For all intents and purposes, this near decade-long stretch of Detroit Tigers regular season dominance has come to an end. The club currently sits at 56-61, a yawn of a campaign, but understandable given the steady breakup of the starting rotation over the last few summers.

So why not take a trip back to when times were good? In 2006, the Tigers took the baseball world by storm, jumping from 71 wins and a zillionth straight year without playoffs, to 95 victories and a World Series berth.

Today, we’ll take a look at some of the stats and stories, good and bad, that enveloped that memorable post season run.

Playing The Role Of Sandy Koufax...Mr. Kenny Rogers

It’s hard to be any better than Madison Bumgarner was in last year’s playoffs. The bulldog left-hander battled his way through an unimaginable 52 2/3 innings, surrendering a scant seven runs in the process (1.20 ERA). But our guy, albeit in less time, gave up absolutely nothing at all.

Kenny Rogers pitched three times in the 2006 playoffs -- once against the Yankees, once against the Athletics, once against the Cardinals. The result was the exact same for each outing. He’d pitch into the 8th inning, he’d allow not a single soul to touch home plate, and the Tigers would win with ease.

Twenty three innings pitched. Zero runs allowed. You can calculate that ERA on your own.

Almost ten years later, it is still difficult to wrap your head around the fact that Rogers only pitched once in that World Series.

Keep in mind the Tigers completed their ALCS sweep of the A’s on October 14. The championship round versus the Cardinals began on the 21st. That’s a full week off. But Jim Leyland decided to give the ball to his stud rookie, Justin Verlander, in the opener, then again facing a must-win scenario on the road in St. Louis for Game 5.

There’s an argument to be made that with a four-man rotation, nobody is tossing three games anyway, so the order in which you slot them is not super-important. In the 1960s, when pitchers weren’t treated like they were made of glass, a guy like Koufax, or Bob Gibson, would often be counted on to start three times in the Fall Classic.

But since our modern-day game is now ruled by the almighty pitch count, Rogers was made to be a footnote in a championship series that he very well could have won all by himself -- had be been given the opportunity to do so.

A World Series Record You Do Not Want To Hold

The Tigers did not pitch awfully in the World Series. They weren’t stellar, but allowing four or five runs still gives you offense a chance to take the game.

But they could not field. Or throw to bases. It’s 2015 and the wounds still feel fresh.

Tigers pitchers were consistent in the Fall Classic -- five errors in five games, exactly one boner taking place in each of the contests.

Verlander got things started by wildly trying to pick off Albert Pujols (why?), allowing the bulky slugger to get all the way to third (then score on a single by 51-year-old Jim Edmonds).

In Game 2, it was Todd Jones’ turn, muffing a little tapper back to the mound that would have ended the game.

(As a side note, I will never understand why the baseball bible states that the run Jones allowed following said error shall be deemed “unearned.” If the pitcher made the gaffe, give him a legitimate earned run. Why benefit from your own mishap??)

Joel Zumaya did the deed in Game 3, forgoing an easy throw to second to start a sure double play on Pujols, opting instead to go for the force at third. Needless to say, the ball wound up flying by a diving Inge for a game-clinching two-run error.

As if it mattered: the Tigers could have been given 35 innings to push across a run against Chris Carpenter that night and I’m guessing it still would’ve been a clean shutout.

With the Tigers actually clinging to a lead late in Game 4, Fernando Rodney pulled a Zumaya of his own, taking a sac bunt and turning it into a full-blown traveling circus, airmailing Placido Polanco by ten feet at first. Of course, another “unearned” run, because why should a pitcher be penalized for his own screw-up? If I ever make it to the bigs, I’ll begin each inning with an off-target throw to one of the bases. Then I can let ‘em bat around several times over, and I’m still walking out of there with a squeaky-clean ERA!

The clearly rattled Verlander completed the mound shenanigans in the clincher. Again on an attempted sacrifice (they are trying to give away an out...just take it!!), JV tried for the force at third and summarily threw the ball into left field foul ground. Verlander later admitted that the only thing on his mind when the bunt came his way was, “Don’t throw it away.” In sports, too much thinking is often a recipe for disaster, and in this case, the adage proved to be true.

In total, Detroit committed a whopping eight errors for the series. In a little-known trivia note (you can stump your friends with this), while five of the errors were famously from the above-mentioned pitchers, the other three were all courtesy of the same player: Brandon Inge.

It remains the only World Series that was essentially decided by the inability of one team’s pitchers to field and then throw the ball properly to a base. Very strange, and for Tigers fans, still a very painful memory.

Sean Casey Was An Animal Against The Cardinals

Don’t be mistaken. While the errors were tremendously costly throughout the World Series, the Tigers were also getting anemic production from their offense. Well, besides Sean Casey, of course.

The Mayor batted .529 for the series. He smacked two homers. He knocked in five of the team’s 11 total runs.

It’s all the more remarkable when you consider the guy was basically coming in totally cold to the series. In the ALCS against Oakland, Leyland used Casey in the opener against Barry Zito, a lefty. Then for whatever reason, with the next three Oakland starters all right-handed, Casey never saw the field. Carlos Guillen manned first base, and Alexis Gomez/Omar Infante handled DH duties.

But to Casey’s credit, after what amounted to be about two weeks without a plate appearance, he hit the ground running on the game’s biggest stage.

With the season hanging in the balance, Casey became Babe Ruth. In Games 4 and 5 in St. Louis, he would come to bat eight times and record six hits, four for extra bases.

Unfortunately, with the Tigers going down so meekly in the series, and the wild throws of the pitchers taking over the narrative, Casey’s virtuoso performance gets lost a little bit to history.

(On the other side of the coin, both Curtis Granderson and Magglio Ordoñez had brutal maiden trips to the World Series. They combined for 40 at-bats. Each player registered two hits. Zero RBI’s to go with 11 strikeouts.)

Becoming Champion Does Not Always Require Greatness

Don’t be fooled into thinking the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals were a great baseball team. They were not.

They were the World Series champions. That can never be taken away. But they were still a very marginal ball club.

In fact, they still stand as the worst ever team (by record) to go on to become WS champs.

They went an uninspiring 83-78 over the ’06 regular season, the equivalent of 42 wins in an NBA year or 8.25 in the NFL.

The Tigers losing that series, especially in such an uncompetitive fashion, remains one of the bigger sports disappointments this town has seen over the last 50 years.

We apologize for revisiting the 2006 World Series in such depth today, but having said that, I think everyone could use a break from the Brad Ausmus second-guessing (or first-guessing, in many instances) and the daily bullpen atrocities.

The ‘06 final round was a rippling explosion of baseball ineptitude.

But at least plenty of fun was had along the way.