Phil Stidham pitched for the Tigers after coming out of the
University of Arkansas. He signed as a
draftee on June 4, 1991. Three years to
the day he made his major league debut as a Tiger against the Twins at Tiger
Stadium. The Twins were already ahead
7-0 when with a runner on first when Phil was brought in to pitch with one out
in the second. Phil ended the inning on
one pitch getting Dave McCarty to ground into a double play. Phil came in to pitcht the third and gave up
two singles before getting the next two batters out on a fly ball and a strike
out. But then back to back singles
followed by back to back homers scored six runs on six hits against Phil before
he got the last out of the inning as a strike out. A few days later he came in in the eighth
with the Tigers already trailing 4-1 to face the Red Sox and gave up a lead off
homer to Ron Tinsley and a single to Otis Nixon before getting the side
out. The next day it was the same
story. Tigers trailing 14-3 and Phil
pitched the 8th. He gave up
one run on two hits. A few days later
with the Tigers trailing 6-2 to the Angels Phil got the nod and got Rod Correia
to pop up to Tigers catcher John Flaherty to end the inning. Phil was done for the day. Phil was called in one more time a few days
later against the Brewers. Yes, the
Tigers were trailing. Phil gave up three
walks and a pair of doubles but did get Jody Reed out on a sac fly. That was the end of Phils major league
career. He was 0-0 with a 24.92 ERA
having never pitched with a lead. Phil
was done in the Tiger organization but continued to play pro ball in the Mets,
Twins, Rockies and Reds organizations until 1998.
Gary Sheffield played two of his 22 major league seasons as
a Tiger. He started his career with the
Brewers in 1988. He continued on with
the Padres, Marlins, Dodgers, Braves and Yankees before the Tigers made a deal
to bring him to Detroit for Anthony Claggett, Humberto Sanchez and Kevin Whelan
after the 2006 season. I heard all kinds
of rave reviews of him as a great club house guy just before coming to the
Tigers. I hope it was true as he hit
only .247 as a Tiger with 44 homers and 132 RBI’s over the two years as a DH. His last season he hit only .225. He made $10.9M his first year with the Tigers
and $13.3 his second year. Before the
2009 season started the Tigers released Gary.
Gary signed a $14M contract with the Mets and hit homers 500-509 of his
career and he was done in baseball. His
last year in Detroit the Tigers were 74-88.
The next year the Tigers were 86-77.
Charlie Fuchs made his major league debut as a Tiger during
the war year of 1942. He had been
playing in the minors since 1937 and was 49-50 before joining the Tigers at the
start of the 1942 season. He debuted
against the Browns and pitched 1.1 innings and gave up two hits and a walk but
no runs. He ended up getting into 9
games for the Tigers before being sent to Beaumont. He pitched a complete game four hit shut out
of the Browns and beat the Browns once more pitching 7 innings before Hal
Newhouser relieved him. Charlie also
beat the Athletics going 8.2 innings and giving up 4 runs on 9 hits before
Newhouser came in again and recorded the final out. He also lost to the Red Sox giving up five
runs in three innings and the Indians, giving up 4 runs in 1.1 innings. His final loss was to the White Sox when he
gave up 7 runs in 2.1 innings. The
Athletics claimed Charlie off waivers before the 1943 season started. His final record with Detroit was 3-3 with a
6.63 ERA. For his career he was 6-10
with a 4.89 ERA with the Tigers, Athletics, Browns and Dodgers with his final
year being 1944.
Jack Coombs pitched two games as a Tiger in a comeback
attempt in 1920. Jack had played 13
seasons in the majors before his time in Detroit. With the Athletics in Philadelphia he led the
league with 31 wins in 1910 and 28 in 1911.
13 of the wins in 1910 were shut outs.
He also went on to win 3 games in the World Series that year. He followed that up with a 21 victory season
in 1912. After two dismal seasons in
1913 and 1914 where Jack was 0-1, Jack was released by the Athletics before the
1915 season and signed to pitch for the Brooklyn Robins. For Brooklyn he was again a double digit
winner going 15-10 and then 13-8 for the Robins. He went back to the city of Philadelphia in
1919 but as a manager for the Phils. He
was 18-44 as a manager. He then joined
the Tigers on a comeback and played in two games. He pitched the last five innings of a game
the Tigers lost to the White Sox. Jack
relieved Ernie Alten, who relieved the starter and Dutch Leonard who gave up 7
runs in 3 innings to the Black Sox squad.
Jack only gave up 2 runs in his 5 innings pitched. In Jacks last game he faced the Senators in
relief and gave up 3 runs in 1.1 innings.
Al Schacht, the original Clown Prince of Baseball, won the game for the
Senators 10-3. Jack went on to coach the
Duke University baseball team for 23 years and their field is named after
him. He also became a writer and
historian.
Deacon McGuire started his time in Detroit as a member of
the 1885 Detroit Wolverines. He hit .190
as a back up catcher. He left Detroit
and played for the Philadelphia Quakers before coming back to Detroit in 1888
He played three games for the Wolverines but did not get a hit as a catcher
again. Deacon continued to play pro ball
with Cleveland Blues, Rochester Broncos, Washington Senators and Brooklyn
Superbas before coming back to Detroit with the Tigers in 1902. He hit .227 as a the starting catcher in 1902
for the Tigers and followed that in 1903 as the starting catcher again but this
time hitting .250 at the age of 39. He
was the second oldest player in the league at that time as a catcher! Deacon continued to play part time and also
managed some with the Boston Americans/Red Sox and the Cleveland Naps. He was done managing in the majors after the
1911 season. For the 1912 season Deacon
returned to Detroit to play for the Tigers one more time. While a coach for the Tigers, on May 18,
1912, he came back to catch in the Ty Cobb strike game and went 1 for 2 at the
age of 48. That was his last game in the
majors as a player. He continued ot
coach for the Tigers through 1917. His
record of 1612 games as a catcher stood until 1925. He played for 11 different teams. A record held until Matt Stairs played for
his 12th team in 2010. He
recorded more assists as a catcher than anyone else ever has. His record is 1860 assists as a catcher. This record is not likely to be broken as
Pudge Rodriguez is closest among active catchers with 1227 followed by Jorge
Posada at 696. His caught steals record
of 1459 base runners is also not likely to ever be broken. Pudge is again closest at 661 among active
catchers. Deacon went on to coach the Albion College
team. He is buried at Riverside Cemetery
in Albion.
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