Karim Garcia was an outfielder in the “lost years” of the
1990’s for the Tigers. He signed out of
Mexico with the Dodgers in 1992 at the age of 16. The following year, at the ripe old age of
17, he made his pro debut with the Dodgers Bakersfield club which was class
A+. He led the team in homers with
19. He was second on the team in K’s
with 109. His .241 batting average was
12th on the team. He was
again in A+ ball in 1994 and hit 21 homers with 112 K’s and a .265
average. In 1995 he jumped up to AAA
with the Albuquerque Dukes and hit a respectable .319 with the same power he
had showed previously win 20 homers and 102 K’s. The Sporting News named him Minor League
Player of the Year. The Dodgers figured
they should give ht kid a look see and called him up in September. He got in 13 games and hit .200 with only 4
singles and 4 K’s. 1996 and 1997 were
basically the same for Karim. He spent
most of the season in the minors and had only a token appearance in the majors
that was not very productive. At the end
of the 1997 season Karim was left unprotected in the expansion draft and the
Arizona Diamondbacks selected Karim as their 9th overall pick. 1998 saw Karim in the majors as the number 4
outfielder. He hit only .222 and had 9
homers and K’d 78 times to 18 walks. At
the end of the season the Tigers Randy Smith traded Louis Gonzalez to the
Diamondbacks for Karim. This was an odd
deal for Randy as it did not involve the Padres or Astros nor a catcher. Karim was again the number 4 outfielder in
Detroit. The lefty hit .240 in Detroit
that first year with 14 homers and 67 K’s to 20 walks. His best game in Detroit was probably on Sept
14 when he went 4 for 4 with 2 homers and a double with 3 RBI’s. In 2000 the Tiges moved to a new ball
park. He moved along with them. He was with the Tigers on opening day but after
only 3 hits in 8 games and all the hits were singles the Tiges sent the 24 year
old down to Toledo. In 40 games Karim
was hitting .297 with 15 homers and only
32 K’s with 11 walks. But the Tiges
pulled the plug on the Garcia experiment and traded him to the Baltimore
Orioles. Karim spent the next 4 years
being signed and released by the Indians, Yankees, Indians again, Yankees
again, Mets and finally Orioles again.
After 2004 Karim never played in the majors again. Instead he went over to Japan and Korea where
he played with the Lotte Giants and Hanwha Eagles (I never saw either of those
teams play) before settling in the Mexican League. In 2014 Karim hit .264 with 16 homers and K’s
53 times to 27 walks. He was 38.
Greg Gohr was on the mound for most of his career
as a Tiger. He was drafted by the Tiges out of Santa Clara University in
the first round of the 1989 draft. He was a right handed starter
and made his way up the Tiger farm system until he made the opening day roster
in 1993. He made his debut in the third game of the season when Sparky
Anderson called on Greg to stop the bleeding. John Kiely was
struggling as Kiely had just given up 2 runs on two walks, an
error and a single to reduce the Tiger lead over the Oakland A's to a mere 6-5
lead. Runners were at the corners with only one out when Greg stepped on
the mound. Greg gave up two balls before he threw his first major league
strike. It also became his first major league hit allowed, homerun
allowed and blown save. The next batter came up and hit a line drive
to left for a single. The third batter grounded out for Greg's first
batter retired. Greg gave up a walk, a single and another walk before he
was pulled. Final line for his debut was 1/3 of an inning pitched, 5 runs
on 5 hits, 2 walks and an ERA of 135.00. Oh, and don't forget the blown
save. However, if you take out the inauspicious debut from Greg's stats
for the rest of the season he has a 4.03 ERA in 15 games out of the pen with an
0-0 record. In 1994 Greg got his first win when he was called in to pitch
the 12th of a 6-6 game in Milwaukee's County Stadium. He allowed a walk
and a single but did not give up run. Travis Fryman hit a double to drive
in Juan Samuel, Tony Phillips and Lou Whitaker to give the Tigers the lead
and eventually Greg's first win. Greg went 2-2 that season with a 4.50
ERA. He was 1-0 in 1995 with 0.87 ERA in 10.1 innings pitched. In
1996 Greg was struggling a bit with a 7.17 ERA and a 4-8 record as part of our
starting rotation when the Tiges sent him to the California Angels for Damion
Easley. Greg got in 15 games for the Angels that season. On
September 27, 1996, Greg was called in to face Kirt Stillwell with runners on
first and second and two outs. Greg struck him out looking on 4
pitches. It was his only save as an Angel and the last time he pitched in
the majors. He was 28. In four years he won 8 games while losing 11
and had a 6.21 ERA and 2 saves.
