November 21 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Quintin Berry had a brief career with the Tigers.  He was a lefty drafted out of high school by the Atlanta Braves but chose to go to college instead at San Diego State.  He was then drafted by the Phillies and signed with them in 2006.  He was waived by the Phillies in 2010 and picked up by his home town San Diego Padres.  He was unprotected by the Padres and selected by the Mets in the rule 5 draft.  The Mets released him in April of 2011 and the Reds signed him.  At the end of the season the Reds granted him free agency and the Tigers signed him a week later in November of 2011.  Up until that time with 4 organizations he had only progressed to AAA for 4 games with the Reds.  He had spent most of the time in A or AA ball.  As a AA hitter for three seasons he was a .258 hitter with good speed but a penchant for K’s.  He was called up to the Tiges from Toledo in may of 2012 when Austin Jackson was injured.  For Detroit he was an identical .258 hitter with good speed (21 steals in 21 attempts) and a penchant for K’s in 94 games.  He had 80 K’s in 291 AB’s with 25 walks.  So his K’s to BB ratio is not very strong.  He was the odd men out in 2013 with an outfield of Dirks, Jackson, Hunter, Garcia, Kelly and the like.  He was in Toledo in 2013 and struggled badly hitting only .168 in 49 games.  The Tigers waived him and he was picked up by Kansas City.  He was with KC's AAA team in Omaha for 48 games and hit .222 when he had a stroke of luck at the end of August as he was traded to the Boston Red sox for Clayton Mortensen.  In Boston he got in 13 games and made a total of 9 plate appearances.  In those 9 he went 5 for 8 with a walk for a .667 OBP.  He made the post season roster and was used as a pinch runner in the ALDS, ALCS and World Series and stole a base each time.  Because of those 13 games and the three stolen bases Quintin earned a World Series ring before the rest of his 2012 Tiger teammates.  As soon as the World Series ended Quintin was granted free agency by the Red Sox and signed by the Baltimore Orioles.  He hit .285 for the O’s AAA team and got a September call up.  He got in 10 games but had only 2 plate appearances where he did not reach base.  We will see where he ends up in 2015.

Rick Peters started his major league career with the Tigers.  He was drafted by the Tigers in 1977 out of Arizona State University.  He hit .306 his first year as a pro at AA level Montgomery in 1977.  1978 found him up at AAA Evansville and hitting .276 with 25 stolen bases.  1979 he was still at Evansville and hitting .320 with 30 steals.  The Tigers brought him up at the end of the season and he hit .263 in 12 games playing third, second, DH and the outfield.  At the end of the 1979 season the Tigers traded Ron LeFlore to the Expos for Dan Schatzader so center field was open.  Rick filled in at center field in and had a great year as a rookie hitting .291 and tying for the team lead in stolen bases with Tom Brookens at 13.  He finished 6^th in balloting for Rookie of the Year.  But 1981 was not a good year for Rick.  He had had surgery to remove bone chips from his right elbow at the end of the 1980 season and in May of 1981 he collided with the outfield wall and hurt his elbow again as well as his ribs.  He still hit .256 but the Tigers released him after the season.  He missed the entire 1982 season.  But was picked up by the Athletics and played parts of two seasons up in Oakland in 1983 and 1986.  He was done as a pro player after 1986 but did manage in the minors in 1990 for the Auburn Astros of the New York Penn League.

Daryl Patterson made his major league debut as a Tiger.  He was a member of the 1967 Toledo Mud Hens that won the Governors Cup.  But bigger than that, he made his major league debut as a member of the 1968 Tigers.  Daryl was used as a reliever and went 2-3 with 7 saves and a 2.12 ERA.  He was on the roster for the World Series and got in two games pitching three innings and giving up only one hit to Julian Javier.  But he erased Javier by picking him off first base.  Daryl went on to pitch for the Tigers into 1971 when he was traded to the Athletics for John Donaldson.  In his career with Detroit Daryl was 9-7 with 9 saves and a 3.55 ERA.  He finished 1971 not with Oakland but with St. Louis and then played 1974 with the Pirates before his major league career was over.

