Below is a Colgan's Chips of Davy from my collection.
Monday, October 19, 2015
June 30 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines
Davy Jones
Below is a Colgan's Chips of Davy from my collection.
Below is a Colgan's Chips of Davy from my collection.
June 29 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines
Eddie Miller
Bruce Kimm
Below is a photo I sent out to Bruce Kimm as an 8x10 that he signed for me.
Bob Shaw
Bill Connelly
Dizzy Trout
Bobby Veach
Below is a 1923 photo of Veach with a new fangled movie camera.
June 28 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines
Chris Spurling
Greg Keagle
Tom Fletcher
Orlando McFarlane
Fred Gladding
Frank Scheibeck
Mox McQuery
June 27 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines
Oscar Salazar
Nelson Simmons
Dick Marlowe
Gus Zernial
Lou Kretlow
Charlie Wheatley spent his entire time in the majors as a
Tiger. He started pro ball in 1910 with
the Abilene Reds of the Central Kansas League at the age of 17. It is not known what position he played. He moved to Auburn of the
Missouri-Iowa-Nebraska-Kansas League in 1911 where he started pitching and went
6-2. In 1912 he jumped up to class A St.
Joseph of the Western League. It was too
far of a jump as he went 0-2 and soon moved back down to class B ball at
Springfield (IL) of the Central League.
He was 14-8 and moved up to the majors in Detroit as a late season call
up. He made his debut on September 6 of
1912 at the age of 19 in a losing effort.
The Tigers lost the game to the St. Louis Browns 4-2. Charlie got the loss. Charlie got into a total of 5 games with the
Tiges and went 1-4 with a 6.17 ERA. The
team ERA was 3.77. Charlie started every
game he played. One month after his
debut Charlie took another loss at the hands of the Chicago White Sox. The final score was 4-9. The Tigers finished in 6th with a
69-84 record and Charlie finished his major league career at 1-4. He went back to the minors for the next six
seasons before his pro career ended in 1918 at the age of 25 with the Milwaukee
Brewers of the American Association. His
final known minor league record was 45-48 with a .209 batting average. Charlie lived to almost 90 years old, dying
in 1982 at 89.
June 26 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines
Chris Shelton will always be remembered for a great start of
a great 2006 season for the Tigers.
Chris had been signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2001 but taken by the
Tigers in the December 2003 Rule 5 draft.
He was with the team in April of 2004 and got his first major league hit
off of the Twins Carlos Silva for a double in the Metrodome. He
made it into 16 games before getting injured.
He played 11 more games later in the season for .196 average (9 hits in
46 at bats) and had one homer and 3 RBI’s.
He came back stronger in 2005 when he hit .299 as the Tigers starting
first baseman. But he showed he had a
penchant for K’ing. He K’d 87 times with
only 34 walks in 388 at bats. In 2006 Chris
set the stage for the Tigers season. He
had two homers on opening day and took off from there. He had three hits in each of his first three
games and three days after opening day he hit two homers again off of the Texas
Rangers giving him 5 homers in the first 4 games. He set an American League record of 7 homers
in his team’s first 9 games of the season and 8 in the first 12 games. He tied the club record set by Cecil Fielder
of 10 homers in the month of April and was Tiger player of the month with a
.326 average, 6 doubles, 2 triples, the 10 homers and 20 RBI’s in 25
games. This gave him the nicknames of
“Big Red” and “Orange Crush” due to his bright red hair. In May his power dropped off to a more
realistic 4 doubles and 1 homers and his average was .286 for the month of
May. But in June it fell apart for
Chris. He hit 4 homers but his average
plummeted to .205. The Tiges were in a
surprising pennant race in 2006 and wasted no time in shoring up first base and
on July 31 they traded for first baseman Sean Casey and optioned Chris to
Toledo. Chris would continue to produce
in Toledo and hit .266 but it was not the same Chris of April. He got another call up in September when the
roster expanded but was left off the post season roster as Sean Casey filled
the bill and led the team in the Tiges first World Series appearance since 1984
with a .529 World Series batting average and 5 RBI’s and 2 homers. Chris would never play in a Tiger uniform
again. He spent 2007 in Toledo where he
hit .269 and 14 homers. Chris was
traded after the 2007 season to the Texas Rangers. He got in 41 games for the Rangers in 2008
and then played 9 more games for the Seattle Mariners in 2009. He was last in pro ball in Houston Astros
farm system in 2010.
