Bob
"Ducky" Jones played his entire major league career as a Tiger. After
playing in the PCL and other western leagues starting 1912, Bob made his
appearance with the Tigers in 1917 as a back up third baseman to Ossie Vitt.
Before the 1919 season Ossie was traded to the Red Sox and Bob became the
starting third baseman. He stayed with the club thru 1925. At that point he was
35 and the Tigers wanted a younger third baseman and went with a 29 year old
Fred Haney. Bob was Fred's back up for the season. After that Bob returned to
PCL to play. He stayed in the minors until he was 40 in 1930. His stats for his
time in Detroit were a .265 batting average, 7 homers, 316 RBI's and 399 runs
scored but was more known for his defense.
Dan
McGarvey played in the Ty Cobb strike game of 1912 when he was 24. In 1912 Ty
Cobb was suspended for going into the stands and beating up a fan. He was
suspended by the league. But his teammates felt he was justified and so on May
18, the rest of the Tigers refused to take the field in a game in Philadelphia
against the Athletics. The Tigers hastily put a squad together of amateurs. The
team lost the contest 24-2. Dan had five plate appearances in that game and
three at bats. He got hit by a pitch and was walked once. He did not get a hit.
He was in left field with Bill Leinhauser in center and Hap Ward in right for
that game. They replaced Davey Jones, Ty Cobb and Sam Crawford. Dan and had
three chances in the field. He made one assist, one put out and one error.
After the game the regular Tigers reported back as Ty had asked them to. All of
the players from the 24-2 game disappeared from professional baseball when the
regulars returned.
Tom
Doran played over half his time in the majors with Detroit. He first appeared
in the majors in 1904 with the Boston Americans. He appeared in 12 games and as
a back stop posted a .125 batting average in 32 at bats. That computes to 4
hits. He caught three more games for the Americans in 1905 before he was waived
and the Tiges picked him up. He was in 34 games for the Tigers and posted a
career high .160 batting average. 1906 found "Long Tom" back with
Boston for 2 more games before his major league experience was over. His major
league average was .144. Some 60 points higher than his minor league average of
.208. Tom played in the minors into 1908. Two years later in 1910, he died in
New York City at the age of 29.
Roscoe
Miller was the Tigers first 20 game winner. In the first year the Tigers were
in the American League in 1901, Roscoe was the Ace of the staff. He was 24 and
finished fourth in the league in wins with 23 against 13 losses. He finished
behind three Hall of Famers in Cy Young, Joe McGinnity and Clark Griffith. His
ERA of 2.95 was 8th. The leader was again, Cy Young. He did not rank in the top
ten for K's. That category was lead by Cy Young. Had they had one, I am sure Cy
Young would have won the Cy Young award. But Roscoe was third in complete games
with 35 and posted 3 shutouts. He started 1902 with the Tigers but was not as
effective, going 6-12 with a 3.69 ERA when in June he jumped leagues and went
to play for the New York Giants. This was a time when the leagues would raid
each other and Roscoe was raided. But Roscoe never did regain his form of 1901
in the National League. He stuck around into 1904 with the Pirates but a
carriage accident injured him. 14 Pirates players were riding in the carriage
when they were spooked by the back axle collapsing and they dragged the
carriage on its side and Roscoe hurt his wrist. He never played in the majors
after 1904. He only won 10 games after leaving Detroit. He went to the minors
and played until 1909. In 1913 Roscoe died of an unknown illness at the age of
36.
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