Paul Richards was a catcher for the Tigers in the 1940’s, mainly during the war years.   He had started his major league career with the Dodgers in 1932 and then went to the Giants and later the Athletics.  He was in the minors with Atlanta of the Southern Association from 1936 through 1942 as a player manager.  But with the war on and most younger players in the service, the 34 year old was brought up to Detroit as a catcher.  He was the Tigers starter in 1943 and 1944 and was credited for teaching Hal Newhouser a great deal about pitching.  In 1945 he split time as catcher during the regular season with Bob Swift.   But Paul was the starter for the World Series as the Tigers wanted a more experienced catcher for the series.  After one more season as a part time catcher in 1946 but full time teacher of young Tiger pitchers, Paul as done as a major league player.  From 1947 through 1949 Paul was a player / manager for the Buffalo Bisons, the Tigers AAA farm team.  But 1950 found him managing the Pacific Coast League’s Seattle Rainiers.  By 1951 Paul was managing in the majors where he would manage for the next ten years with the White Sox and Orioles.  He managed one more season in 1976 with the White Sox before his managing days were done. 

Bill Morrisette pitched in 8 games for the Tigers in 1920.  That was the majority of his three years he played in the majors.  He started with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1915 and was there again in 1916.  He was a combined 2-0 with a 1.35 ERA.  He was back in the minors in 1917 and appears to have been in the service in 1918.  1919 found him back in baseball and 1920 found him in Hamilton with the Hamilton Tigers of the Michigan Ontario League.  He was 20-6 with the Tigers of Hamilton with a 1.00 ERA.  He joined the Detroit Tigers at the end of the 1920 season and was 1-1 with a complete game victory over the Philadelphia Athletics at Navin Field by the score of 5-2.  His loss was at the hands of the St. Louis Browns as he went 2 innings and gave up six runs but only two were earned.  He was 1-1 with a 4.33 ERA for the Tigers in 1920.  Bill bounced around the minors until 1924 having never got back into the majors. 

Gus Hetling was Tiger in his second year as a pro ball player.  He played with the Springfield Midgets in 1904 and hit .310.  In 1906 he was again with the Midgets before getting a call to Detroit.  He was 20 years old when he played both games of a double header against the St. Louis Browns in St. Louis after the Tigers had already long been eliminated from the pennant race.  Gus played third and went 1 for 7 with 4 K’s.  He made three put outs and two assists in the field.  He would never play in the majors again.    He continued to play in the minors through 1917 and was a career .273 hitter in the minors.

Charlie Bennett was a Detroit icon for years.  He started his major league career with the Milwaukee Grays in 1878.  1880 found him in Worcester with the Ruby Legs.  But 1881 found Charlie in his new home of Detroit where he was the catcher for the Wolverines for the next eight years including the World Series Championship season of 1887.  As a sign of his popularity, he was one of 8 base ball players that would be put on Allen and Ginters Tobacco cards of 1887 even though he was only the back up that year.  When the Wolverines dropped out of the National League, Charlie moved on to the Boston Beaneaters for the rest of his playing days.  His playing days came to an abrupt end in 1894 when he tried to run and catch a train and he lost his grip of the handles.  He fell under the train and lost both his legs.  He returned to Detroit and opened a tobacco store and the folks of Detroit would go out of their way to patronize his store.  He was given a day in Detroit and the fans gave him a wheel barrow filled with silver dollars.  The new Detroit Tigers of the American League  played their home games at a park named after Charlie, Bennett Park.  It was renamed Navin Field and later Briggs Stadium and finally Tiger Stadium.  Charlie was the ceremonial “catcher” in Detroit for years.  He would come out and catch the ceremonial first pitch for opening day for years.  He has been declared the best catcher of the 1800’s who is not in the Hall of Fame by the Society of American Baseball Research. 

Below is a 1887 Allen & Ginter's card of Charlie from my collection.