October 24 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Macay McBride

Dave Johnson

George Bullard

Jack Russell

Hugh High

Heinie Smith

Chief Sockalexis was not a Tiger but he is my favorite for today.  He is the man that the Cleveland Indians are named after.  He was actually the first person to cross the color line in the National League.  He was a member of the Penobscot Indian tribe of Maine.  Here is a great quote about him in his SABR bio that can be found on his baseball-reference page.  http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sockach01.shtml

“His presence in the lineup increased attendance both at Cleveland's League Park and on the road. He was a sensation, though many fans bought tickets to jeer at the first Native American ballplayer in major league history. "Columns of silly poetry are written about him, [and] hideous looking cartoons adorn the sporting pages of nearly every paper," commented Elmer Bates on May 15 in Sporting Life. "He is hooted and bawled at by the thimble-brained brigade on the bleachers. Despite all this handicap the red man has played good, steady ball, and has been a factor in nearly every victory thus far won by Tebeau's team." “

But a severe drinking problem ended his career shortly after it began.  He only played in 94 games over three seasons but his talent shown through. 

Again, from the same SABR bio:” 

Cleveland's American League team (which began play in 1900) had been called the Naps in honor of playing manager Napoleon Lajoie, but when Lajoie left the team after the 1914 season, a new nickname was in order. In January 1915, team owner Charles Somers, after consulting with several local sportswriters, decided to revive the name that had defined the city's National League club 18 years before. Somers, perhaps recalling the all-too-brief period of excitement that Louis Sockalexis had brought to Cleveland in 1897, dubbed his team the Indians, a name that remains to this day.