Mike Myers I thought was sold short and used as a LOOGY for
most of his time as a Tiger. No, that
does not have anything to do with throwing spit ball. A LOOGY is a modern term in this time of
specialization to describe a “Left-handed One Out Guy” type of pitcher. Mike came to the Tigers in his first big
league season in August the Tiges made a deal with the Florida Marlins of Buddy
Groom for Mike Myers. He was down in
Toledo briefly before getting the call up to Detroit. He got his first major league win as a Tiger
when on Sept ember 19, he was brought in in the fifth inning to relieve Sean
Bergman who was getting hit a around a bit.
Sean had given up 3 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks and was facing 3 straight
lefties and a switch hitter on the Orioles top of the line up of Curtis
Goodwin, Brady Anderson, Rafael Palmeiro and Bobby Bonilla. Mike came in and got the side out allowing
only one hit to Palmeiro. The Tiges were
already ahead and as it was the fifth that Mike pitched, he got credit for the
win. Mike would only get one more win as
a Tiger in 1996. That was the year he
led the majors in games for a pitcher with 83, but only pitched 64.2
innings. In 1997 he led the league in appearances with
88 games but pitched even fewer innings at 53.2. His strike out to walk ratio was better vs
lefties at 4.00 to 1.21 for righties and his batting average against was better
at .233 for lefties vs. .305 for righties in 1996. But in 1997 he evened out a bit more at 2.69
K/BB vs lefties against 1.25 vs righties and the batting average against was
less than a .050 difference. Mike did
not have a stellar ERA for the Tiges with a 5.56 ERA during his stint. But the biggest thing I recall was that the
Tigers of the mid-late 1990’s stunk. I
don’t think they could have done much worse leaving Mike in a bit longer. All the Tigers gave up about a run more than
they should have at that time as the Tigers could not play defense behind the
pitchers. After the 1997 season the
Tigers traded Mike away with Rick Greene and Santiago Perez for Bryce
Florie. Mike would pitch for another 10 years and his
career ERA dropped to 4.29 upon leaving the Tigers. But Mike’s role in baseball never
changed. For his career he pitched in a
whopping 883 games but only pitched 541.2 innings and had a record of 25-24.
Babe Herman could have benefited greatly had the DH been
around when he was a Tiger. As an 18
year old kid in the minors he hit .330 for the class B Edmonton Eskimos in
1921. He followed that up with a .402
season in A and AA ball in 1922. He
continued to show he was no fluke as a hitter and finally made the majors in
1926 for the Brooklyn Robins (This is the same franchise we know as the
Dodgers. However, from 1914 through 1931
they were called the Robins for their manager Wil Robinson. No, he was not in any “danger” but Babe
was.) Babe hit .319 and fell one hit shy
of the National League record with 9 consecutive hits that season. He also led the Robins in hits, doubles,
triples, homers and RBI’s. He stole 8
bases when his team leader stole only 12.
He was a one man wrecking crew at the plate. His danger was that he could not field. He led the league from 1927 thru 1929 in
errors. It has widely been rumored that
he was once hit on the head while circling under a fly ball. (No newspaper game record has been found to
substantiate this claim.) Babe was consistently
a below average fielder for his whole career regardless if he played outfield
or first base. Babe’s 162 game averages
are 10 stolen bases, 11 triples, 19 homers and 104 RBI’s with a career batting
average of .324 and a career slugging of .532.
But his career fielding of .961 in the outfield does not campare well to
a league AVERAGE of .973 while he played.
Clearly he was anchoring the curve!
He also started a long running gag for Brooklyn baseball fans. It was John Lardner (Son of Ring Lardner) who
wrote “Babe Herman did not triple into a triple play, but he did double into a
double play, which is the next best thing.”
With runners on first and second Babe hit a double, but as he rounded
second he kept on going. The runner from
second, Dazzy Vance, had not scored yet and the runner from first was still
rounding third so the coach yelled at Babe to go back. Dazzy Vance heard the yelling and thought it
was for him so he retreated to third. Babe
did not hear the yelling and continued on to third and the runner from first
was caught in the middle. The result was
three runners on third and the ball thrown to the third baseman who tagged all
three as he was not sure who owned the base.
Babe and the sandwiched runner from first were out as the lead runner is
entitled to the base. This led to the
running gag in Brooklyn that when told during the course of the Brooklyn team
had three runners on base they would demand to know which base. Twice he stopped running the bases to watch
home run and was passed on the base paths forcing the homer to be called a
single. Because of his fielding or lack
thereof and his base running exploits Babe was traded from Brooklyn after 6
years, to Cincy where he lasted one season before heading to the Cubs for two
years on to Pittsburgh and back to Cincy all by the end of the 1936
season. In April 1937 the Tigers had
sold aging outfielder Al Simmons to the Washington Senators and thus had room
on the roster for another outfielder.
