Terry Pearson must have had a bitter sweet time with the Tigers. Terry pitched at the University of West Alabama in Livingston, AL. After college it appears Terry worked on his own to continue in the game. In 1995 at the age of 23 he started his pro career with Zanesville of the independent Frontier League. He pitched well with a 6-2 record (the league leader had 9 wins) and posted very good 3.23 ERA in 14 starts. In 1996 he clearly found some control and was moved to the bull pen and became the Zanesville closer. I say he found some control because he had 43 K’s and only 8 BB’s in 31 games and an outstanding league leading ERA of 0.50! He also had a 4-1 record and league leading 20 saves. He then moved to the Northern League for 1997 also an independent league and was 2-3 with a4.16 ERA. He struck out 46 but walked 30. It would appear most baseball people felt Terry was not a major league player and he was out of organized baseball altogether in 1998 and 1999. But Terry kept at it and in 2000 was back pitching in the Northern League. He found some more control and had 32 K’s to 11 walks. This got some attention finally from the big leagues and the Tigers signed Terry. Terry was the closer at Erie in 2001 with 23 saves, second in the league and 62 K’s to only 16 walks! This was impressive for the Tigers enough to take him seriously in spring training, 2002 and Terry was with the Tiges at the beginning of the season. In the third game of the season the Tiges were facing the Devil Rays in Tampa. Jose Lima had started the game and had given up 3 runs and it was still the third and no outs. Terry got the call from the pen with runners on first and second. Terry got the first batter he faced, Toby Hall, to ground into a double play. The runner moved to third. He then gave up a run scoring single but then ended the inning with a K. The next inning Terry allowed a homer but got the other three batters he faced to ground out weakly. In the fifth Terry got two outs with the bases loaded before he was pulled. Unfortunately Matt Miller came in to relieve Terry and promptly gave up a homer on his first pitch and Terry’s ERA climbed up to 13.50. Three days later Terry faced the Indians. He pitched one inning in a Tiger loss. Terry gave up a triple to Jim Thome for the only run Terry allowed. Two days later Terry faced the Chicago White Sox and gave up a 2 run homer to Frank Thomas. But Terry did get the Sox 1-2-3 in the 9th. Four days later Terry was called in to face Denny Hocking of the Twins in the 8th with 2 outs and the runners on first and third and Twins leading 4-3. On a passed ball the runner on third scored and the runner on first ended up on second. Terry stayed in and got Hocking out. But the Twins won. That was the end of the Terry’s major league career. He was sent down to Toledo. He had never pitched in a game the Tiges won. After all, it was 2002 and the Tiges were 55-106 for the season. The 30 year old would pitch 2 more years in pro ball. Today he runs a baseball school in his home town of Northport, Alabama.
Kenny Rogers
Shawn Holman
Larry Parrish
Norm Cash
Chick King
Johnny Lipon
Russ Kerns
Birdie Tebbetts was the starting catcher for the 1940 Tigers. A couple of my favorite Birdie stories. One was when he was managing the minors in the 1960's bus leagues. They were driving around Virginia and looking for a place to eat. The bus stopped at a burger type restaruant and were unloading to go in. The owner came out and said they could order there and the whites could eat there but the blacks on team would have to eat on the bus. So Birdie said ok and asked how long it would take to get about 30 burgers and fries and drinks ready. The owner said about an hour or something. Birdie said that would be fine. He wanted to go get his team checked in at the hotel befroe the game and said they would be back in an hour. So the team loaded back up on the bus and drove on their way to the next town to get something to eat as their game was not in that town! My other favorite Birdie story was when he was catching in 1940. The season came down to last series of the season between Dteroit and Cleveland. The first game was a wild affair where the Indians put their ace, Hall of Famer Bob Feller and the Tiges put up Floydd Geibel who would end his career with 3 wins. It was a crazy game. The begining of the game saw the Indians fans throw a hail storm of produce out on the field on the first fly ball to Hank Greenberg in left field. One player said there was so much fruit and garbage thrown that he was surprised Hank caught the ball and not an orange. The ump had to get on the PA and threaten an forefiet if the fans did not calm down. Birdie was given the day off and was in the bull pen. A tribe fan in the upper deck got a peach basket full of empty beer bottles and garbage and tried to drop it on Schoolboy Rowes head in the bull pen from the upper deck. He missed and it hit Birdie knocking him unconcious. Birdie was taken into the training room while the police tracked down the fan. They brought the fan into the training room for the players and Birdie to identify. Then the police gave Birdie a few minutes to "discuss" the game with the fan. After the beating, err, discussion, the fan sued Birdie but lost. Birdie has a fun book on his life called "Birdie; Confessiions of a Baseball Nomad".
Jimmy Dykes
Slicker Parks
Del Gainer
Billy Lush
No comments:
Post a Comment