Darrell Brown started his major league career as a
Tiger. He was drafted by the Tigers in
1977 out of Cal State LA. He worked his
way up the minors hitting well but without a lot of power. He also tended to K at a rate about double of
his walks. He made the roster coming out
of spring training in 1981 and in the third game of the season he was called in
to pinch run for Steve Kemp in the 7th of a 2-0 game with the Tiges
leading. Kemp had just hit a triple off
of Dave Stieb. Stieb was pulled and
Richie Hebner hit a single off of Jerry Garvin scoring Darrell. Darrell came up to bat in the 8th
and K’d. In the 9th a fly
ball was hit to Darrell in left and he caught it for the second out of the
inning. That was the extent of Darrell’s
debut. He got in 4 more games for the
Tiges for the Tiges that April but did not get hit. He was sent back down to AA Birmingham and
hit .212 in 19 games. He was promoted to
AAA Evansville where he hit .270 but with only 1 homer and 46 K’s to 12 walks
in 101 games. He was called up again at
the end of the 1981 season. He appeared
in 11 games without a start. On October
1 he was called on to pinch hit for Mick Kelleher. The Tiges trailed 5-4 to the Orioles and Tom
Brookens was on first after a walk with 2 outs.
Darrell successfully bunted and reached first while Brookens moved to
second. It was his first hit as a
Tiger. Unfortunately Alan Trammell
popped up to short to end the game.
Darrell never got another plate appearance as a Tiger. He was traded to the Oakland Athletics with minor
leaguers Mark Fellows and Jack Smith for Jeff Cox and Scott Meyer. Neither would ever play for the Tigers. Darrell played 8 games before being released
at the end of the season. He was picked
up by the Twins and was their starting center fielder for 1983. He hit .272.
In 1984 he was the 4th outfielder for the Twins. He hit .273 with only 1 homer. He was released in spring of 1985 and never
played in the majors again. For his
major league career he was a .274 hitter with only 1 homer and 47 K’s to 25
BB’s. He played another 11 years in the
minors before turning to scouting.
Kip Young spent his entire time in the majors with the
Tigers. He was born in Ohio and went to
play college ball with Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He played four years there before the Tigers
drafted him in the 1976 amateur draft.
He signed and went into the minors.
He quickly worked his way up the Tigers farm system so that in 1977 he
was already playing for the Tigers AAA team, the Evansville Triplets where he
was 4-4 with a 4.03 ERA. In 1978 he was
again in Evansville and was 11-3 with a 3.02 ERA as a starter when he was
called up to replace Bob Sykes in the Tigers rotation. The rotation that year was Jim Slaton, Milt
Wilcox, Dave Rozema, Jack Billingham and Kip replacing Bob in July. In his debut he was called out of the
bullpen to replace Steve Foucault in a game against the California Angels in
the 10th inning of a 2-2 game.
Kip sent the Angels down 1-2-3 in the 10. But in the 11th he gave up a
double to Carney Lansford and then after a wild pitch gave up a single to Lymon
Bostock that scored Lansford. Bostock
himself scored later on single by Brian Downing. Kip would get the loss but would not come out
of the bull pen any more for the rest of the season. He would make 13 starts for the Tiges and
post a 6-7 record with a 2.81 ERA and 7 complete games! The Tigers under Ralph Houk had 60 complete
games that season. He struggled in 1979
and was splitting time between the starting rotation and the bull pen. He ended the season 2-2 with a 6.39 ERA and
was sold to the Mariners at the end of the season. Kip would bounce around the minors thru 1982
but never again made it back to the majors.