They purchased Babe from the Reds.
But Babe was short-lived as a Tiger.
The Tigers starting three in the outfield of Jo-Jo White, Gee Walker and
Pete Fox played most games. Gee missed only 3 games and Pete missed only
6. And the Tiges still had Goose Goslin
and young Chet Laabs to be the fourth and fifth outfielders in needed to back
up Jo-Jo. Babe got into only 17 games as
a Tiger with 15 as a pinch hitter or pinch runner and got only 6 hits for a
.300 average with no homers or triples and only 3 RBI’s. In the two games he played the field he had
three chances and made all three put outs.
On June 15th, 11 days before his 34th birthday,
the Tigers released Babe. He went back
the minors played there for years and in 1945, the last year of World War II he
was brought back to the majors with Brooklyn for 37 games at the age of
42. Ironic as it may sound, Babe went in
to coaching baseball after his playing days and also skippered in the minors
and was a scout for 22 years.
June 25 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines
Don Demeter was mainly a centerfielder as a Tiger. He made his debut in the majors with the
Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956. He had only 3
plate appearances. In his first
appearance he was a pinch hitter and struck out without ever taking a
swing. The next night he was again a
pinch hitter and on the first swing he took he hit a home run. The next time Don was in the majors the
Dodgers where in Los Angeles. He was a
back up outfielder who hit .189. But his
next season he became the starting center fielder for the Dodgers as they won
the World Series over the Chicago White Sox.
He fractured his wrist in July of 1960 and that ended his season. In 1961 he was only with the Dodgers for a
short time. Several teams were
interested in him such as the Tigers and Phillies but the Phillies got him in a
trade. He was on the Phils and played
all three outfield positions as well as some firs base his first year. His second year he became the starting third
baseman and had his best season ever. He hit career highs of .307 with 29 homers and
107 RBI’s. But in 1963 he was back to
his average of .258 with 22 homers. He
was again part are trade rumors in again with Detroit. This time it came through. He came to Detroit with Jack Hamilton for Gus
Triandos and Jim Bunning. Charlie
Dressen, theTigers manger wanted a top outfielder and the only two they
considered were Felipe Alou and Don. But
Don never quite caught on. He was a
utility player in 1964 hitting .256 but with a strong 80 RBI’s. Don always said he did not care or pay
attention to his batting average. All he
cared about was driving in runs. 80 was
tied for second on the 64 Tiges. In 1965
his playing time was dropping to 122 games.
He hit .278 and drove in 58 runs.
The big news in 1965 was the end of his consecutive games without an
error in the outfield. It happened in
Kansas City where Charlie Finley owned the Athletics. Always one for gimmicks he used dogs to run
out and carry the bases to the grounds crew to change the bases. As Don said “"I
have a line drive hit to me and I scooped it up and I guess the ground crew
thought it was the last out and sent the dog on the field. I scooped the ball
up and threw it to Dick McAuliffe at shortstop. The dog just shot out there and
the ball went through his legs at the same time the dog went through
there." The runner advanced a base, and the scorer couldn't charge the dog
with the error so it was assigned to Demeter.
He started 1966 with the Tigers as the 4th outfielder and
after 32 games where he was hitting .212 he was sent to the Red Sox with Julio
Navarro for Earl Wilson and Joe Christopher.
Don would be traded one more time the following season, 1967, to the
Cleveland Indians where he ended the season and his career in the majors.
Alex Garbowski had not even a cup of coffee with the
Tigers. He had 6 years in the minors
mainly as a shortstop starting right after the war in 1946 at the age of
24. His first few years held lots of
promise. He hit .390 his first year in
class D and then .396 in Class C. In
1948 he his .301 in class A ball and never hit .300 again. In 1952 the Tigers picked him up in the rule
5 draft and he made his major league debut in a game in Detroit where the
Tigers trailed the St. Louis Browns 5-3 in the 9th. With two out Matt Batts hit a fielder choice
and was safe at first. Alex came in as a
pinch runner. The nest batter was Jerry
Priddy who hit a fly left and the game ended without Alex moving off
first. Less than month later the White
Sox were in Detroit in a tie game that was 4-4 in the 13th. Johnny Groth hit a single to start of the 13th. Matt Batts then hit bunt and reached first on
an error. Alex came in again to replace
Matt. Jerry Priddy then grounded out and
moved Johnny to third and Alex to second.
