August 10 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Jeff Frazier came to the Tigers in a couple of different ways. He was drafted by the Tigers in 2004. In 2007 we sent him to Seattle in a trade for Yorman Bazardo. Then in 2008 he was traded back to Detroit for future considerations. I’m not sure what those amounted to. He did play 9 games for the Tigers in 2010 in a 16 day major league career. In his debut he was DH against the Red Sox in Fenway and faced Jon Lester. He went 0-3 against Lester and struck out twice. Tim Wakefield came in in relief and Jeff got a walk and scored later on a wild pitch. The Tigers went on to win 6-5. For the season Jeff went 5 for 23 with the one walk. At the end of the season the Tigers released Jeff who had hit .256 in Toledo for the season.  He was signed by the Washington Nationals but was released after a season in the minors.  The Tiges picked him back up and put him back in Toledo.  But he hit only .190 and the Tiges released the 29 year old one more time. He finished his pro career as a minor leaguer for the Cubs in 2012.

Josh Anderson played part of one season with Detroit in 2009. He split that season between Detroit and KC who we sold him to at the end of July. For Detroit he hit .242 and drove in 16 runs. He was an outfielder for us. He is  done in baseball at this time. He was picked up and released by the Reds, Brewers and Braves in 2010 while never again making it to the show.  No one picked him up for 2011 and his pro career was over.

Brandon Lyon was signed as a free agent for $4.25M by the Tigers before the 2009 season. The year before he had saved 26 games for the Arizona Diamondbacks and posted a 4.70 ERA. For Detroit in 2009 he saved 3 games but had a decent ERA at 2.86. He was granted free agency at the end of the season and signed with the Astros for $4.25M. He shared closing duties with Matt Lindstrom last year in Houston. This year he had a rough year and is now out with a torn bicep and is out for the season after the surgery.

Tom Brookens and his cousin, Ike Brookens, played for the Tigers. Tom’s twin brother Tim was in the Tigers organization but never made it up to the bigs. Tom was the utility player for the Tigers on the 1984 team as well as the other 10 years he played for the Tigers. While mainly a third baseman, he played every other player position on the Tigers with the exception of left field. He caught five innings of a game in 1985. Tom was known for his range and was the soul of the Tigers in my opinion. At the end of his career he was traded to the Yankees for Charles Hudson. I was living in Massachusetts at the time and had many “Sawx” fans tell me the Tigers just traded away their heart and soul. Sure enough, the Tigers dropped from 88 wins in 88 with Tom to 59 wins in 1989 without him. Tom played one more season in the majors in 1990 with the Cleveland Indians.  15 years later the Tigers called again.  This time they wanted Tom for his smarts.  He became the minor league manager for the class A Oneonta Tigers.  They were a 10^th place club before Tom and Tom took them to a second place finish.  Tom continued to perform as a minor league manager and moved up to high A West Michigan and took them to the league title.  He moved up to Erie and they did well and eventually he was brought back up to the majors as a coach.  He was one of the leading candidates to replace Jim Leyland.  But he did not and today Tom is no longer in the major leagues.

Rocky Colavito came to the Tigers in the great Harvey Kuenn deal in 1960. The deal was the batting champ in Harvey for the home run champ in Rocky. Rocky hit 20 or more homers in a season for 11 straight years including all four years he spent in Detroit. He became the first outfielder to record a perfect 100% fielding percentage while playing the entire season. He had a very distinctive way to loosen up in the on deck circle of rolling his shoulders with bat behind him. While in Detroit he had a long feud with writer Joe Falls. Joe started keeping stats for Rocky such as RNBI's or Runs Not Batted In. Rocky eventually was traded out of Detroit after four years, in a deal that sent Bob Anderson, Rocky and $50,000 to Kansas City Athletics for Dave Wickersham, Ed Rakow and Jerry Lumpe. His last year in baseball was 1968 when he was with the Yankees. That was also the year he got his one win as a pitcher. He came in in relief in a game against the Tigers and pitched two and two thirds innings and won the game 6-5.

Cult baseball players

Ed Beatin was a member of the 1887 World Champion Wolverines. He was a 20 year old lefty who went 1-1 for the Wolverines that season. He did not get in to the post season classic as the Wolverines bested the St. Louis Browns 10 games to 5. He did not get in as the Wolverines went with a three man staff. Not quite a rotation as Pretzels Getzien pitched 6 complete games, Lady Baldwin pitched 5 complete games and Pete Conway pitched 4 complete games in the 15 game series. Ed returned to the Wolverines in 1888 and was the number four starter and replace Lady Baldwin as the number one lefty on the team. He went 5-7 with a 2.86 ERA and hit .250 at the plate. After the Wolverines dropped out of the National League after the 1888 season Ed went on to play for the Cleveland Spiders from 1889 through 1891. He won 20 games in 1889 and 22 in 1890 when the Spiders only won 44 for the whole season.