for 1681 yards and 16 touchdowns. Johnson was already a great receiver, but it took Stafford to make the rest of the league realize that he was clearly the best in the game. Stafford is a fantastic quarterback, but he wouldn't be at the Pro Bowl level without Johnson. Cabrera, Fielder, Datsyuk and Zetterberg are all great in their own right – but there isn't that same reliance on each other as there is with the Lions.
Overall
1) Stafford/Johnson
2) Datsyuk/Zetterberg
3) Cabrera/Fielder
You could really put these three in any order and it would be hard to disagree. But let's face it – Cabrera and Fielder have played in only four games together so far, so it's not fair to put them ahead of the rest – yet. And Johnson and Stafford are so important for each other, more so than Datsyuk and Zetterberg that they have to be number one.
That's the best. Coming up soon – the worst duos in Detroit sports history. You can expect to see Millen and Mooch…Schroeder and Az-Hakim…and Rizzs and Rathbun.
