Thursday, June 21, 2007 | 2:00 AM

It’s like deja-vu all over again

If history repeats itself we’re in for quite a treat.

I think 1984 was a good year. I turned 11 that year so very little really stands out. Well actually, with the popular neon colors of the time, everything stood out.

The year was a surreal time for entertainment, politics and sports. Maybe it was Reaganomics or the crack epidemic that was sweeping across the nation during that time.

Television was hitting its stride. “The Cosby Show” debuted in 1984, “Magnum PI” was a hit, David Hasselhoff was still talking to his car, KIT, in “Knight Rider” and people were getting “jiggy” with the “Solid Gold” dancers.

Gremlins were looking for midnight snacks on the big screen and Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom and Beverly Hills Cop were box office hits along with The Karate Kid.

Cassette tapes were cool. Madonna released her “Like a Virgin” LP in 1984 that spawned several hits for the Michigan native. Other hit songs like Bananarama’s “Cruel Summer” and Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” drifted out of teenagers’ bedrooms while Van Halen’s “Panama” and “Jump” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” blared from boxy Mustangs and curvy Corvettes.

For those too young to care about such artists, you might like to know that singers Ashlee Simpson and Avril Lavigne and singer/actress Mandy Moore were all born in 1984.

The world was far from being the totalitarian society that George Orwell wrote about in 1948’s “1984”. However, Ronald Reagan was voted president with George H. Bush as his VP. The technology wasn’t quite ready to support the all-seeing “big brother” televisions but revolutionizing the computer generation was the release of Apple’s Macintosh-its user-friendly personal computer. The Space Shuttle Discovery made its maiden voyage to help further space exploration that year, too.

There are plenty of 1984 moments that are nostalgic but the most memorable thing about that year, for me, was Detroit Tiger baseball. During that unforgettable season they won the World Series by beating San Diego (4-1) in a best-of-seven series. Along the way pitcher Jack Morris pitched a rare no-hitter April 7 against the Chicago White Sox-a sure sign of things to come.

Fast-forward 23 years and not much has really changed. OK, everything has except Hasselhoff is still on TV; the popular cartoon of the day, “Transformers,” is getting a live-action makeover on its way to the big screen next month; there’s a Bush in the White House; and leg-warmers are even coming back into style. Yes, really.

What we should be thankful for here in the Detroit area is that Tiger baseball is back on track for the second straight year. Thank you baseball gods!

In case you haven’t heard, Detroit pitcher Justin Verlander made history last week when he pitched his first-ever no-hitter on June 12 against the Milwaukee Brewers. It was also the first no-hitter thrown in Comerica Park and the first one in the 23-year span since Morris in 1984-the one that led off the thrilling 1984 season.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that history will repeat itself, sending the Tigers to the final showdown let alone winning the entire thing. But what a sweet treat it would be-as long as the rest of the 1984 time capsule doesn’t resurface, too.

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