November 3 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Mike Christopher

Larry Herndon

Red Phillps spent all of his time in the majors with the Tigers.  He followed the Waner brothers, Paul and Lloyd also known as Big Poison and Little Poison, coming out of East Central University in Ada, OK.  They were known as the Tigers.  As the Waners were starting their Hall of Fame careers Clarence “Red” Phillips was starting his journey in the minors.  Red was under contract for the Tigers in 1933 and pitched in the Western League for the Hutchinson Wheatshockers and the Bartlesville Broncos.  He was 9-12.  In 1934 he moved up to Beaumont of the Texas League.  He was 15-5 and moved up to AA Montreal and was 4-2 when he got the call for the Tigers in the midst of their 1934 pennant race.  He made his debut coming out of the bull pen in a game the Tigers were leading 5-3 in the fifth with only 1 out.  Red finished the game and since the Tiger starter, Carl Fischer, did not last a full 5 innings Red became the pitcher of record and got his first win in his major league debut.  Red would pitch in 4 games all in relief and pitched 2 innings in each game.  He then had his best game of the season when he got his first start of his career against the White Sox in Detroit.  He pitched a complete game victory and winning 16-4.  Allowed 12 hits and 4 walks and K’d only 1.  But the Tiger bats had scored 5 runs in the first inning alone to outscore the Sox and give Red his second win.  Red got in one more game for the Tiges in 1934 where he got the save.  His final record for 1934 was 2-0 with 1 save and a 6.17 ERA.  For 1935 Red was back in the minors at Beaumont where he went 20-11 with a 2.80 ERA.  This made him miss the Tigers first World Series Championship in 1935.  However, this was enough to bring him back to Detroit in 1936.  He was used as reliever in April and recorded only 1 win against the White Sox.  In late May he got into the Tiges rotation.  He pitched three straight complete games winning the first one in 10 innings against those same White Sox before dropping the next two complete games.  He then got two more starts without a decision before he was dropped from the rotation.  He was relegated to the bull pen for the rest of the season with the exception of one more start in September where he got another loss.  He would never pitch in the majors again after 1936.  His final career stats were a 4-4 record and a 6.42 Era with 1 save.  He went back to the minors and played there through 1940 before there is a gap in his record during the war.  He appears again in the records in 1946 when he was managing the Galax Leafs of Galax, VA of the Blue Ridge League.  He was managing in the minors still as late as 1950. 

Jim Walkup was the first Jim Walkup to play for the Tigers.  Today’s Jim Walkup was born James Huey Walkup in 1895 in Havana, Arkansas.  The second Jim Walkup was born in Havana, Arkansas also in 1909.  Both played at the University of Arkansas.  Both were pitchers.  And both were cousins of each other.  Today’s Jim Walkup was the lefty pitcher where James Elton Walkup was a righty pitcher.   Today’s Jim started his pro career in Muskogee of the Western Association in 1915.  He was 14-9 and showed he was a good control pitcher walking only 47 in 197 innings pitched and a 1.13 WHIP (Walks and Hits per Inning Pitched).  He worked his way up the minors and signed with the Tigers in 1924 although he still was playing in the minors.  That year he also moved up to the Texas League with the Fort Worth Panthers.  In that season he continued to show his control with an average of only 1.7 walks per 9 innings.  This was actually above his minor league average of 1.5 walks per 9 innings.  The Tiges were impressed enough to give Jim a shot in 1927.  He made his major league debut on April 30, 1927.  He was called in to pitch the 9^th inning of a game at Navin Field against the Cleveland Indians.  The Tribe already led 5-2 when Jim was called in.  He faced 5 Indians starting with the 9^th batter, pitcher Willis Hudlin and then Homer Summa, Freddy Spurgeon, former Tiger George Burns and Joe Sewell.  He allowed 2 hits and 1 run while not walking anyone.  A little over two weeks later he was called in to face the Yankees in the 9^th in Navin Field with the Tiges trailing 6-2.  He faced Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Bob Meusel.  He did not walk any of them and only allowed one hit while not giving up a run.  These were the 1927 Yankees.  Possibly the greatest team of all time and Jim did well with the heart of the order.  But the Tiges manager George Moriarty must not have seen it that way because Jim never pitched again for the Tigers or in the majors.  He went back to the minors where he would stay for the next 7 seasons finally ending his playing career in 1934.  He was still in baseball managing in the minors as late as 1950.