Matthew Joyce played the outfield for the Tigers in
2008. He was born in 1984, the year of
the Tigers. The Tigers drafted him out
of Florida Southern College in 2005. He
worked his way up the Tigers farm system from Oneonta to West Michigan to Erie
to Toledo. Every step of the way he
helped lead his team to a division title until 2008 when he split time with the
Mud Hens and Detroit. He hit .252 for
the Tigers in 2008 and in 92 games drove in 33 RBI’s with 12 homers. But in the off season the Tigers traded Matt
to Tampa Bay. The leftie blossomed as a
power hitting outfielder. He was an
all-star in 2011 and played 6 seasons for the Rays. He was .250 hitter but averaged 15 homers a
season. But his K’s are still kinda high
often K’ing over 100 times a season. In
2015 Matthew is with the Angels hitting .178 with 3 homers as their starting
left fielder making $4.75M. He is a free
agent at the end of the season and I would expect that he will be on the free
agent market after season like this.
Wendall Magee ended his major league career as a Tiger from
2000 to 2002. He was a back up
outfielder every year until his last season, 2002, when he was the starting
center fielder. He hit .255 for the
Tiges without a lot of power. In his
last game he went 2 for 4 against Mark Buehrle. In his career he got over 1000 at bats but
only hit 24 homers. He finished up his
professional career in the minors in 2005.
Dan Meyer was a utility player for the Tigers in the mid
1970’s. He played the outfield and first
hitting .240 and hitting 13 homers in over 800 at bats. Not a lot of power there for a first
baseman. In 1977 he was drafted by the
Mariners in the expansion draft becoming the 9th Seattle
Mariner. He made a wopping $30,000 that
year and hit .273 with 22 homers. 9 more
than he hit with the Tigers in three years and with over 200 fewer at
bats. He continued to perform at that
level for the Mariners until they traded him to the A’s for Rick Bordi after
the 1981 season. He was the A’s
starting first baseman in 1982 but was not very effective hitting .240 and only
hitting 8 homers. The only guys who hit
fewer were Mike Heath at catcher and Fred Stanley at short. Dan was no longer a starter after that and
was done in the majors in May 1985.
Jim Hegan was a catcher for the Tigers for part of the 1958
season. The Tigers picked him up from
the Indians with Hank Aguirre in a trade that sent Jay Porter and Hal
Woodeshick to the Tribe. Mike had been
the Tribes starting catcher for over ten years before coming to Detroit. Never a great hitter, he did catch some
great pitchers while with Cleveland and was a solid back stop making the all
star game 5 times. But with Detroit he
hit .192. So the Tigers traded him to
the Phillies for John Turk. He was done
as a major leaguer in 1960 after bouncing a around for a couple of teams as a
back up. Jim is also known for being the
father of Mike Hegan who played in the majors starting in 1964. Only 4
years after his dad was done. Mike
played until 1977 with the Yankees, A’s and Pilots/Brewers. He owed my cousin $2 for his paper
route. He skipped town without paying
when he was traded by the Brewers.
Harry Heilmann is in the Hall of Fame as a Tiger. He won the
batting title every other year starting in 1921 and ending in 1927 with
averages of .394, .403, .393 and .398.
He started his career as kinda a utility player playing first and second
but mainly in the outfield. In 1919 he
because the Tigers staring first baseman but in 1921 when the Tigers picked up
Lu Blue, Harry moved back to the outfield with Ty Cobb and Bobby Veach. Cobb hit .389 and Veach hit .338 to go with
Harry League leading .394. Not a bad
outfield! That year Harry made
$7,500. At the end of the 1929 season
Harry was sold the Cincinnati Reds. He
played there until the end of his playing career in 1932. Starting in 1942 Harry became the voice of
the Tigers broadcasting their games over the radio until his death in 1951 at
the age of 56. He is buried at Holy
Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield.
Below is Neilson's Chocolate card of Harry from my collection.
For a non Tiger but with Ties to the Tigers August 3 is the
date Willard Hershberger died in 1940.
Willard was a back up catcher for the Cincinnati Reds. He was a troubled soul having found the body
of his dad one day after coming home from school. He had committed suicide. Willard would have been a starter on any
other team in the league. But the Reds
had HOF’er Ernie Lombardi as their starting catcher. Ernie was injured and Willard stepped in as
catcher. He was doing great hitting .309
and the Reds were on their way to their second NL pennant in row. But the Reds dropped a couple of games and
Willard blamed himself. He had some
conversations with his skipper and was given the day off. But the skipper asked him to come to the
game. Willard said he would. But instead he went up to his room of his
hotel in Boston where the team was staying as they played the Braves. He laid paper on the floor of the bathroom,
leaned over the tub and slit his own throat.
The Reds went on to win the NL flag and faced the Tigers. The Reds had to bring in a former catcher now
coach to fill in behind the plate. The
Reds went on to win the series in 7 over the Tigers.
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