Tony Giarratano played his major league career with the
Tigers. He was born in Queens, New York
but attended college at Tulane in New Orleans before being drafted and signing
with the Tigers in 2003. In his major
league debut in June of 2005, he went 2 for 3 with an RBI and run scored in a
6-4 victory over the Rangers. He hit a
game winning homer against the Dodgers managed to get into 15 games with the
Tigers in 2005 as a shortstop but only got three other hits. He had a .143 batting average at the end of
the month and was sent back to the minors.
He never made it back to the show.
Francis Beltran was a reliever for the Tigers in 2008. He had played a couple of seasons with the
Cubs and part of one with the Expos before joining the Tigers as free agent. He pitched in eleven games for the
Tigers. He came in to a game against the
Twins early in April that year and pitched a scoreless 8th with the
Tigers trailing 5-9. He gave up a double
and a walk but no runs. The Tigers came
back in the bottom of the 8th and scored six runs on six hits and
Francis got his one and only win for the Tigers. He played with Houston’s AAA Oklahoma City
Red Hawks in 2011 and was 0-0 with a 19.89 ERA in five games.
Steve Rodriguez played less than a month for the
Tigers. He came out of Pepperdine
University and where they won the College World Series. He signed with the Boston Red Sox and quickly
moved up the minor league ranks as a slick fielding infielder. He made the parent club for the Sox in early
1995 and was in six games for the Sox where he went 1 for 8. He then went down to the AAA Pawtucket Red
Sox where he hit .242 and was waived by the Red Sox. The Tigers picked him up on September 8 of
1995. Two days later he was with the
club on the road in Toronto. He got the
start against the Blue Jays hitting 9th and playing second
base. He went 0-4 but got a walk. He was perfect in the field. The next day he got the start again and this
time he got his first hit for the Tigers, a line drive double to left off of
Paul Menhart in the second. He scored
when John Flaherty hit a single. In the
fourth he drew a lead off walk but was caught stealing, 2-4. He came up the last time in the 9th
with the score tied 2-2. Phil Nevin drew
a lead off walk and Steve moved him along on a sacrifice bunt. Phil did not score the Tiges did win the game
3-2 in part thanks to Steve. The next
day had the Tiges at home in Tiger Stadium against Milwaukee and Steve got the
start at second for the third time. In
the second with Danny Bautista on first and one out, Steve hit perfect bunt
down the third base line and beat it out to first. Danny and Steve then pulled off a double
steal and two batters later Chris Gomez hit a double and drove in Steve for
what would be the game winning run in 5-1 Tigers win. Steve continued to play second for the Tiges
backing up Lou Whitaker at second. He
would get in 12 games and get 6 hits in 31 at bats for a .194 average. He kept up the fielding but would not get
into another game in the majors after those final 12 games for the Tigers. At the end of the season Lou Whitaker
retired. The Tigers did not trust Steve
at second and picked up Mark Lewis from the Cincinnati Reds to finish off the
David Wells trade where the Tiges sent Wells to the Reds for a minor leaguer
and C.J. Nitkowski and eventually Mark Lewis.
Mark would be the Tiges second baseman for 1996. Steve went back to the minors and would be
done in pro ball after 1998. Today he is
the coach of his alma mater, Pepperdine.
Bob Hamelin played one season as a Tiger. He became a major leaguer in 1993 with the
Kansas City Royals but did not qualify for rookie status as he only appeared in
16 games as a first baseman. The next
year he did qualify and won AL Rookie of the Year with a .282 average and a
.388 OBP with 24 homers and 65 RBI’s.
But his numbers dropped after that.
In 4 seasons with the Royals he ended up hitting .241. At the end of 1996 the Royals released him
and Tiges signed him as free agent. For
1997 he was the Tiges main DH hitting .270 with 18 homers and 52 RBI’s. But the Tiges had a whole team hitting under
300 with three switch hitters and two lefties and 5 players with more homers
than Bob. At the end of the season Bob
was granted free agency and signed with the Milwaukee Brewers. He spent 1998 with the Brewers before his
major league career was over.
Howard
Johnson was one of the third basemen of hte 1984 Tigers. He made Sparky nervous
because he felt he was too unprediectable. Sparky thought his fielding was
erratic and would get worse when he was in a slump. Sparky said he was
perpetually at the waters edge but could not take that last step to be a
succesful big leaguer. He got into one World Series game with the Tiges and did
not get a hit. He was traded to the Mets for Walt Terrell and made it into the
1986 World Series for the Mets. In two games he did not get a hit.
Bill
Freehan grew up in Royal Oak, went to college at the University of Michigan and
played his entire career as a Tiger. He wanted to go to Norte Dame but they
wanted him to choose between baseball and football. U of M let him play both.
In football he played linebacker and end. As a catcher in college he was a
solid batter hitting .585 his last year. That year he signed with the Tiges for
$125,000. He was a solid catcher as a Tiger as well. He won five Gold Gloves,
was selected to 11 All Star teams and retired with a .262 average. He hit 200
homers in his career, 100 at home and 100 on the road. He was the catcher for
the 1968 World Champs and he was smart. He is known for one of the most famous blocks
of home plate when in game 5 of the 1968 World Series he stood up and tagged
out Lou Brock who failed to slide. The
play would be the turning point in the series as the Tigers would come back
forma 3 games to 1 deficit to win the series in 7 games. He later wrote a book "Behind the
Mask" and caught flack when he openly was critical of Denny McLain and his
rule breaking. Bill James ranks him as the 12 best catcher all time. Today Bill suffers from dementia and no longer
does autograph appearances. I suspect it
has something to do with the collisions at the plate he must have taken and his
time in football.
Dick
McAuliffe was also known as "Mad Dog" as a Tiger. He was the second
baseman for the 1968 Tigers and was also known for hitting in the bucket. he
developed that stance in the minors. He was hitting everything to left as a
leftie so the other teams loaded up the left side and he hit only .206. Then
his coach, Wayne Blackburn taught him to open up and get his hip out of the
way. He then was hitting to all fields and his average went up. Dick made his
first All Star team in 1965. Bill Freehan was a catcher on the AL squad and was
in the bull pen talking with one of the NL catchers when the NL catcher asked
him, "how the hell does he hit with a stance like that?" At that
exact moment Dick hit a homer over the bull pen and Freehan replied "just
like that!" Dick was traded to the Red Sox in 1973 for Ben Oglive. He was
a career .247 hitter with 197 homers and very rarely hit into double plays. He
is ranked as the 22 all time second baseman by Bill James.
George
Thomas played 6 of his 13 seasons with the Tigers. He was an outfielder who hit
a career .255 and a nearly identical .253 for the Tigers. He had a great arm and was a very interesting
guy. He was recalled into the service
during the Berlin Wall crisis. He served
a year as the Tigers player rep. After
leaving Detroit he was with the Red Sox in 1967 and their “Impossible Dream”
season when they won the pennant. He
was mainly on the bench and gave a great one liner when he said “this is the
greatest pennant race I have ever watched.”
Before the World Series he gave a nice piece of advice to the Red Sox
triple crown winner and MVP, Carl Yastrzemski when he told him “don’t get over
confident. Right now we have the same
average in the World Series - .000.”
Joe Orengo
was a war time infielder for the Tigers. He
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