September 22 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Danny Klassen ended his 5 year major league experience with the Tigers in 2003.  He was born in Canada and started his pro career at the age of 17.  He had spent four seasons with the Diamondbacks before coming to Detroit.   He played 22 games for the Tigers in 2003 as a utility infielder after signing as a free agent.   In his time with Detroit he hit .247 and one homer and 7 RBI’s.   He was a solid defensive third baseman and because of his defense he was often called on to play second and short.

Vince Coleman was a speedster that ended his career in Detroit in 1997.  He had bounced around his last few years his glory days with the Cardinals.  With the Cards he was rookie of the year and he led the league in steals his first six season as a big leaguer.  He was traded to the Mets and things were not the same for him.  His steals were down as was his batting average.  But his bigger issues were off the field.  He was charged in a rape complaint that never came to court.  He hurt star Dwight Gooden when he hit him in the arm swinging a golf club in the locker room and finally he tossed a firecracker into a crowd of fans injuring two year old.  He bounced to the Royals, Mariners, Reds and finally the Tigers where he had 15 plate appearances in 6 games.  He had one hit to give him one total base as a Tiger.  He was released on April 16, 15 games in the season.

Anse Moore played 51 games for the Tigers in 1946 mainly in the outfield.  He was a returning World War II vet returning to the franchise he had spent several years with in the minors before the war.  He had hit .270-.290 before the war and hopes were he would do the same for the Tiges.  But in the 148 plate appearances he got 12 walks and 28 hits for a .209 average.  After 1946 Anse was back in the minors and hit about .300 for the next seven years before he was done with pro baseball. 

Chuck Hostetler was a reserve outfielder and pinch hitter for the Tigers in 1944 and 1945.  He started in the minors back in 1928.  By the time he made it to the majors World War II was on and Chuck was a bit old for the service at 40 years old.  He was not, however, the oldest player in the league.  In fact, he was only the 8^th oldest.  As a 40 year old rookie he got in 90 games and hit .298 with a .350 on base %.  He didn’t have great range but he did have some speed as he did steal 4 bases and he was a good glove.  In 1945 he had a big drop off in playing time getting into only 42 games and his plate appearances dropped even further to only 51.  His average dropped as well to a mere .159.  He did get into the World Series in 1945 but in 3 games he was 0-3.  He was released by the Tigers before the 1946 season as the majors were getting all their players back from the war and Chuck was done a player.

Frank Walker started his major league career with the Tigers in 1917.  He played two seasons with the Tigers as a reserve outfielder.  He was 22 years old in 1917 and only got in 2 games and went 0-2.  In 1918 he came back to the Tigers and hit only .198 in 55 games.  He went out to Portland in the PCL in 1919.  1920 and 1921 found him back in the majors but in Philly with the Athletics where he hit .229.  1925 was Frank’s last season in the majors.  He played for the New York Giants and hit .222.  Frank continued to play in organized ball  in the minors and also managed in the minors until 1931.  

Ira Flagstead started his major league career at the same time and on the same team, the Tigers of 1917 as Frank Walker did.  Ira had a higher batting average and therefore longer staying power in the majors than Frank.  Ira hit .289 for the Tigers over six seasons.  He was sold to the Red Sox in 1923 and had some very good years with them.  He received MVP votes for from 1924 through 1928 with the Red Sox.  He hit .295 for the Sox over seven years.  He wound up his career with the Senators and Pirates in 1929 and 1930.  Ira died before the 1940 season started in Olympia, Washington. 

Hooks Dauss is the Tigers all time winningest pitcher for the Tigers.  He was born George August Dauss but was called “Hooks” because of his curve ball.  The Tigers purchased him from St. Paul of the American Association in August on 1912.  He went on to pitch his entire career with the Tiges from 1912 when he was 1-1, until 1926 when he was 12-6.  In between he had three seasons of over 20 wins and twice won 19 games.  He won a total of 223 games for the Tigers with a 3.30 ERA.  One record that he has for the Tigers that is likely never to be broken is his 245 complete games.  That averages out to over 16 per season  if you average it over the 15 seasons he saw playing time.  Hooks was also an excellent fielder as well.  He led the league in assists for pitchers three times and led the league in fielding percentage for pitchers in 1924 when he did not commit an error.

Below is an American Caramel card of Hooks from my collection.