Kevin Hooper
Brian Schmack
Alex Johnson
Dick Donovan
Tony Piet ended his career as a Tiger.
Deacon White was a innovator of the game and the most recent
Hall of Famer from Detroit. His nickname
of “Deacon” came about because he carried a bible with him and was thought to
represent what a Deacon should be. He had started playing pro baseball in 1868,
three years after the Civil War, and 1871 he joined the National Association
when it debuted as the first professional league. He was catcher for the Cleveland Forest
City’s and the Boston Red Stockings.
Again, this was before the NL started so there was not really a race for
the batting title but Deacon won it anyway in 1875 when he hit .367. He had won the RBI title in 1873. When the NL started in 1876 he was the
catcher for the Chicago White Stockings and he again won the RBI title. In 1877 he came close to winning the triple
crown when he led the league in RBI’s with 49, average with a .387 mark and was
third in homers with 2. (The league
leader hit 4 that season.) But he did
lead the league in triples with 11. He
was also He was an innovator in that he was the first catcher to move up
underneath the batter. It was the custom
in the early days of baseball to stand 10 to 20 feet behind the batter and
catcher the ball on the bounce. He also
created the first chest protector. After
his time in Chicago he moved on to Boston, Cincinnati and Buffalo in the
National League before landing in Detroit with the Wolverines in 1886. He joined Detroit in what was considered a
huge deal at the time when he and Jack Rowe, Hardy Richardson and Sam Thompson
were sold to Detroit for the sum of $7,000.
He had moved to third base by now and was the Wolverines starting third
sacker for the next three years including the 1887season when the Wolverines
won the NL flag and went on to beat the St. Louis Browns of the American
Association. The Wolverines won 10 games
to 5. Deacon was on the team with three
other future Hall of Famers (all posthumously and all left handed) in Dan
Brouthers at first and Sam Thompson and Ned Hanlon in the outfield. Deacon hit .303 at the age of 39 that season
as the oldest player in the majors. He
would continue to be the oldest player in the majors until his playing days
ended three years later at the age of 42.
He also almost made a great contribution to baseball when he threatened
to sue baseball in regards to the reserve clause after leaving the Wolverines
in 1889. He was under contract with the
Pittsburgh Allegheny’s when he and teammate Jack Rowe bought the Buffalo team
of the International League and were not allowed to play for their own
team. The reserve clause had them locked
into only playing with the Pittsburgh club.
The two threatened o sue to break the reserve clause but did not and
eventually played for Pittsburgh. The
following season Deacon jumped from the NL and bought a share of the Players
League team in Buffalo. The Players
League was a league brought about by the players in an attempt to break the
owners of their control of the players through the reserve clause and low pay
and ability to sell the players contracts as had been done in 1886. Unfortunately, the league collapsed after one
season because the owners of the NL and American Association paid the stars
huge salaries to keep them in their league.
With fans wanting to see the stars the league collapsed. That would be Deacon’s last season as a
professional ball player at the age of 42.
In his career Deacon played 8 seasons as a starting catcher and 9 years
as a starting third baseman. He also had
a couple seasons in the outfield and at first as a starter. He also recorded games at every position when
he played second, short and pitched. His
brother Wil also played with him and with Detroit. The year he died was 1939. This was the year of the first Hall of Fame
class. He was disappointed when the
first class was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and he was not among
them, nor was he invited to the Baseball Centennial that was that year as
well. (He was 91, only 9 years younger
than the anniversary they were celebrating.)
He was playing shortly after the Civil War and died two years before his
birthday, December 7, would be recognized as the start of the US entry into
World War II with the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
By the way, if you are wondering, only one major leaguer was
born that fateful December 7 of 1941, but not in the US. Rupe Toppin was born
December 7, 1941 in Panama. He played for the Kansas City Athletics in
1962. His link to the Tigers is that of the two games he played his
second and last was against the Tigers. He came into the game in the 4th
in relief and walked 2 the first inning he pitched against the Tigers.
In the next inning he loaded the bases with 3 straight walks to start the
inning. He was pulled just before Rocky Colavito hit a single to clear
the bases and end his major league career.
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