October 20 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Jose Veras was briefly a Tiger.  He was signed by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1998 at the age of 17 from high school in the Dominican Republic.  He was a starter in minors for Tampa but never amounted to much.  He struggled to ever get a ERA below 4.50 and was normally a .500 pitcher or below in the minors.  The Devil Rays never saw anything to bring him up to the majors and after 2004 he was granted free agency and signed with the Rangers.  He improved at Texas AAA team going 3-5 with a 3.79 ERA in the bull pen.  But Texas was not convinced and released him.  He was then signed by the Yankees who kept him in the pen and he bloomed to 21 saves with a 2.41 ERA at the Yanks AAA team in Columbus in 2006. The Yanks brought him up to the majors and was in their bullpen for 3.5 years.  He was never going to be the closer with Mariano Rivera but he did get in over 100 games and posted a 4.43 ERA for the Yanks.  In 2009 he was sold to the Cleveland Indians and started to bounce around the majors.  He has yet to play more than a season for any team since that time.  He has played with the Indians, Marlins, Pirates, Brewers and Astros before becoming a Tiger in 2013.  At the time he was traded to the Tiges in late July with a minor leaguer for player to be named later.  The player claimed was minor leaguer David Paulino.  Prior to the trade he had faced the Tiges and had earned a loss to the Tiges and a save.  With the Tigers he picked up a loss and 2 saves while putting up a 3.20 ERA.  The Tiges made the post season and this was enough that Jose made the post season roster.  He pitched 1.2 innings against the A’s in game 3 of the ALDS and did not allow a run.  He then pitched against Boston in almost every game.  In game 1 he faced 2 batters and K’d them both.  In Game 2 he got the first out of the 8^th and then gave up a double before he was pulled.  The runner scored.  In game 3 he struck out the only batter he faced.  In game 5 he pitched 1.2 innings and allowed only one hit while getting 2 K’s and not allowing a run.  But in game 6 he was brought in to face Shane Victorino with the bases loaded.  He gave up a grand slam before K’ing Dustin Pedroia.  He was then relieved as the Tigers lost the game and the series.  Jose was then released after the 2013 season despite a 3.20 regular season ERA and a decent post season with the exception of the grand slam.  In 2014 Jose started the season with the Cubs and was 0-1 with a 8.10 ERA.  He was released in June and the Astros signed him.  He then became the good Jose and was 4-0 with a 3.03 ERA.  Who knows what will happen in 2015.

Juan Gonzalez was a Tiger for one year.  He was a Rangers outfielder for 11 seasons before Randy Smith made one his few trades with a team other than the Padres or Astros.  He won the MVP twice at Texas and was an all star as well as won 5 Silver Slugger awards and the AL home run title twice.  The Tigers made a big deal out of trading Alan Webb (a minor leaguer), Frank Catalanotto, Francisco Cordero, Bill Haselman, Gabe Kapler and Justin Thompson for  Juan, Danny Patterson and Gregg Zaun at the end of the 1999 season.  He was going to lead the Tigers into the new ball park and hit lots of homer for us.  He lasted one year and hit .289 with 22 homers.  His lowest totals in 7 years.  At the end of the season he was granted free agency and the Tigers dropped his $7.5 million salary.  He signed with Cleveland for $10 million and eventually got back to Texas before ending up with the Royals and Indians for one last game in 2005.

Don Heinkel was a reliever for the Tigers in 1988.  He had worked his way up the Tigers chain for six years before he got his ticket up to the show.  He got in 21 games and pitched a total of 36.1 innings.  He had a decent K to BB ratio with 30 K’s and only 12 BB’s.  He did not get a decision but did get one save against the Seattle Mariners.  He posted a 3.96 ERA.  The Tigers released him at the end of the season and he signed with the Cardinals.  He was 1-1 with the Cards in 7 games with 5 starts.  He had a 5.81 ERA with the Cards.   He was done with the majors but did continue to pitch in the minors until 1993.

Dave Collins was a Tiger for one season in 1986.  He had bounced around for a few years starting in 1975 from the Angels, to the Mariners, to the Reds, to the Yankees, to the Blue Jays and then to the Athletics before he was traded to the Tigers for Barbaro Garbey.  He played the outfield for the Tigers and hit .270 with 1 home run and 27 RBI’s.  He was released at the end of the season.  His .270 average as a Tiger was not far from his career average of .272 and his 162 game average for homers was 3 to the 1 he got as a Tiger and his average for RBI was 36 compared to the 27 het got as a Tiger.  He went on to play for the Reds and Cardinals until 1990 when he was done as a player.  He did manage briefly in the minors in 2001 and 2007. 

Bill Froats was a Tiger pitcher in 1955.  He had attended Notre Dame before joining the Tigers in 1951.  He finally made it to the majors in 1955 and made his major league debut against the Indians as reliever in seventh inning of a game the Tigers trailed 8-3 at Cleveland.  He first faced Ralph Kiner and walked him.  Then Joe Altobelli hit a sac bunt to move Kiner to second.  He walked George Strickland before getting Jim Hegan to hit into a double play.   No runs, hits or errors for Bill.  The Tigers scored two in their half of the seventh and Bill came back in to pitch the 8^th.  He sent down Ray Narleski, Al Smith and Bobby Avila in order in the 8th.   The Tigers did not score in the top of the ninth and Bill’s time in the big leagues was over.   Bill died in 1998 but his autograph for some reason commands a great deal of money.  In recent auction his autograph went for over $1,000.  I have no idea as to why.

Bruce Campbell played outfield for the Tigers on the AL Champion, 1940 team.  He had spent a handful of games up with the White Sox for three years before going to the Browns and Indians as a starting right fielder.  He was a .300 hitter with average to below average power.   The Tigers picked him up in 1940 in a trade with the Indians that sent Beau Bell to Cleveland.  For Detroit in 1940 he hit .283 with 8 homers and 44 RBI’s in 103 games.  He had a very good World Series against the Reds hitting .360 with one homer and four RBI’s.  He returned to the Tiges in 1941 and hit .275 and 15 homers and 93 RBI’s but this time as a full time outfielder with Hank Greenberg in the Army.  The Tigers traded him to the Senators in December of 1941 with Frank Croucher for Jimmy Bloodworth and Doc Cramer.  Bruce would play one year with the Senators before going off to war.  When he returned in 1946 he was released by the Senators and played one last season in the minors hitting .270 before his career as a professional baseball player was over.