October 15 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Gail Harris ended his career as a Tiger.  He played with the New York Giants starting in 1955 when he was their staring first baseman hitting .232 with 12 homers and 36 RBI’s.  He stayed the Giants through 1957 hitting but no longer as starter hitting .228.  The Tigers sent Jim Finigan and $25,000 to the Giants before the 1958 season for Gail and Ozzie Virgil.  Ozzie thus broke the color barrier for the Tigers.  Gail was the Tigers starting first baseman in 1958 and hit .273 with led the team with 20 homers and drove in 83 RBI’s.  The next year Gail was still the starter but was hitting only .221 with 9 homers and 39 RBI’s.  In 1960 the Tiges picked up a new first baseman by the name of Norm Cash and Gail would only get in 8 more games as a Tiger.  He was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in May of 1960 for Sandy Amoros.  He never played with the Dodgers spending the rest of 1960 in the minors and was out of baseball after 1961.

Charley O’Leary was the starting shortstop for the pennant winning 1907 Tigers.  He was the back up shortstop for 1908 and 1909 pennant winners.  He would become the oldest player in MLB to get a hit when in 1934 he got into one game with the St. Louis Browns, whom he was coaching at that age of 58.  Ironically, it was against the Tigers, the team he had played 9 of his 11 years in majors with.  His only other seasons in the majors was 1913 when he played for the St. Louis Cardinals and the single game in 1934.  As a Tiger he was a .227 hitter with 3 homers and 182 RBI’s.  In the three World Series losses of 1907, 1908 and 1909 Charley hit .128.  However, his 4 hits in the 1908 World Series was tied for third on the team.   This was basically not a sign that he was such a great hitter but rather the Tigers were terrible in those three series.

Below is a 1907 Dietsche postcard of O'Leary from my collection.  

Emil Frisk at one point was the Tigers career leader in hits and then later became the career leader in wins.  He was born in Kalkaska, Mi and this bit of trivia was something my brother discovered.  He wrote an article for the local paper up in Traverse City (next to Kalkaska) documenting that in the first game of the Tigers in the American League Emil had 3 hits and was tied with Pop Dillon.  So the two led the team in career hits while in the American League.  Now, Emil was in the game as the pitcher coming in in relief.  Pop Dillon would get a fourth hit before Emil did.  However, the hit was the game winner and turned Emil into the career winner for the Tigers in the American League.  My brother sent the article to Ernie Harwell at the 100^th anniversary of the Tigers in the American League in 2001.  While my brother and I were at the game, my bother had his radio.  Sure enough, Ernie used the article in his broadcast and talked about how he got a letter from Kent Ailsworth and explained the story.  My brother was pretty excited so I decided to try and get a copy of the broadcast and give it to him.  But I struck out with the Tigers, the radio station, and even MLB.  So I turned to Ernie directly.  Ernie called me back and we talked and he said he would get it for me.  Sure enough, a couple days later he called again and said he would leave it on his porch. So I went to pick it up while he was broadcasting a game.  I rang the bell to let his wife know that I was picking up the tape off the porch.  She then invited me in.  Lulu is Ernie’s wife’s name.  Lulu invited me and she proceeded to talk to me for over an hour about baseball and anything and everything else as if we were great friends catching up.  Some of the things she said were hilarious and insightful such as “yes, Denny (McLane) just never felt the rules applied to him.”  After a while I figured I had to leave as Lulu had burned the biscuits in the oven while we talked.  I felt bad but she laughed about it.  As I was leaving Ernie pulled in to the drive way, I thanked him and left as I could see he was tired.  But that was my time getting on firth name basis with Ernie’s wife and hanging out at his house.  All thanks to Emil Frisk.  By the way, Emil was pitcher and an outfielder.  He played for the American League Tigers only in 1901.  He did play for them while they were in the Western League and the American Association.  In 1901 he was 5-4 as a pitcher with a 4.34 ERA.  As a hitter he had 15 hits in 48 at bats for a .313 average with 1 homer and 7 RBI’s.

Below is a Obak card of Frisk from my personal collection.