Brian
Harper
Manny
Montejo tough autograph as he was born adn raised in Cuba and lives there
today. His brother played on the Cuban National team in the late 1960's
and early 1970's.
Dave
Sisler was son of Hall of Famer George Sisler, and brother of Dick Sisler.
Bob Cain
pitched for less than a season in Detroit but his fame came as Tiger. Bob signed with the New York Giants in 1943
but then went off to the service during the war for 1944 and 1945. He came back in 1946 to pitch in the Giants
farm system. He was 13-4 in 1946 at
Class B Manchester of the New England League.
He moved up to AAA in 1947 and 1948 and his ERA also moved up so the
Giants let Bob move to the Chicago White Sox in some deal that is lost to the
ages. Bob, shoes nickname was
unremarkably “Sugar”, was a late call up for the Sox in 1949. He made his debut against the Boston Red Sox
in Fenway Park. He put the side down
while only allowing a walk in his first inning.
In his second inning he K’s both Dom DiMaggio and Ted Williams. Pretty heady stuff for a debut! In his next inning he put the side down
without a hit. The game had long since
been decided as the Sox trailed the Sawx 11-4 when Bob came in to the
game. But Bob’s line score was 3 innings
pitched, no runs, 1 hit, 3 BB’s and 3 K’s of Williams, DiMaggio and Lou
Stringer. Not a bad debut! Bob pitched in 5 more games but did not
record a decision. In 1950 lefty Bob
pitched as the number 3 man in the rotation and went 9-12 for a poor Sox team
that finished 6 out of 8 in the American League. His 3.93 ERA was second on the team. But that was not enough to keep him on the
Chicago squad. Chicago traded Bob to the
Tiges in May of 1951 for Saul Rogovin.
Bob had been 1-2 with the Sox but with Detroit he was 11-10 jumping
right in to the tiger rotation as arguably the number 2 man in the
rotation. However, it was in his role as
starter that he made his mark in baseball lore.
He started a game against the St. Louis Browns in August and was
supposed to pitch to Frank Saucier, the Browns right fielder to start the
game. But Browns owner, Bill Veeck “as
in wreck”, decided to put in pinch hitter Eddie Gaedel who stood 3’ 7”
tall. He wore the number 1/8 on his
jersey. He held a toy bat and crouched
over to make his strike zone about the size of your fist. The umpire, Ed Hurley, didn’t like it but
Veeck was ahead of him and showed that Gaedel had a contract and was part of
the Brown’s team. The Tiger catcher, Bob Swift, wanted to lay
down to give Bob Cain a better target.
But Ed Hurley would not let him.
So Bob had to pitch to him without a relative target. Bob walked Eddie on 4 straight pitches. Eddie was immediately replaced for a pinch
runner, future Tiger Jimmy Delsing. Bob
went on to walk only 4 other Browns and gave up 7 hits but only allowed 2 runs
as he went on to his 10th win of the season. Bob lead the Tiges in wins that season but
also had the highest ERA of the Tigers starting staff by over half a run. In spring of 1952 the Tiges felt they could
do better so they sent Bob to the same Browns that made him famous. He was sent with Gene Bearden and Dick
Kryhoski for Dick Littlefield, Cliff Mapes, Ben Taylor and another Tiger who
has a birthday today, Matt Batts. Bob
was with the Browns for 2 years. He was
the ace of the staff his first year going 12-10 but dropped to the bull pen in
1953. He made the move with the Browns
from St. Louis to Baltimore as they became the Orioles but he never became an
Oriole. Instead he was traded to the
Philadelphia Athletics for future Tiger, Joe Coleman Sr., father of Joe Coleman
who was the Tiger star pitcher in the 1970’s.
But Bob never pitched for the Athletics or any other major league team. He bounced around for various teams in their
minors through 1956 when his career as a pro ball player was over.
Matt
Batts greatest baseball name
Boom Boom
Beck
Goose
Goslin was one of the G-Men of the 1930's with other Hall of Famers, Charley
Gerhinger and Hank Greenberg.
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