Tyler Collins Banishing His Middle-Fingered Past
By Will Burchfield
@burchie_kid
Don't ask Tyler Collins about his inglorious past.
Certainly don't ask him if it's been redeemed by his present success.
"No. There's no redemption," he said before Saturday night's game against Houston.
Since being recalled from Triple-A Toledo on July 15 – his third big-league stint this season – Collins has smashed three home runs and posted a gaudy .978 OPS in 10 games. In the series opener against the Astros, he drilled a ball so deep into the right field bleachers that it looked destined, for a moment, for the Pepsi Porch. Not long ago a target of the fans' ire, Collins is hitting his way back into their hearts.
Back in April, you may remember, the exuberant 26-year-old committed a baseball sin. After being booed for losing a fly ball in the lights, he flashed his middle finger to the hometown fans.
He was sent down to Toledo the very next day.
"That is so over," said a defiant Collins. "I still come to the yard and have a job to do."
In the locker to his right, Andrew Romine muttered to himself and then stalked away, fuming that the incident was still being discussed.
"It's baseball," Romine declared.
Collins thanked Romine for his stand of solidarity, before reiterating that he has put the past behind him.
"I'm not a bad person because I did that. We all make mistakes. So just flush it, it's over. I'm still the ballplayer that I am, I'm still going to come play as hard as I can every day. That's what I'm focused on," he said.
Considering where Collins is now, April seems like a distant memory. Aside from his middle-fingered outburst, he was sent down to Toledo because he simply wasn't hitting.
In ten games with the Tigers, he had collected two hits and one RBI in 20 at-bats. The demotion was an indictment of his performance as much as his lapse in professionalism. To Collins' credit, he took it in stride.
"When he came down you can take it two ways: you can be negative about it or you can be ready to keep working," said Matt Boyd, who was in Toledo at the time. "And he went down there with the same confidence as if he was hitting .400 and just kept going about it and attacking. I think that's something that really speaks to why he's having success right now."
For the Tigers, Collins' resurgence has come at a good time. They are still without J.D. Martinez and have turned to a carousel of right fielders in his absence. But Collins seems to have laid claim to the position of late, due in large part to his burgeoning comfort in the big leagues.
"I think he's learned to slow the game down a little bit," said Brad Ausmus. "It takes time. You've got to gain experience at the Major League level – more people in the seats, bigger stadiums, TV coverage. Sometimes things can speed up and he's learning to slow it down."
Collins agreed with Ausmus' assessment, explaining his mental approach has changed for the better against big-league pitching.
"You gotta slow your brain down," he said.
Though his professional career is still relatively young, Collins has become something of a journeyman within the Tigers' organization. By his own estimation, he has been called up to Detroit and sent down a total of six times, and has played at just about every minor-league level in the past four years.
This time, he feels like he's finally arrived.
"Everybody's going to learn it and understand it at their own pace. But I'm good now. It's just ball," he said.
The cloud hanging over Collins' sunny outlook is that he may be sent down upon Martinez' return. But Collins isn't worried about the personal ramifications of J.D.'s recovery.
"How good is our team going to be when that guy comes back – that's what I think," he said. "I want whatever team I'm playing on to be the best team they can be. That's it."
Right now, Collins is certainly aiding that cause. And with each productive game, an ugly moment recedes further from memory.
"Just as anybody else that's 25, 26 years old," said Boyd, "you just learn from your mistakes and come back."
