Nate Cornejo
John McDonald
Dixie Walker
Tom Seats started his career in the majors as a Tiger pitcher. Tom was born in North Carolina but appears to be a California boy through and through. He started his pro career in D level ball in the Nebraska State League in 1934. He was 18-8 as a lefty starter. He then signed with Branch Rickey’s Cardinals farm system and worked there for 5 years becoming eligible for the rule 5 draft as he never made the majors. The Tigers drafted him in October 1939 for 1940. This is significant in getting Tom to the majors as two months later the Commissioner, Judge Landis, who hated the farm system created by Branch Rickey and employed by the Tigers, decided that about two thirds of the Tigers minor leaguers were now free agents. This decimated the Tigers farm system and meant that that path was clear for a lot of players that would not otherwise make the majors. Tom was one of these players and he made his major league debut on May 4 of 1940. He came into a game that had long been out of hand between the Philadelphia Athletics and the Tiges. The Athletics had scored 9 in the third to make the score 7-2. By the time Tom came in in the 5th it was already 11-2 in favor of the Athletics. Tom gave up 3 runs on 5 hits in 3.1 innings pitched. But the damage was long done and the game ended in a 14-5 pounding. Tom got his first win 2 day later when he came in to a game that was also out of hand to the Yanks with the score 4-1 to the Yanks in Yankee Stadium after 6 innings. Tom blanked the Yanks for 3 innings and K’d 3 Yanks. Meanwhile the Tiger bats started to pound the Yanks with three homers by HOF’ers Charlie Gerhinger, and Hank Greenberg and back up catcher Billy Sullivan along with 2 more doubles by Greenberg scored 5 Tiger runs in the 8th and 9th to make the final score 6-4 Tiges and give Tom his first win in only his second appearance. His next decision was loss to Bob Feller and the Cleveland Indians. Tom lasted only 1.2 innings and gave up 6 runs in that short period. This would be kind of crucial as the Tigers and Indians battled through out the season for the pennant. In September the lead changed hands 7 times between the two and culminated in the great Bob Feller battle with Floyd Giebel. But in the end the Tigers won the pennant and Tom’s record of 2-2 helped get the Tigers there. In April of 1941 the Tiges sold Tom to the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. Tom was 30 at this time but pitched the next four seasons in San Fran. My assumption is his age kept him out of the draft for WWII. By the end of the War a Brooklyn Dodger team that was trying to contend picked up Tom for one more go in the majors. Tom went 10-7 as part of a hodge podge starting rotation of 6 pitchers with 15 or more starts but only 2 had more than 20 starts. Tom had an ERA that was almost a full run higher than the other 5 starters. At the end of the season the Dodgers were 11 games back of first and Tom was done as a major leaguer. He would pitch through 1950 in the minors on the west coast and died out there in 1992 at the age of 81.
Joe Sargent
Herbert Jackson
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