Nate Robertson has spent most of his major league pitching
career to date as a Tiger. He was taken
by the Florida Marlins out of Wichita State University in 1999. He made his major league debut in 2002 with
the Marlins and in 6 games was 0-1. He
was then traded to the Tiges before the 2003 season with Gary Knotts and minor
leaguer Rob Henkel for Mark Redman and minor leaguer Jarrod Fuell. Nate started 8 games as a Tiger in 2003 going
1-2 with a 5.44 ERA. In 2004 the left
hander was in the rotation with Mike Maroth, Jason Johnson, Jeremy Bonderman
and Gary Knotts. Nate had the only
winning record on the team of starters with 10 wins. He was 12-10 with a 4.90 ERA. 2005 saw him slump to 7-16 but his ERA
dropped to 4.48. In 2006 Nate has
possibly his best season along with many other Tigers as he went 13-13 with a
3.84 ERA. The other starters from just 2
years before were all gone except Jeremy Bonderman. In June of 2006 Nate started a fad and a blog
called Gum Time. The name came from
Mario Impemba. But the fad started with
Nate being miked for a game. The Tigers
were down against the Yanks and Nate decided that he would give the TV crowd a
show. As Nate wrote in his first blog
I said, ‘All right, I’ll give you something
here, down 5-0 (in the third inning), nothing’s going on. I’ll throw you a
bone. I’m going to throw in a rally chew and see what happens.’
While he was putting in a big wad of Big League Chew in his
mouth Pudge Rodriguez hit a home run. It
was instantaneous viewing in an instantaneous age and took off from there. His blog was big news and he was now expected
to throw a wad in before he pitched.
Nate was in the rotation for the 2006 post season and started game 1 of
the ALDS in New York. Unfortunately he
got bombed. He then pitched game 1 of
the ALCS against the A’s in Oakland and killed the A’s. Nate blanked the A’s in 5 innings and the
Tiges went on to win the game and the series.
Nate then started game 3 of the World Series and went 5 innings again
but allowed 2 runs on 5 hits. Not bad. But the Tiges scored 0 runs and lost the game
and the series. Nate stuck around with the Tiges for another 3
seasons but never quite had the same effect.
By his last year he was 2-3 in only 6 starts. In 2010 he started his trek around the pro
ball. He has played in the Marlins
organization along with the Cardinals, Phillies, Mariners, Cubs, Blue Jays and
today he is in the Rangers organization.
He has not posted in his blog since 2007 but you can still find it out
there.
Luis Gonzalez, before his famous gum, was a Tiger. He went to high school in Florida where he
was a teammate of Tino Martinez, and then went to college at the University of
South Alabama. After only a couple years of college he signed with the Houston
Astros. He was in their farm system for
only a couple years before making his major league debut in 1990. He was a regular outfielder starting in 1991
for the Astros. He was there for 5 years
before getting traded to the Cubs for two years and then returning briefly to
the Astros for one more year before becoming a free agent. He was a .270 hitter with about 10 homers per
season and 60-70 RBI’s per season and a very good glove in the outfield. The Tiges signed him for the 1998 season at
$2M per year. Luis was the Tigers
starting left fielder in 1998. He hit
.267 with 23 homers and 71 RBI’s. He
also stole 12 bases. He was a lefty
hitter that hit righty pitching better than lefty pitching except when playing
in Detroit. He also was not nearly as
effective in Tiger Stadium as he was on the road. He was a .230 hitter in Tiger Stadium yet hit
.304 on the road. But for whatever
reason, the Tiges felt they had a better hitter by trading Luis to Arizona for
Karim Garcia. Karim had hit .222 for
Arizona in 113 games. With 9 homers and
43 RBI’s. But this was the Randy Smith
era. So this trade made sense. Luis went to Arizona and really blossomed. He played 8 years in Arizona hitting .298 and
was a 5 time all-star. He had one more
year with the Dodgers and finally played his last season in 2008 with the
Marlins before retiring. Karim played
until 2004 bouncing around with 8 teams before retiring. He never was a starter and hit .241 for his
career and his fielding was always below the league average where Luis led the
league in fielding 5 times. Oh, what
could have been.
Bill Gilbreth had a fantastic major league debut as a Tiger.
Bill was drafted and signed by the Tigers in 1969. He was 8-4 with a 3.06 ERA in 1969 in A level
and 13-11 with a 2.48 ERA in 1970 in AA level.
He was called up to the Tigers on June 24th of 1971 and made
his debut the very next day against the Cleveland Indians at Tiger
Stadium. Bill got the start and went to
pitch a complete game 5 hitter against the Tribe, allowing only 1 run. At the plate he went 2 for 4. Bill’s next start was against the Red Sox in
Tiger Stadium and he went 5.1 innings and allowed 3 runs on 7 hits. Not bad for a rookie! He again went the distance in his next start
on July 8th when he beat the Yankees at Tiger Stadium on 3 hits and
giving up only 1 run. But after that
things did not go Bill’s way. 10 days
later he got his first loss. He started
the game against the Kansas City Royals and gave up a 3 run homer to Lou
Piniella in the first. He started the
second but after two walks he was pulled.
He was sent back down to Toledo July 31 and was not called back until
September for the roster expansion. In
1972 Bill was again splitting time with the Tiges and the minors but this time
he only got in 2 games both in relief.
He did not record a decision and was waived by the Tigers in
September. He was claimed by the
California Angels and pitched in 3 games for the Angels in 1974 but did not
record a decision. At the end of the
season the Angels traded him to the Cleveland Indians but he never played for
them or in their minors nor for any other professional team. His career was over at the age of 26.
