Ed Farmer was a relief pitcher who
played part of one season with the Tigers.
Ed started his career in the majors with the Cleveland Indians in
1971. He was used as a spot starter and
a reliever for the Tribe until they traded him to the Tiges half way thru the
1973 season for Tom Timmerman and Kevin Collins. For the Tiges that year Ed got in 24 games
and finished 12 of those with 2 saves and an ERA of 5.00. He also won 3 games with the Tiges. He beat the Brewers when he pitched 4.1
innings of relief and only gave up 1 run on two hits and he won back to back
games against his former team, the Indians on July 2 and July 3 when he came in
in relief and pitched 1.2 innings in each game and did not give up a hit but
struck out three. Just before the 1974
season started Ed was traded to the Yankees in a three way trade. The Tigers also send Jim Perry to the
Indians. In return the Tigers got Jerry
Moses. The Indians also sent Rick Sawyer
and Walt Williams to the Yankees. Ed
never did pitch for the Yankees. He was
sold to the Phillies two days later. He
would play for the Phils twice, Orioles, Brewers, Rangers, White Sox and
Athletics. He was and all star with the
White Sox in 1980.
Willie Horton was a power hitting outfielder for the Tigers
in the 1960’s and 1970’s. He was an all
star for the Tiges four times. He had a
fantastic year in 1968 hitting .285 for fourth best in the league, 36 homers
for second in the league, 85 RBI’s for fourth in the league. He was 7 for 23 in the World Series with a
homer, triple and a double and 3 RBI’s.
He was famous for going into the streets of Detroit in his uniform
during the 1967 riots to try to calm things down. In 1977 he was traded to the Rangers for
Steve Foucault. He went to play for the
Indians, Athletics, Blue Jays, and Mariners before his career was over in
1980. He had his number retired by the
Tigers and is a special assistant to Mike Illitch today.
Vern Holtgrave was a Tiger for his entire time in the
majors. Vern had worked his way up the
Tigers farm system compiling a 37-40 record before he was called up to the
Tigers as a late season call up. He was
brought in to a game against the Indians that was already out of hand as the
Tiges trailed 5-1 in the fourth. Vern
came in and in his first inning he walked 2 but did not allow a run and struck
out Leaon Wagner. In his second inning
of work he was perfect getting Rocky Colavito to pop up to third and and also
getting Fred Whitefield and Max Alvis. But
in his third inning he got in trouble.
He gave up a lead off single and then a wild pitch and a single to pitcher
Tom Kelley who drove in the run. He
struck out Vic Davillio but another single to Dick Howser and Leon Wagner
getting back at Vern with a single brought home Tom Kelley. Vern had pitched three innings and gave up 2
runs on 4 hits and 2 walks. He also
struck out 2. That was the end of Vern’s
major league experience. Vern played one
more season in the Tigers minors in 1966 before his professional baseball
career was over. Willie Horton, who was
born on the same day as Vern, was a pinch hitter the game Vern played in.
Roy Cullenbine started his major league career as a Tiger
but in January of 1940 was granted free agency by commissioner Kennesaw
Mountain Landis. Landis hated the farm
system and in 1938had decimated the Cardinals farm system releasing about 80
players from their obligations to the Cardinals and granting them free
agency. His argument was that the farm
system did not guarantee that the best players were playing in the majors. It was possible to have the second or third
best third basemen hidden in a farm system.
In January of 1940 Landis hit the Tigers and released about 100 players
from their obligation to the Tigers. Roy
was one of these. He was highly regarded outfielder and signed a contract with
the Dodgers and received a $25,000 bonus to sign. However, he was traded to the St. Louis
Browns. He was an all Star for the Browns
and then went to Senators, Yankees and Indians before coming back to Detroit by
a trade with the Indians for Dutch Meyer and Don Ross in 45. It was in time to play in the World Series
where he hit .227 and drove in four runs for the victorious Tigers over the
Cubs. He played the next two seasons as
a Tiger before he was done with baseball.
He ended his career with a career on base percentage of .408.
Yats Wuestling played as a Tiger shortstop in 1929 and
1930. He was a weak hitting shortstop
hitting only .200 but showed good defense.
So the Tigers kept him around for 1930 but his batting average dropped
even further to .164 and his defense also took a dip. So in May of 1930 the Tigers traded him to
the Yankees with Ownie Carroll and Harry Rice for Waite Hoyt and Mark
Koenig. Yats ended the season with the
Yanks and then was done in the majors.
His career average was .189 and he drove in total of 19 runs and never
hit a home run in the majors.
Babe Pinelli played one season as a Tiger in 1920. He had spent one year in the majors in 1918
with the White Sox before being purchased by the Tigers. With Detroit he hit .229 as a third baseman
shortstop. He went on to play six more seasons in the majors with the Reds as
their starting third baseman. But what
Babe was more known for was hit umpiring career. He started as an ump in 1935 and worked in
the NL calling unappreciated strikes on Babe Ruth. His last game as an umpire in the 1956 World Series
where he worked behind the plate for Don Larsen’s perfect game.
Frank Meinke played his entire major league career as a
Detroit Wolverine. He started in 1884 and
was 8-23 as a pitcher and .164 hitting shortstop. He also played a few games at
third, second and outfield. In 1885 he
returned to Detroit and was 0-1 as a pitcher and was .000 as an
outfielder. He was done in May of
1885. He continued playing baseball for
a couple more seasons in the minors with the Chattanooga Lookouts, Denver
Mountain Lions and LaCrosse Freezers.
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