August 16 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Roger Cedeno played one year as a Tiger in 2001. He came to Detroit in a shocking trade by Randy Smith. The deal was between the Tigers and Astros and a catcher was involved. The deal was the Tigers sent Brad Ausmus, Doug Brocail and Nelson Cruz for Chris Holt, Mitch Meluskey and Roger. Roger became our starting center fielder replacing Juan Encarnacion. Roger led all starters with a .293 batting average as well as 55 stolen bases. At the end of the season his contract was up and he was granted free agency. He signed with the Mets and started the next two years in their outfield. His batting average dropped to the .260's and he was traded to the Cardinals in 2004. The Cardinals released him part way through the 2005 season and Roger has been out of baseball since then.

Damian Jackson played one year as a Tiger in 2002. He too came to Detroit in a shocking trade between the Padres and Tigers that involved a catcher. The Tigers sent Rich Gomez and Javier Cardona to the Padres for catcher Matt Walbeck and Damian. Damian had been a starting shortstop and then second baseman for the Padres hitting in .240-.250 and drawing about 50 plus walks. When he came to Detroit his average went up to .257 and drew 21 walks in half the at bats. But Damion Easley was the starting second baseman while hitting .224 and drawing 27 walks. So naturally the Randy Smith released Damian Jackson. Eventually Randy Smith was replaced by Dave Dombrowski and Damion Easley was also released. Damian Jackson was done with the majors in 2006 and done in professional baseball in 2009.

Billy Rhiel ended his major league career with the Tigers in 1932 and 1933.  He was a utility player over his career playing every position except pitcher and catcher.  He started his major league career with the Brooklyn Robins in 1929.  He had a career high 4 homers that season while hitting .278.  He was waived by Brooklyn before the 1930 season and was picked up by the Boston Braves.  However, he spent most of the 1930 and all of the 1931 season with the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League.  For Detroit in 1932 he played 85 games and hit .280 with 3 homers and 38 RBI’s.  1933 found him getting in to 19 games and hitting only .176 with only 1 RBI.  Billy wore number 5 in 1933 for the Tigers.  Hank Greenberg wore number 7.  In 1934, after Billy was gone, Hank started wearing number 5 which he wore for the rest of his career.

Fats Fothergill played for the Tigers from 1922 through 1930, when he was waived and picked up by the White Sox.  Fats, or Bob, weighed a hefty 230 pounds at 5’10” and was the Tigers left fielder.  He was a great bat with 8 seasons in a row hitting over .300 for the Tigers.  His best seasons were 1926 and 1927 when he hit .367 and .359 finishing third and fourth in the league those years in the batting race.  He also drove in 114 RBI’s in 1927.  His career batting average was .325.  He was waived in 1930 after hitting .259 for the Tigers.  He was picked up by the White Sox but never hit above .300 again for the Pale Hose.  He did manage to hit .344 for the Red Sox in his last major league season of 1933 but that was with only 32 at bats in 28 games.  He died five years later at the age of 40 in Detroit.

Baby Doll Jacobson started his major league career in 1915 with the Tigers.  He only got in 37 games for the Tigers before being sent to the St. Louis Browns with $15,000 for Bill James.  Baby Doll, or William Chester, went on to a career .311 hitter over 11 seasons while being a solid defensive center fielder with a great glove.  Bill James would win 35 games for the Tigers over five years.  Baby Doll continued to play major league ball until 1927 and was a professional in the minors until 1929.