Baseball has become a game of bullpens. Without a good one, chances are you won’t win. No team appreciates that fact more right now than the Tigers, who are minus both Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney.
        Today, relief pitchers are as precious as starters _ the best of them, sometimes even more so.
        But that wasn’t always the case. Not so long ago, relievers were pitchers who couldn’t cut it as starters. The bullpen was their last refuge before exiting the big leagues.
        Former Tigers pitcher John Hiller, who suffered a heart attack in January, 1971 and was forced to leave the game, saw his career resurrected midway through the 1972 season when the Tigers suddenly became desperate for pitching.
        Even he was surprised at how quickly he found himself back on the mound.
        “I signed a contract in the afternoon and (Billy) Martin put me in the game that same night,” recalled Hiller, the Tigers' all-time save leader with 125 until Mike Henneman and Todd Jones came along.
        “I hadn’t pitched, I hadn’t faced a batter, in a year and half _ but that first night back I pitched three innings.
        “Today, I hear pitchers say they haven’t pitched in five days,” Hiller continued.  “In 1973, I pitched eight days in a row.
        “On the eighth day, Martin said ‘I’m not going to use you tonight.’ I was dozing in the bullpen when Billy called down and said, ‘Do you think you can get one batter out?’
        “I said, ‘Whatever you want me to do.’ He brought me into the game _ and I pitched six innings,” Hiller said.
        Hiller saved 38 games in 1973 and finished fourth in balloting for both the American League MVP and the Cy Young Awards.
        “I pitched 13 games in 15 days,” said Hiller, now 64, and enjoying life in Northern Michigan. “It was different back then.”