Mark Parent made a career as a back up catcher with a stop
in Detroit. Mark was a good fielding
catcher but was somewhat slow afoot. In
fact he was one of the slower catchers I have ever seen. I believe his .214 career batting average was
more due to his lack of ability to get down to first in time before the next
inning than an inability to make contact with the ball. He spent time with the Padres, Rangers,
Orioles, Cubs and Pirates before the Tigers signed him as a free agent for the
1996 season. Mark had one of his better
years at the plate with the Tiges. He
hit .240 with 7 homers and 17 RBI’s in 38 games. But he did not last the season with the
Tigers. Randy Smith felt he had his
catcher of the future with Brad Ausmus whom he had just acquired in June from
the Padres in the deal that sent catcher John Flaherty to the Padres. They had a back up Raul Casanova so Mark was
released by the Tigers in August. Less
than a week later the Orioles signed him again as a back up. Mark finished his 13 season career as a back
up with the Phillies in 1998. Today he
is managing the AA Reading Phillies.
This is his fifth year as a minor league manager. He has a career managing record of 386-281.
Chris Pittaro was the second coming of Mickey Mantle for the
Tigers in 1985. At the age of 23 in 1985
Sparky told the baseball world that Chris was going to be the greatest ball
player the Tiges had ever seen. He was
the starting third baseman for opening day despite only one year at the AA
level under his belt where he hit .284.
But up he came and with a lot of eyes on him. Chris started out hot. After five game he was hitting .353. But after ten games he was down to .282. Chris’s average continued to drop and after
28 games and a .242 average he was sent done to Nashville, Detroit’s AAA team
at the time. At the end of the season he
was traded to the Twins and in 25 games with the Twins over two seasons he hit
.182 and was done in the majors. Today
he is Billy Beane’s right hand man in Oakland as the Director of Scouting for
the Athletics.
Mickey Tettleton was a power hitting catcher for the Tigers
in the early 1990’s. He had the most
distinctive batting stance I may have ever seen. He stood at the plate flat footed with the
bat laying straight back and his back hand not grabbing the bat but flat
open. He looked almost bored at the
plate. Yet he managed to hit 112 home
runs for the Tigers over four years. He
won two silver slugger awards and was an all star with the Tigers as well. Originally with the Oakland A’s, the
Tigers acquired him from the Orioles,
where he won a Silver Slugger and was an all star as well, in a trade for pitcher Jeff Robinson. The Tigers granted him free agency after the
1994 season and he signed with the Rangers and played his last three major
league season with the Rangers
Vito Valentinetti pitched for the Tigers in 1958. He had bounced around from the White Sox to
the Cubs to the Indians before landing in Detroit in a trade that also brought
Milt Bolling to the Tigers for Pete Wojey and $20,000. Vito pitched In 15 games for the Tigers. ON April 21 of that year he came in from the
bull pen in the ninth inning of a tie game against the White Sox and got them
out 1-2-3. In the bottom half of the
inning, Mickey McDermott hit a homer to give Vito his only win as a Tiger
pitcher. About two months later Vito
was traded to the Senators for Al Cicotte.
Vito finished his career with a 13-14 record over 5 seasons with 5
teams.
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