Saturday, August 30, 2014

August 30 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Randy O’Neal started his major league pitching career as a member of the 1984 Tigers. He and Roger Mason were the two hot prospect pitchers brought up when the roster expanded in September. He made his debut in relief of Roger Mason. Roger had gotten himself in trouble against the Orioles. He was down 3-0 after four innings. Randy came in and pitched three innings and only gave up one hit. However, Roger still got the loss. Randy then got in three more games starting all three and went 2-1 with a 3.38 ERA. He beat the Brewers twice and lost to the Yankees on the last day of the season. In 1985 he was in a few more games going 5-5 with a 3.24 ERA. In 1986 he was our number 6 starter and also made a few relief appearances. He was 3-7 but his ERA increased to 4.33. Before the 1987 season started he was traded to the Braves with Chuck Cary for Freddy Tiburcio (who never made it to the bigs) and Terry Harper. Randy was a big leaguer for parts of 7 seasons. His career totals were 17-19 with a 4.35 ERA.

Steve Baker made his major league debut as a Tiger pitcher in 1978. In his debut he started against the Orioles and left in the seventh inning with the game tied 1-1. John Hiller came in in relief and gave up a homer to Lee May to lose the game 2-1. But Steve got the win against Baltimore a week later for his first decision and went on to start 8 more games and beat the Orioles once more and lost once to them. He also lost to the Yankees twice and the Red Sox. His final totals for the season was a 2-4 record with a 4.55 ERA. In 1979 he was with the Tigers again and went 1-7 with a 6.64 ERA. The Tiges did not bring him up again after that and he was sold to the Blue Jays thus ending his career with the Tiger organization. He did pitch in the majors in 1982 and 1983 for the Athletics and the Cardinals. His final totals for his major league career were a 7-16 record and a 5.13 ERA.

Steve Partenheimer played his entire major league career in Detroit.  He was the team captain at Amherst College where he played for 4 years.  He graduated in 1913 and signed with the Tigers.  He was brought straight to the Tigers and made his major league debut at third base in a game against the St. Louis Browns on June 28, 1913.  He started at third in place of George Moriarty the regular third baseman.  Steve made three plate appearances that day and got on base once after being hit by a pitch.  In the field he made three assists and one error.  At the end of the game the 21 year olds major league career was over.   Steve did have two sons that played professional baseball.  His son Hal played minor league ball and his son Stan had a major league career that lasted nine times as long as his dad’s.


Pol Perritt ended his major league career with the Tigers in 1921.  He had started his career in 1912 with the Cardinals.  He played three years for the Cardinals with his best season being 1914 when went 16-13 with a 2.36 ERA.  He was sent to the Giants of New York before the 1915 season for Bob Bescher and cash.  For the Giants he did well through 1918 winning 12, 18, 17, 18 games each year.   However, in 1919 the wheels came off Pol’s career.  He went 1-1 in 1919 and was only in 11 games.  In 1920 it was worse as he went 0-0 in 8 games.  Finally in 1921 the Giants sold him to the Tigers in June after Pol pitched in only 5 games.   In Detroit he made four appearances and won one game.  He went started and with the rules of the day won on three innings pitched against the White Sox.  He gave up 3 runs on 5 hits but his opponent, Dickie Kerr gave up 7 runs on 8 hits.  Pol was done with the majors after 1921 having never won another game.

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