Detroit last went to the World Series in 1984, a season highlighted by a 35-5 start, a no-hitter by Jack Morris and a prodigious homer by Kirk Gibson that sealed the championship. The current Tigers are duplicating some of that magic.

As well they should. There are plenty of similarities.

The 1984 Tigers, like this club, were led by a revered manager and were put together by shrewd front-office moves coupled with a productive farm system.

The power in the front office then was split between two men, Jim Campbell and Bill Lajoie. Campbell was president and CEO, Lajoie the general manager. Today, Dave Dombrowski holds all three titles. But the results have been similar.

The current farm system produced starter Justin Verlander, reliever Joel Zumaya and center fielder Curtis Granderson. Trades produced shortstop Carlos Guillen, second baseman Placido Polanco, first baseman Sean Casey and pitchers Jeremy Bonderman and Nate Robertson — both starters.

Dombrowski lured free agents such as catcher Ivan Rodriguez, outfielder Magglio Ordonez, starter Kenny Rogers and closer Todd Jones to Detroit.

Still, nothing really happened until he hired Jim Leyland to manage the Tigers.

Which is how all the fun started 22 years ago.

Sparky Anderson, who promised a championship within five years after being hired in 1979, became the only manager to win a World Series title in both leagues; he won successive championships in 1975-76 with Cincinnati. Leyland guided the Florida Marlins to the title in 1997. Both are plainspoken, men of the people.

Tom Monaghan, the man who founded Domino's Pizza, bought the Tigers after the 1983 season. Mike Ilitch, who founded Little Caesars, bought the club from Monaghan in 1992.

Campbell had a well-earned reputation for pinching pennies. He ran a tight ship, but he ran it well. The Tigers won the World Series in 1968, made it to the playoffs in 1972 and had a solid farm system. Monaghan added big bucks to the mix.

Morris and Gibson both were drafted by Detroit. So were pitchers Dan Petry and Dave Rozema, key members of the 1984 staff. Others who came up through the fertile farm system included catcher Lance Parrish, shortstop Alan Trammell, second baseman Lou Whitaker and infielders Howard Johnson, Marty Castillo and Tom Brookens.

Lajoie made trades to acquire outfielders Larry Herndon and Chet Lemon, first baseman Dave Bergman, plus pitchers Milt Wilcox, Juan Berenguer, Aurelio Lopez and super reliever Willie Hernandez. He also picked up outfielder Ruppert Jones in a midseason deal.

He believed in turning over at least one-fifth of the club every season.

"If you're just standing still, you're moving backward," Lajoie said.

Perhaps the biggest move, however, was made by Monaghan, who opened his wallet to acquire Darrell Evans, a 36-year-old veteran of 15 big league seasons. Evans had some power, but until that time he was mostly an answer to a trivia question: Who was on base for Atlanta when Hank Aaron hit his 715th homer, breaking Babe Ruth's record? It was Evans.

His start with Detroit was the stuff of storybooks. Evans homered in his first game, an 8-1 win at Minnesota. A week later, on opening day in old Tiger Stadium, he hit a 1-0 pitch on his first swing for a three-run homer as the Tigers beat the Texas Rangers 5-1.

Still, his biggest value was in the clubhouse. The younger players were drawn to Evans' wisdom, calm and savvy. Many nights, players would have their stools pulled up in front of his locker, rehashing the game they had just played.

"After games, we hung together," Gibson recalled in 2004. "We laughed and got on one another. It was very cleansing."

The storied 35-5 start began with a nine-game winning streak, reached 16-1 at one point, and included back-to-back losses to Boston in early May. The Tigers, who would go on to win 104 games, became the only AL team other than the 1927 New York Yankees — of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig fame — to stay in first place from the first day to the last.

Yet they never felt they were running away with the race. Detroit went 20-20 over its next 40 games and the Toronto Blue Jays hung tough until late in the season. Two dramatic homers by Bergman — one in June, the other down the stretch in September — helped bury the Blue Jays.

"That kind of signified what we were all about," Gibson said. "He just battled and battled. That's what you've got to do to win a championship."

The Tigers were a team mostly without stars. They didn't have a player with 35 homers, yet they led the league with 187 home runs. They didn't have a player with 100 RBIs, yet led the league with 829 runs scored. And they didn't have a pitcher win 20 games or pitch 250 innings, yet led the league in ERA at 3.49.

"I'm not saying this is a great team," Anderson said. "But it was a great season."

Maybe that's what made it so special.