September 27 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Gary Sutherland was the Tiger second baseman from 1974 into 1976.  Suddsy came to Detroit after playing 8 years in the National League with the Phils, Expos and Astros.  The Tigers got him in a deal that sent Fred Sherman and cash to the Astros for Gary, and Jim Ray.  Gary got a 20% raise when he came to Detroit upping his salary from $20,000 to $22,000.  In response, Gary hit .254, ten points higher than his career average and drove in 49 runs on a poor Tiger team.   In 1975 he did about the same hitting .258 with 39 RBI’s.  In 1976 Suddsy was hitting only .205 when he was traded to the Brewers for Pedro Garcia.  Suddsy would be released by the Brewers before the 1977 season started and Pedro would also be released by the Tigers.  Gary’s brother Darrell also played major league ball with the Mets and Indians.

Dave Wickersham pitched for the Tigers in the mid 1960’s.  He started his career with the Kansas City Athletics in 1960.  After the 1963 season he was traded to Detroit with Jerry Lumpe and Ed Rakow for Bob Anderson, Rocky Colavito and $50,000.  In 1964 Dave had his best year in the bigs going 19-12 and posting a 3.44 ERA.  He followed that with a 9-14 record and 3.78 ERA in 1965.  In 1966 he made $20,000 with the Tiges and continued his decline.  He went 8-3 with a 3.20 ERA.  In 1967 he was traded for Dennis Ribant (who threw the ball into the stands in Oakland in 1968) after he went 4-5 with a 2.74 ERA.  Dave would finish his career with the Royals in their first year in Kansas City.  The same city were his career began.

Jerry Casale finished his career as a Tiger pitcher in the early 1960’s.  He had been with the Boston Red Sox from 1958 through 1960 and was 15-17 for those three years.  He was drafted by the Los Angeles Angels as their number 5 pick of their expansion draft.  In June of 1961, after going 1-5 with a 6.54 ERA with the Angels, he was traded to the Tiges for pitcher Jim Donohue.  Jim was in 3 games for the Tigers in 1961 and was 0-0 with 5.25 ERA in 12 innings of work.  He was with the Tigers again in 1962 and was 1-2 in 18 games with a 4.66 ERA.  Jerry’s one win with the Tigers was a game where he pitched 5.1 innings of relief and beat Sam McDowell and the Indians, 8-6.

Johnny Pesky played a couple of seasons with the Tigers after making his fame with the Red Sox as their shortstop and third baseman.  He is still known today because the right field foul pole at Fenway Park is called Pesky’s pole.  The story has it that Mel Parnell won a game because Pesky hit a homer around the pole (302 feet from home plate) to win the game.  However, Pesky only hit 13 homers in his career with the Sox and only 6 were at Fenway.  Further, only 1 of those 6 was in a game that Parnell pitched.  And that game was won by the Detroit Tigers.  Johnny came to Detroit in a trade in 1952 that sent Hoot Evers, George Kell, Johnny Lipon and Dizzy Trout to the Sox for Walt Dropo, Fred Hatfield, Don Lenhardt, Bill Wight and Johnny to the Tiges.  For Detroit Johnny played second base and some short.  At the plate Johnny hit .275 and 4 homers.  This was a drop in production from his .313 average with the Sox.  In 1954 Johnny was hitting only .176 when the Tigers traded him to the Senators for Mel Hoderlein.

Whit Wyatt started his major league career as a Tiger pitcher in 1929. A little more than a month before the great stock market crash of 1929, Whit started a game against the Washington Senators in Griffith Stadium. The young 21 year old lasted four innings before being taken out for Skinny Graham. Whit had given up 8 runs on 9 hits and 2 walks in those four innings and the Tigers trailed 1-8. The Tigers managed to tie the game by the eighth so Whit was not tagged with the loss. But in the bottom of the eighth the Senators got a run off of Emil Yde to go ahead 10-9. The game was called after the eighth and Whit’s first game was over. Whit would finish the season 0-1 with a complete game loss to the Philadelphia Athletics that he lost in the 10^th inning. Over the next three and a half years Whit would post a 13-22 record for the Tiges with a 4.98 ERA. In June of 1933 he was traded to the White Sox for Vic Fraiser. Whit’s career was about the same at Chicago and later in Cleveland. It was not until Whit went to Brooklyn that things turned around for him and he became an all star. In 1940 in Brooklyn, at the age of 32, Whit had his first double digit win season. He was 15-14. The next season he led the league in wins with 22. He would win 19 in 1942 and 14 in 1943. He dropped considerably in 1944 to 2-6. Before the 1945 season, Whit was sold to the Phillies for $20,000. He pitched one season with the Phils and was 0-7. Whit did not pitch in the majors after that season.

Josh Billings played his entire career for the Tigers. He was 19 and had just finished his freshman year at Brown when joined the Reading Keystones in 1927. He was 0-0 in ten games with 9.56 ERA. He then went to the Tigers to finish the year and was 5-4 with a 4.84 ERA. He started opening day for the Tigers the next year in 1928 at the age of 20. He pitched 7 innings and gave up 4 runs on 6 hits and 1 walk. He was 5-10 for the season with a 5.12 ERA. He spent some time in 1928 in the minors but was back with the Tiges in 1929, but for only 8 games. He was 0-1 with a 5.12 ERA again and was done in the majors.

Chick Gagnon played one season a Tiger. IN 1922 at the age of 24 Chick (Harold Dennis) got in 10 games. He was mainly a pinch runner or a pinch hitter. He had 4 plate appearances and got one hit and scored two runs. He also played one game where he had one chance as a third baseman and one other game where he played short with no chances at a ball. At the end of the season he was traded to the Senators for Ray Francis. He would play 4 games for the Senators and his major league experience was over.

Frank Gibson played one season with the Tigers in 1913. He was mainly a catcher but also played a couple games in the outfield. In 23 total games he hit .140 with a double being his only hit for extra bases. He did manage to steal two bases and drive in two runs. He went down to the minors after the season and did not return until 8 years later with the Boston Braves. He played 7 seasons with the Braves hitting .281 for the Braves as mainly a back up catcher for the Braves. He was done in the majors after 1927.

Cy Ferry pitched three games for the 1904 Tigers. He came to the Tigers in a November 1903 trade with Buffalo of the Eastern League. Matty McIntyre and Cy came to the Tiges for Ernie Courtney, Rube Kisinger and Sport McAllister. His first game was a loss to the Red Sox in Boston. The Sox won 8-1. He did not get the loss. He got in two other games and posted a final record of 0-1 with a 6.23 ERA. His one loss was a complete game he pitched. But I can not tell who he lost to. In 1905 he pitched two innings of one game for the Cleveland Naps (later the Indians) and gave up three runs on three hits in a 7-5 loss to the Red Sox. He was done in the majors after that.