Andy Van Hekken
Gabe Kapler nailed me with a foul ball at Tiger Stadium as a Tiger.
Gabe started his professional baseball career as a Tiger draft pick in
1995 out of Cal State Fullerton, a well known baseball school. He worked his way up the Tigers farm system
showing great power. He should have
showed power as he was also a body builder.
In 1998 he was at AA Jacksonville and hit .322 with 28 homers when he
got the call to the Tigers as a late season call up. In his debut he got his
first MLB hit off of another late season call up for the Twins, Benj
Sampson. He got into 7 games that season
and got 5 hits including a triple and stole 2 bases as a right fielder. In 1999, the last season at Tiger Stadium,
Gabe was the Tigers starting left fielder.
He hit .245 with 18 homers and 11 stolen bases. That was the year he hit me. It was a line shot that I swear never went
above his shoulders. I was sitting on the third base line just beside the
Tigers dug out in the front row. I could not bail to the left or right so
I went up. The ball went between the railing and the concrete wall.
It hit my program first. The ink from the ball is smeared on the
program and then it hit me in the gut just below the ribs on my right
side. The ball then bounced off me and hit the lady to my left in the arm
and then bounced under my seat. The lady behind me picked it up for a
souvenir. The ushers came down the aisle and stood in the aisle and
called over "are you okay?" I replied "yeah, I'm
fine." The usher then replied rather annoyed "not you,
her!" indicating the woman beside me. I sheepishly sat down.
My 15 minutes of fame were fleeting at best. I had the blackest
bruise I have ever had and shockingly it was about the size of a baseball.
If you don't remember, Gabe was also a body builder. But at the end
of the season Randy Smith decided he wanted a big power hitting name to go to
the new pitchers ball park, The Coma, errr, Comerica Park. Randy traded Gabe with Justin Thompson, Frank
Catalanotto, Francisco Cordero, Bill Halelman and minor leaguer Alan Webb for
his big name, Juan Gonzalez and Danny Patterson and Gregg Zaun. Gabe went on to play until 2010 with the
Rangers, Rockies, Red Sox, Brewers and Rays.
He was a career .268 hitter and was in right field when the Red Sox won
their first World Series in 86 years.
Howard Bailey
Terry Fox was the Tigers career saves leader for years until I
think John Hiller. Terry started his major league career in 1960
with the Milwaukee Braves. He played in
5 games and did not record a decision coming out of the pen all his games. At the end of the season he was traded to the
Tigers with Dick Brown, Bill Bruton, and Chuck Cottier for Frank Bolling and
Neil Chrisley. Terry immediately became
the Tigers closer. He had 12 saves that
first season as a Tiger which was more than half the closers of the rest of the
AL had and he posted a 1.41 ERA. He
continued to be a fantastic closer for the Tigers over the next four and half
seasons. He would end up being sold to
the Phillies in May of 1966 where he ended his season and his career. For the Tigers he had 55 saves which made him
the all time team leader. He also had a
very solid 2.77 ERA. I purchased the
artwork for his Topps rookie card from 1961. It actually was a photo of
him as a Milwaukee Brave that was shaded over to look like a Tiger uniform and
then colored. I sent him a letter asking if he remembered the photo being
taken or any other stories being about the card. He wrote a nice letter
back in perfect penmanship (so neat it looked like he used a ruler.) and he
said the photo was taken in Spring training in 1958 while he was a Brave.
He said he never saw his card or even knew about it until he retired.
Then he sent me a signed photo of himself as well as that letter and a
signed card. A truly classy gentlemen.
Al Aber
Harry Malmberg spent his entire major league career as a
Tiger. He went from high school to the
US Army in 1944 after he was drafted by Uncle Sam. After his discharge in 1946 he was drafted
again but this time by the Indians.
Actually he was signed as a free agent.
He worked his way up to AAA for Cleveland in 1951. There he stayed for four years. Not good enough to break the strong Indians
line up and not bad enough to be used as trade bait. Just before the 1955 season the Indians
finally relented and sold the then 29 year old to the Tigers. The Tigers had been trying to solve second
base for a few years. In 1952 they had
Jerry Priddy. In 1953 they had Johnny
Pesky. In 1954 they had Frank Bolling
(see the Terry Fox story for how Frank left Detroit.) Harry would join the fray
in 1955 as Frank Bolling was taken by the Army.
On opening day the Tigers used Fred Hatfield as the starter at second but
Harry was used a pinch runner that same game.
The two would battle all season for second base. But Fred hit .232 to Harry’s .216 and Fred
hit 8 homers to Harry’s 0. In 1956 Harry
was back in the minors and Fred was on the bench. The Tigers went back to Frank Bolling at
second who was back from the military.
Harry would stay in the minors until 1962 when he was done as a player
at the age of 36. But Harry was not done
with baseball. He would go into coaching
and managing in the minors before he was done in 1973. He died three years later at the age of 51 in
1976 of pancreatic cancer.
Billy Hitchcock
Joe Sugden
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