Steve Boros was a Bonus Baby for the Tigers. That was a rule from 1947 thru 1965 where if
you signed for a certain level of “Bonus” money you had to go directly to the
major league roster for a year or maybe two.
Al Kaline was Bonus Baby and that is why he never spent any time in the
minors, he was not allowed to. Steve was
raised in Flint and went to Flint Northern High School. He went to the University of Michigan where
he majored in English Lit and played shortstop.
(He published a book of short stories but I have not found it.) He left U of M after two seasons and signed
the bonus for the Tigers. He did not
fare well that first season hitting only .146 in 24 games. He was still up with the Tigers in early 1958
as his one year on the roster was not up.
He got in 6 games and did not get a hit.
As soon as the year was up Steve went down to the minors. He worked his
way back up to AA ball in 1959 hitting .305 with 16 homers and in 1960 he hit
.317 with 30 homers in AAA Denver. At
the end of the 1960 season the Tigers regular third baseman, Eddie Yost, was
drafted by the Los Angeles Angels. Thus,
Steve was brought up to be the starting third baseman for the Tigers for
1961. Steve performed well hitting .270
with 5 homers and 61 RBI’s. He was
kidded for his love of reading and literature by his teammates. In one game he made a stand out play and
Tiger pitcher Pual Foytack called out to him “Atta Boy, Steve! Just for that,
I’ll buy you a book!” He was again the
starter in 1962 but he exchanged power for average. He hit 16 homers but dropped to a .228
average. At the end of the season the
Tigers traded for Bubba Phillips, an experienced third baseman, and the
following day traded away Steve to the Cubs.
He was a back up for the Cubs and was eventually sold to the Reds. He was the starting third baseman for the
Reds in 1964 but was done a major league player in 1965. The former Bonus Baby who was not allowed to
play in the minors his first year in pro baseball would play the next four
years solely in the minors until his playing days were over. But Steve was not done with baseball. Steve went in to managing in the minors in
1970. He eventually earned a job as a
major league manager. He managed the
Oakland Athletics and drew attention by being the first manager to embrace
SABRMetrics and used a computer and statistics to help make his decisions as a
manager. He would also manage the San
Diego Padres before his managing career came to an end. Then Steve went in to scouting. He was an advance scout for the Los Angeles
Dodgers and in 1988 he was the one who noticed the Dennis Eckersley liked to
throw a back door slider on a 3-2 count to lefties. That was in fact the pitch that he threw in
the 1988 World Series that Kirk Gibson hit for his dramatic game winning
homer. Steve came back to Detroit in
1996 as the teams minor league field coordinator and served in that role until
2002. In 2003 he became the director of
player development and in 2004 was a special assistant to Dave Dombrowski. Steve died in 2010 of multiple myeloma.
Bill Moore spent his entire few moments in the majors as a
Tiger. He started his pro career in 1923
with Rochester of the International League.
He was the ace of the staff going 18-12 on a staff that sent 8 players
to the majors. He was again in the
starting rotation for Rochester in 1924 going 16-14 but was no longer the
ace. Walter Beall was the ace going 25-8
with a team leading 2.76 ERA. However,
his ERA was second on the team and it was enough to get the Tigers under
skipper Ty Cobb to give him a try for the 1925 season. Bill came into a game the Tiges trailed 7-0
to the Chicago White Sox. It was just
the third game of the season. Bill faced
leadoff batter Johnny Mostil and walked him.
He then faced the number 2 batter Ike Davis. He walked Davis. He then faced future hall of famer Eddie
Collins and he walked Eddie. At this
point Ty Cobb pulled Bill from the field and never put him back in a major
league game. Bill’s entire major league
career consisted of three batters faced and three batters walked. Bill went back to the minors and was 16-15
for rest of the 1925 season at Rochester where Bill was again the ace of the
staff. Bill did play with several other
notable players such as Fred Merkle of “Merkle’s boner” and hall of fame umpire
Jocko Conlan. Some former Tiger players
at Rochester who were also Eddie Onslow, George Quellich, General Crowder, and
his manager was former Tiger manager George Stallings. George was famous for his line when he was in
the hospital dying of heart disease. The
doctor asked George if he knew why his heart was so bad. He replied “bases of balls, you son of a
bitch, bases on balls!” Kinda sums up
Bill’s major league career.
Harry Decker spent part of a season as a Wolverine. Thankfully it was only part. Harry is considered the inventor of the
catcher’s mitt. He filed for the patent
but never followed through and thus lost the patent that would have made him
wealthy. Instead Harry spent his time
chasing women and spending more money than he had. He started his major league career in 1884
with Indianapolis of the American Association.
He jumped his contract and went to Kansas City of the Union
Association. After that went to play for
a independent club in Iowa in 1885 where he got a 15 year old girl
pregnant. He married her but it would
not last. He was a constant womanizer
and this seemed to get him in trouble with various teams. In 1886 he signed with the Wolverines and
played 14 games as a backup to Charlie Bennett.
He hit .222 and drove in 6 runs on 12 hits with a double. But before the season was over Harry was sold
to the Washington Nationals with Hank O’Day for what is assumed to be at least
$400. After the 1886 season Harry signed
with multiple clubs to get the advance money and then ran up huge bills. When the clubs caught on and Harry had to pay
everything back he couldn’t. He was
headed for jail when his wealthy father bailed him out. Harry was done in baseball or maybe baseball
was done with Harry a few years later in 1891 at the age of 26. He had left his first wife destitute and was
living in California. He married another
woman and stole from the family as he left her.
But his mother in law actually pleaded for mercy for him to the
court. She felt his brain was
engorged. Maybe that is the polite way
to put it. The court however, did not
agree and sent him to San Quentin Penitentiary.
He was released in 1915, a little over a month after his birthday, and was never heard from again. He was 50 years old.
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