Riccardo Ingram
Bruce Robbins
Augie Johns was a large cog in the 1926 Tigers. He was a lefty pitcher and had a nickname of
Lefty from his days in the Tigers farm system starting in 1920. He won 20 and 21 games for the Tigers Fort
Worth team in 1921 and 1922. He followed
that up with a 18, 12 and an outstanding year of 20-8 with a 2.74 ERA in
1925. Clearly he as ready for the
show. In 1926 the Tigers under player
manager Ty Cobb brought up Augie to be part of the Tiges pitching staff. Autgie started the second game of the season
as the number two starter on the team and went the distance pitching all 9
innings against the Cleveland Indians and allowing only 3 runs on 4 hits and
getting a win in his firt major league appearance. But the 1926 pitching was a hodge podge sort
of staff. About the only thing
consistent was that Earl Whitehill was the ace starting 34 games. Beyond that it was not clear who had what
roles. Three pitchers could be called
the other starters of a 4 man rotation having each started 22-26 games. This is a far cry from Whitehill’s 34
starts. Yet it is still far more than
the third tier of pitchers who had 12, 13, and 14 starts. This was the group Augie was in. He made 14 starts but also finished 9 games
he did not start. Kinda like a closer of
today. This was the same sort of
situation that the other third tier starters found themselves in. In those game Augie was 6-4 with a 5.35
ERA. He also had 1 save in the 9 games
he finished but did not start. His ERA
was better then one of the second tier starters after Earl Whitehill but not
better than any of the other third tier starters. In Augies second game he was bombed by the
same Indians giving up 8 runs on 9 hits in only 5 innings for the loss. Augie was out of the rotation by mid June and
was in the pen for the rest of the season.
Augie was again on the staff in 1927 but not for long. He pitched in one game in relief in April,
the sixth game of the season and in one inning gave up one run in one inning
pitched to the St. Louis Browns and Hall of Famer George Sisler. Augie never got in another major league
game. He was back in the Tigers farm
system for the rest of 1927 and 1928 before heading out to Hollywood of the
Pacific Coast League. He was done in
baseball after 1934. His final record in
the majors and as a Tiger was 6-4 with a 5.38 ERA and 1 save.
Sammy Hale
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