Joe Ginsberg came up and hit a fly ball to right and Johnny and Alex did
not advance. Johnny Lipon then came up
and hit a foul ball that first baseman Eddie Robinson caught to end the inning
and Alex’s time in the majors. He did
not get an at bat. He pinch ran twice
and only made one extra base. The Tigers
would lose the second game just like they lost the first game he appeared
in. Alex would go back to the minors and
would be done in baseball after 1954.
Johnny Pasek was a bumped from the squad by a manager for
the Tigers. He started his time in pro
ball in 1927 as a catcher for the Pensacola Pilots. He hit .277 that year which was not far
formhis career average in the minors of .278.
He bounced around the minors until 1932 when he was picked up by the
Tigers and assigned to Beaumont. He hit
.260 for the Explorers in 1932 and was hitting .292 in 1933 when he was called
up to the Tiges. He would get in 28
games that year for the Tigers and hit .246 with 4 RBI’s. He was great defensively gunning done over
half of the attempted base stealers. But
at the end of the season the Tigers were looking for a new manager. They wanted Babe Ruth but the Babe went on
vacation thinking the Tiges would wait for him.
But they did not. While the Babe
was in Hawaii, Connie Mack, owner of the Philadelphia Athletics, had one of his
fire sales. He made Mickey Cochrane
available and the Tigers jumped at it.
The Tigers sent Johnny to the Athletics and $100,000 for Mickey to
become their starting catcher and manager.
Johnny never made it to Philly.
He was traded that very day to the Chicago White Sox with George
Earnshaw for Charlie Berry and $20,000.
Johnny got in only 4 games for the Sox going 3 for 9 with a walk and in
May was done in the majors. Johnny would
go on to play in the minors though 1942 when at the age of 37 his career as a
ball player was over.
John Deering pitched almost exactly half his time in the
majors with the Tigers. He started his
time in pro ball in 1899 with the Schenectady Electricians of the New York
State League. He was 1-12. He moved on and in 1900 was 4-13 with 2
teams. He did not show a record in
baseball again until he appeared for the Tigers in 1903. He was appeared in 10 games for the Tiges and
started 8 of them and pitched 5 of them as complete games. He was 3-4 with a 3.86 ERA. In July the Tigers traded him to the New York
Highlanders (Eventually they would become the Yankees.) for Paddy Greene. Paddy was a 28 year old third baseman who
would get in one game for the Tigers and go 0 for 3. John would pitch in 9 games for the
Highlanders and have his only winning season in pro ball. He was 4-3 with the highlanders and a 3.75
ERA. After the 1903 season John was done
in the majors. He played in Toledo with
the Mud Hens in 1904 and went 5-20. He
was done in baseball after the 1906 season.
June 24 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines
George Harper started his major league career with the
Tigers. He started his professional
baseball career in 1913 with the Paris Boosters of the Texas Oklahoma
League. It was class D and in 125 games
he hit .309 as an outfielder. His play
so impressive that he moved up to the Kansas City Blues of the American
Association which was class AA. He
continued to hit with a .297 average.
But in 1914 he again started the season in Paris and again hit well at
an almost identical .308 average. Before
moving up to class B Fort Worth for 1915 where he hit .299. The Tigers figured he was the real deal and
brought him up to the Tigers for 1916.
He made his debut against the White Sox and Eddie Cicotte in Chicago as
a pinch hitter. He recorded and out as
the Tigers lost 9-4. The lefty hitting
back up outfielder hit only .161 in 44 games as a back up outfielder. In fact he appeared in 44 games that first
year and only had 56 at bats as he only started 9 games. It was a tough outfield to crack as a rookie
as the Tigers had Hall of Famers Ty Cobb, and Sam Crawford plus standout Bobby
Veach. On the bench they also had up and
coming Hall of Famer Harry Heilmann. In
1917 he got in more games as Crawford retired and Heilmann went into service
for World War I. George picked up his
average to .205 and in 1918 he furthered it to .242. 1919 found him out of baseball. He went to manage the saw mill that he
owned. But it was not a good year for
him as his five year old daughter died and his new born daughter also
died. So for 1920 he hired someone to
run his sawmill and returned to baseball with the Oklahoma City Indians in the
Western League. He did manage to get
back to the majors in 1922 with the Reds and stayed up in the majors thru
1929. He would finish in the top 10 in
OBP 3 times, homers 4 times, while still possessing good speed and a solid
glove, even leading the league in fielding percentage. After that he dropped to the PCL and
eventually down to C ball where he finished his playing career in 1936. A 20 year professional baseball career with
three years as a Tiger. His major league batting average was .303 while his
batting average as a Tiger was only .220.
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