Happy Finneran was briefly a Detroit Tiger. He was a minor league pitcher starting in
1911 with the Norfolk Tars of the Virginia League. He won 21 games that first season and was
18-15 in 1912 when he was given chance at the majors with the Philadelphia
Phillies. He got in 14 games at the end
of the season and was 0-2 with a 2.53 ERA.
He spent most of 1913 at Lowell of the New England League and was 14-2
and was again given another shot with the Phils. He got in only 3 games for the
Phils pitching only 5 innings without a decision. In 1914 Happy jumped to the newly formed
Federal League. The Federal League was a
Major League that was started to rival the American and National Leagues. They had 8 teams in places like Baltimore,
Buffalo, Indianapolis and Kansas City that did not have major league
teams. They also took head on the AL and
NL with teams in St. Louis, Brooklyn, Pittsburgh and Chicago. Many players jumped from the AL and NL to the
FL for more money and for better treatment by the owners. Happy joined the Brooklyn Tip-Tops in 1914. Happy was their number three starter going
12-11 with a 3.18 ERA on team with a combined 3.33 ERA. But the AL and NL were putting the squeeze on
the FL. The AL and NL teams promised
the players they would drop the reserve clause.
But they were very slow to actually do anything. After the season the Federal League started
an antitrust lawsuit against the AL and NL.
The case went before a Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis who was said to be
death to monopolies. He had broken up
Standard Oil in 1907. In 1915 the FL
struggled and Indianapolis moved to Newark in while the lawsuit languished
before Judge Landis. Happy in the meantime had become the Tip-Tops
ace getting 24 starts with 12 complete games and going 10-12 with 2.80
ERA. After the season the Federal League
folded and thus dropped the law suit. Judge
Landis had still not ruled. The AL and
NL settled outside the courts with the FL and allowed the St. Louis Terrapins
owner to buy the St. Louis Browns and the Chicago Whales owner was allowed to
buy the Chicago Cubs. He moved his newly
purchased Cubs into his FL ballpark which he had previously named after
himself, Weeghman Park. Today we know
that park as Wrigley Field. But the Baltimore
franchise was not happy and filed another antitrust lawsuit. From that lawsuit baseball was ruled a
“sport” by the Judge and not subject to antitrust laws. The AL and NL kept the reserve clause on the
books for another 50 plus years. Players
like Happy had to find new teams to play for.
He found he was back in the minors.
In 1918 Happy was finally back in the majors and this time with
Detroit. His first game was against a
great Chicago White Sox team. He was
called in to stop the Sox who had scored 2 runs in the 9th to make
the score 7-3 with no outs. Happy held
the Sox scoreless and got the save.
Happy got in 4 more games for the Tiges with 2 starts. He lost both starts and was 0-2 with a 9.88
ERA. In May the Tiges sent him to St.
Paul of the American Association. Five
days later the New York Yankees purchased Happy’s contract which was possible
under the reserve clause. He faced the
Tigers 3 times in the remainder of the season but only recorded one decision, a
loss in one of his last games. After the
season Happy never pitched in the majors again.
The following year, the Chicago White Sox threw the World Series due to
poor treatment by the owners. The owners
created a new position in baseball, the Commissioner of Baseball. They appointed one Judge Kennesaw Mountain
Landis.
Frank Browning started his pro baseball career in 1906 as a
right handed pitcher for the Waco Navigators of the Texas League. He was 21-12 in 1908 when he left Texas for
San Francisco of the Pacific Coast League.
He was 9-2 with San Fran before the season ended giving him a combined
record of 30-14. In 1909 he was 32-16
for San Fran with a league record 16 game winning streak and a no hitter. This was enough for the Tigers to give Frank
a try. He played for the Tigers at the
beginning of the season and got into 11 games, 6 as a starter. He was 2-2 with a 2.57 ERA on a team with a
2.82 ERA. He struck out 16 while walking
only 10. But by the end of May he was
done pitching in the majors. He went
back to San Fran and was 9-14 for the rest of the season while putting up a
very respectable 2.07 ERA. He play one
more year in San Fran before going back to Texas and ending his pro career in
1916 back in the Texas League.
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