Andy Van Slyke was a coach as a Tiger. He had had a outstanding major league player
career mainly in Pittsburgh in the 1980’s and 1990’s. He also played for the Cardinals for four
seasons at the beginning of his career.
He ended up his career with a season in Baltimore and a season in
Philadelphia finally in 1995. He was
.247 hitter with a .349 OBP. Add to
that the fact that he was Gold Glove in center field showing off a great arm and
was a Silver Slugger winner and a three time all-star and you understand the
type of player he was. He also was known
for a good quote for the writers. I have
a couple of favorites. He was tried at
third but it didn’t work out. He stated "I played third base like Brooks - Mel
Brooks." Another was about his
rise to a major leaguer. He said "The
biggest adjustment from the minors was learning to spend $45 in meal
money." He also
said in the press that he felt Barry Bonds was doing steroids. The Pirates spent money on keeping Andy and
let Bonds go. Van Slyke faded and ended
his career at a typical age 34 and Bonds kept going thanks to the help of
Balco. Andy became a Tiger coach in 2006
under his former skipper Jim Leyland. He
was the Tiger first base coach for 4 years before he was replaced in 2010 by
Tom Brookens. In 2014 former Tiger
hitting coach Lloyd McClendon was named skipper for the Seattle Mariners. He brought Andy back to the bigs as the
Mariners first base coach.
Elliot Maddox started his major league career as a
Tiger. He was originally drafted by the
Houston Astros out of high school in 1966.
But he did not sign and instead went to the University of Michigan. He was an outfielder in high school in New
Jersey but U of M converted him to a third baseman. He won the 1968 Big 10 batting title hitting
.467 and was drafted by the Tigers in the June supplementary draft and
signed. He hit .306 between two Tiger A
level clubs for the rest of 1968. In
1969 he was again in A ball and hit .293 learning how to play third
better. In 1970 the 22 year old made the
majors out of spring training. He made
his debut in the third game of the season against the Washington Senators as a
pinch hitter. It was the 6th
inning of a game the Senators were leading 10-4. Elliot faced former Tiger pitcher Joe
Grezenda as a pinch hitter for pitcher Jerry Robertson. Elliot grounded out to shortstop Eddie
Brinkman. He was then replaced by Daryl
Patterson who took over pitching duties and Elliot was out of the game. Five days later Elliot got his first start in
the majors. He was starting third
baseman against the Orioles and went 0 for 3 but reached base twice on a HBP
and BB. He also scored a run. In the 5th the young Elliot saw
Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson come to the plate. Elliot recorded his first error but was flawless
the rest of the game. He had a couple of
games as a pinch runner and a replacement for Don Wert before making his next
start on April 21. He faced future Tiger
Dean Chance and in his first plate appearance recorded a walk. In the 4th he faced Chance again
with 2 outs and Jim Northrup on third. Elliot
got his first major league hit driving in Northrup and tying the game at
3. In the 9th Elliot led of
with a single with the game still deadlocked.
Cesar Gutierrez hit a double and Elliot scored the game winning
run. Elliot finished the season hitting
.248 for the Tiges but with his walks and HBP brought his OBP to .332. He was clearly the replacement for 31 year
old third baseman Don Wert who hit only .218.
Or was he? At the end of the
season the Tigers made possibly their all time greatest trade. The Tiges sent Don Wert, Denny McLain, Norm
McRae and Elliot to the Senators for their future left side of the infield,
shortstop Eddie Brinkman and third baseman Aurelio Rodriguez AND back up
catcher Jim Hannan and future 20 game winner Joe Coleman. Denny went 10-22 for the Senators. Don got exactly 2 hits and Norm never got out
of the minors for the Senators. Elliot
was the lone talent the Tigers gave up in the deal. Elliot did not show it at Washington, soon to
be the Texas Rangers, hitting only .236.
He did show it at New York where he went after Texas. He .299 for the Yanks over three years, tow
where he was their starting center fielder.
But when the Yanks started winning their World Series in 1976 Elliot was
on the bench soon to be traded. Elliot
went from the Yankees to the Orioles to the Mets before his MLB career was over
in 1980. He was a career .261 hitter
with a good glove.
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