Mike Hennaman
Bob Sykes
Slick Coffman spent most of his time in the majors as a
Tiger reliever. He followed his older
brother Dick, to the majors. Dick never
played for the Tigers but was a journeyman pitcher who played 15 seasons in the
majors and won 75 games over his career mainly with the St. Louis Browns. Slick, who was born George David Coffman, was
signed by the Tigers and earned $1,800 his first season in 1937 at the age of
26. He made his debut in May of 1937 and
faced HOF’er Lefty Grove and the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. He pitched a complete game and spread out 8
hits over 11 innings to get a 4-2 win in his debut. At the plate he went 1-4 off of Lefty who
also threw a complete game in 11 innings.
The righty was one of the top relievers for the Tigers that season
getting in 28 games and finishing 15 with only 5 starts and posting a 4.37
ERA. That was not a bad ERA considering
the team ERA was 4.87. He would never
have as good of a season again. He won 4
games the next season, 1938, and did save 2 games. But the save was not really a stat at that
time. His ERA climbed up to 6.02 on a
team that had a combined ERA of 4.79. He
continued to drop in 1939 and posted a 6.38 ERA without a save and pitched in
his fewest games and innings in his career.
The Tigers had lost confidence in him.
At the end of the 1939 season the Tigers were decimated in the minors by
Commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis and had to make some deals to
compete in 1940. So they traded Slick to
his older brothers sold team, the St. Louis Browns for back up catcher, Billy
Sullivan. Slick would go 2-2 in what
would be his last season in the majors and posted a 6.27 ERA. For his career he would be 15-12 with a 5.60
ERA in 4 seasons. Three of those four
were with the Tigers.
Erwin Renfer
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