SPRING ARBOR, Mich. – The Curse of the Bambino is the curse that came to the Boston Red Sox after they traded away Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, but is there a curse that happens to players when they come and play for the Detroit Tigers?

The baseball season has just started but most Tiger fans probably noted that Curtis Granderson hit a home run in his first at bat as a New York Yankee and that Placido Polanco hit a grand slam home run in his first game as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies. What are the chances that both of the players that were traded away in the off-season would be successful in their first games with their new teams?

Granderson made headlines a few days later when he hit the winning homerun in the tenth inning to beat the Red Sox.

Nate Robertson, who was traded from the team at the end of Spring Training, won his first game as a Florida Marlin after struggling in 2009 only getting one win in 28 games. He now has two wins and a 2.20 earned run average in two games.

Jair Jurrjens was traded from the Tigers after the 2007 season. In the first two years after his trade, 2008 and 2009, he had 13 wins and 14 wins respectively.

Kyle Farnsworth spent sometime in Detroit in 2005 and 2008. In between he pitched relief in over 100 games. There was much hype when he returned in 2008, saying that he had done some great work for the Yankees, but he started playing for the Tigers and he was not living up to the expectations that everyone had for him. He gave up 27 hits in 16 innings pitched and was 0 for 3 in saves.

Edgar Renteria was the shortstop for the 2008 Tigers and at the season’s end he was traded to the San Francisco Giants because he wasn’t producing like General Manager Dave Dombrowski and manager Jim Leyland hoped. He has also made MLB.com headlines by getting a hit in extra innings to help his team win on April 7.

Gary Sheffield came to the Tigers in 2007 and he was supposed to be a great hitter that would produce runs, but that’s not what he did. Instead he brought some drama to the team with the things that he said about the Latin players in the Major League Baseball (MLB) and other things. He wasn’t the only person not producing, but with the spotlight on him everyone noticed what he wasn’t doing on the field.

“He was like a cancer to the team. He spread a bad attitude around to many other players,” said Kelly Filipowski.

The Tigers signed Johnny Damon in the off-season and now fans are wondering when he is going to start producing. He’s had a few clutch hits, but he isn’t the player that everyone was expecting right at the beginning of the year. There are still many baseball games to be played and Damon can be the player that all Tiger fans are hoping he will be.

It is hard to be a Tiger fan and see players leave and then succeed with other teams when they couldn’t succeed with us. That is not to say that players like Curtis Granderson and Placido Polanco didn’t succeed as Tigers, but they’ve left the team and showed what abilities and players that we traded away.

The players that were received from the trade for Curtis Granderson are doing well with the Tigers. Austin Jackson is one that has performed well. It is his first season in the Majors, but he has proven that even though Curtis Granderson is no longer the Tigers’ centerfielder there is someone that is more than capable of performing.

“Austin Jackson is going to proving to me what a great player he is. I like him,” said Randy Taylor.

It is hard going to games and not seeing my favorite player out in centerfield. It’s hard to say, “I want Curtis to do good, but I want the Yankees to fail.”

Even though I am upset with the decision to trade Curtis Granderson away, he was a great person off the field as well as on the field. He did a lot of charity work, including an annual Celebrity Basketball game, to help promote sports for inner-city kids. I look at Granderson being on the Yankees as a chance for everyone to see what a great person he is because the Yankees are a team known all over the world.

In no way am I a fair weather fan. I will always be a Tiger fan because I grew up as one, it is hard though seeing players that I have fallen in love with and think are some of the greatest players that the organization has seen succeed with other teams. That is not to say that I want them to fail. I want them to do well and better their careers, but I want them to do that playing for the Tigers.

There is a curse of the Bambino, and sometimes I think that there is a curse of the Detroit Tigers, but I understand that things have to change and I can’t have the team that I want all of the time.