Norm McRae pitched for the Tigers in 1969 and 1970. He was a late season call up in 1969 and on
September 13 he made his debut against the Washington Senators at Tiger
Stadium. The Tigers were in second place
in their division. It was the first year
MLB used divisions within a league. The
Tigers were in second place in the East trailing the Baltimore Orioles. But this was a meaningless game. The Tigers trailed the O’s by 18.5 games with
17 games left to play. Norm was called
in to pitch the 9th with Tigers down 6-10. He walked Eddie Brinkman. Got Tom Cullen to ground out, struck out
Frank Howard, before Ken McMullen hit a single scoring Eddie Brinkman. He finished the inning striking out Brent
Alyea. Norm’s next game was 12 days
later but again, against the Washington Senators in the 9th, and the
Tiges trailing 7-1Norm got the call.
This time Norm got Eddie Brinkman, Zoilo Versalles and Frank Howard out
1-2-3. The next day the Tigers were in
Boston’s Fenway Park with the Sox leading 4-3 Norm got the call again in the 6th. Norm gave up a leadoff single to George
Scott. Then a wild pitch to Billy
Conigliaro moved Scott to second. A fly
ball to right moved Scott to third and sac fly by Tom Satriano brought in
Scott. Norm got Sonny Siebert out to end
the inning and also end Norm’s 1969 season.
His totals for the season were 3 games, 3 innings pitched, no decisions
and an ERA of 6.00. In 1970 He got into
19 games and posted a 2.87 ERA but still with no decisions. At the end of the 1970 season Norm was traded
in one of the all time greatest deals for the Tigers. The Tigers sent Norm, Don Wert, Elliot Maddox
and Denny McLain to the same Washington Senators Norm debuted against. In
fact Eddie Brinkman was part of the deal coming to Detroit. Eddie came over with Joe Coleman, Jim Hannan
and Aurelio Rodriguez. Rodriguez and
Brinkman would make up our left isde of the infield for the next few years
while Joe Coleman would be a two time 20 game winner for us. Denny would win only 18 games in the rest of
his career while leading the league in losses in 1971 with 22. Don Wert had only 2 hits left if his career
while Elliot Maddox did have 10 more years as a .260 hitter but mainly as a
back up. Norm never played again in the
majors. He was two years in the minors
before heading to Mexico as a player and later a manager. Norm died in 2003 of cancer at the age of 55.
Walt Streuli was an 18 year old kid when he made his major league
debut as a Tiger in 1954. He came into a
game against the Indians with the Tribe up 7-0 in the bottom of the 7th. He was a defensive replacement for Red Wilson
at catcher part way through the inning.
The next inning he was up and he drew a walk against Hall of Famer Early
Wynn. He then was forced at second when
Gene Bullard hit a grounder to third.
Walt caught the ninth and his season was over. In 1955 Walt got into two games and then in
1956 he had his breakout season and doubled his games for his career by getting
in three games. For his career in the
majors, Walt was in 6 games and got three singles and two doubles. His career average was .250.
Joe Sullivan was a young pitcher for the Tigers in 1935 when
he made his major league debut. He was
brought in to pitch the 9th of a game the Tigers were trailing 1-0
against the Tribe at Navin Field. He
replaced Eldon Auker. Joe did not allow
a run and when the Tigers tied it up in the bottom of the 9th, Joe
stayed in the game. He stayed until the
end in 14th. In that inning the
Indians finally put together a run to win the game 2-1. Joe had given up 1 run on 3 hits in 6 innings
of work. For that World Championship
season Joe went 6-6 with a 3.51 ERA. He
came back to Detroit for 1936 and went 2-5 with a 6.78 ERA. Joe would continue pitching until he was 39
in 1949. He played in the majors with
the Boston Bee’s and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
His career totals were 30-37 with a 4.01 ERA.
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