November 2 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Wilson Betemit joined the Tigers last year as a back up third baseman when Brandon Inge was in the minors.  We wish him a happy birthday today, maybe.  His birthday is in question.  It also has been reported to be July 28^th.  The discrepancy came about because the Braves signed him as an unrestricted free agent from the Dominican Republic when he was under age.  It appears they may have signed him when he was only 14 ½ years old.  They tried to pawn it off that he was older.  He has been a back up or an injury plagued starter for his current 10 year career.  He had his best year his third partial year in the majors when he hit .305 in 115 games but only 246 at bats.  Only once has he had more that 400 at bats in a season and that was 2006 when he split time between the Braves and Dodgers.   To date he has played for the Braves, Dodgers, Yankees, White Sox, Royals and last year the Tigers.  His fielding has always been suspect at best.  His career batting average is .269 although he did hit .292 for the Tiges last year in 40 games.  But in the post season last year for the Tiges Wilson was 0 for 8 against the Yankees in the first round with 4 K’s.  In the second round against the Rangers he K’d in his only plate appearance when he pinch hit for Brandon Inge in the 9^th inning of Game 1.  The Tiges lost that game 3-2.  He was granted free agency by the Tiges at the end of the season and this past season he was the Orioles starting third baseman.  He played in 102 games with most of it being at the beginning of the season.  In August he got in only 7 games and only 5 games in September with his season coming to an end September 13 with no playoffs.  He is still signed by the O’s through next season.

Elon “Chief” Hogsett was a left handed submarine pitcher for the Tigers.  He was brought in to pitch to lefties quite a bit so he pitched against the Yankees often.  He was good at getting Babe Ruth out as Ruth liked high fastballs and with Chief he mainly got low stuff being that he was a submarine pitcher.  Shortly after the first time he pitched to him Chief got a razing that Ruth was mad at him.  Chief asked why?  The response was Ruth didn’t like striking out to a girl.  Chief did not have much native American blood in him but the nickname came from him being from Hayes Kansas and the assumption that everybody from there was native American.  The Tiger fans would always greet him with war whoops when he came into the game.  He got his start in 1929 for the Tiges and was used as a starter.  But soon he was pitching more in relief.  In 1933 and 1935 he led the majors in games finished.  He was also a quiet guy and roomed with Charlie Gerhinger, another quiet guy.   The story was one day they were eating dinner and Chief grunted “salt”.  This was the first word either had spoken and it annoyed Gerhinger who glared and said “you could have just pointed”.   Chief was traded to the Browns in 1936 for Jack Burns.  He then went on to the Senators before joining the Tigers again in the war year of 1944.  His career stats for the Tigers are 39-47 with 37 saves before they were popular and a 4.45 ERA in nine seasons.