Rob Richie
Wayne Belardi
Gene Bearden was a knuckleball pitcher when he was a
Tiger. He started his career with the
Phillies farm system in 1939. Before he
could make the majors World War II broke out.
In 1943 Gene was in the Navy on the USS Helena when it was hit by three
torpedoes at the same time in the Battle of the Solomon Islands. The Helena was sunk along with 168 of its
crew. Gene survived on a life raft until
he was picked up. But he had his head
smashed open and his knee torn to shreds.
He spent the next two years recuperating and having a plate put in his
head for the missing part of his skull and a metal hinge put in his knee. Despite all this Gene made it to the majors
in 1947 for one game before his official rookie season on 1948. In that year for the Cleveland Indians Gene
was 20-7 with a league leading 2.43 ERA.
In the World Series the year he won game 3 and helped the Indians win
their first World Series in 23 years.
But the rest of his career was less than hoped. He would never win more than 8 games in a
season again. His knuckle ball was a bit
too wild and he would walk almost 2 batters for every 1 he K’d. He was 0-0 in Washington in 1951 when he was
waived in April. The Tigers picked up
Gene. He was used from the bull pen
until June when he got a start against the Senators who had released him. He pitched a complete game shutout and
allowed only 4 hits. The Tigers gave the
theory that he was out for his old team another shot in July when he started
against the Indians. But the results
were not the same. He lasted only 4.2
innings before being pulled and got a no decision. He faced another team of his in the Yankees
and things got worse. He lasted only 1.2
innings and gave up 6 runs on 7 hits and took the loss. He got one more start as a Tiger against the Browns. He got another complete game victory. It was his third and final victory for the
Tigers. The win against the Senators
turned out not to be revenge but rather that the Senators were a poor team like
the Browns. Unfortunately for Gene at
the end of the season he was traded to the Browns in a large multi player deal
that sent Bob Cain of pitching to a midget fame, Dick Kryhoski and Gene to St.
Louis for Matt Batts, Dick Littlefield, Cliff Mapes and Ben Taylor. He spent one year in St. Louis before ending
his major league career with the Chicago White Sox in 1953. He went out to the Pacific Coast League and
did better winning double digits from 1953 thru 1956 before his baseball career
ended in 1957.
Bob Maier was a war time Tiger. He started
his professional baseball career in 1937 in the Washington Senators farm
system. He started as a third baseman at the Class A level but the
following year was dropped to Class D. They moved him around to outfield
and second but still he was a .280 hitter in Class D. Then the Japanese
bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The 1942 season found Bob in the
Tigers Class B Hagerstown but hitting a lowly .222. In 1943 the talent in
baseball had dwindled as many players were off to the war. So Bob saw a
jump in his production from .222 at Hagerstown to .363 while on the same
team. 1944 saw him jump up to Class AA and hitting .298 at Buffalo for
the now 28 year old and he was back at third base. Also in 1944 Pinky Higgins
was playing third base for the Tigers. But in 1945 Pinky joined
the war effort and went into the Navy. Pinky went to
play for possibly the best team in baseball at the time, the Great Lakes Navel
Training Station Blue Jackets, as a player and coach. This meant the
Tigers needed a third baseman. Bob was called into service for the
Tigers. He was 29 year old as a rookie. He was the Tigers starting
third sacker for majority of the season. But Bob got caught in a strange
place. Hank Greenberg was back from the war as of July. The Tigers
put him in the line up back in left field. That meant the normal left
fielder, Jimmy Outlaw, did not have a position. In September, Jimmy went
on a tear hitting .295 while Bob hit a slump and dropped to .250. With
about a week to go in the season Jimmy was moved to third and Bob was
benched. The Tigers won the pennant and Jimmy was in at third for the
series against the Cubs. Jimmy reached base each of the first six games.
So he was kept in the line up. Bob was finally called into a game in game
6. He was a pinch hitter for catcher Paul Richards and got a hit off of
Cubs pitcher, Claude Passeau. It was hit only appearance of the
series. In fact, it would be his last appearance in the major leagues and
in baseball. For his major league career Bob hit .263 with 1 homer and 34
RBI’s. For the World Series he was a neat 1.000 at the plate.
Merv Shea
Pete LePine was the first major leaguer from Montreal Canada
as was as the first from Montreal to play for the Tigers. He started his pro career in 1899 in the
minors and disappeared in 1901. But in
1902 he reappeared as a Tiger in July.
He got into 30 games at the age of 25 as a back up outfielder and first
baseman. He got 20 hits, one homer and
19 RBI’s for a .208 average. After the
season he was done with the Tigers and the majors. He was back in the minors through 1908. At that time he had influenza and never
returned to pro ball.
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