Erik Hiljus
Julio Gonzalez
Gene Lamont
Jack Hamilton
Ned Garver was an ace pitcher for the Tigers. He graduated high school in the middle of
World War II and played a little bit of American Legion ball until enlisting in
the service. But due to flat feet he was
discharged in spring of 1944. His mother
wanted him to become a minister or an undertaker. But he signed a contract for
the St. Louis Browns and went to play Class D ball and was an immediate success
winning 21 games that first season as an 18 year with a 1.21 ERA. By the end of 1945 he was in Toledo playing for
the Mud Hens, the Browns top farm team.
He made his major league debut in 1948 for a Browns team that was no
longer the AL champs of the war year 1944.
Instead they were a 6th place team in an 8 team league losing
94 games. Ironically his major league
debut was actually as a pinch runner and he scored a run in a losing game to
the Tiges in Briggs Stadium. In his
pitching debut he got a start in Washington against the Senators. He was warming up before the game and heard
someone else warming up with him.
According to the SABR player bio of Ned by Greg Wolf, Ned said “"I was warming up in the bullpen [and]
heard somebody else warming up. Zack Taylor had Sam Zoltak warming up, too. I
guess he didn't think I'd make it. In the first inning I had the jitters and I
couldn't get the ball over like I wanted."
Ned gave up 3 runs in the first inning but stayed in the game and
lasted 6 innings although he got the loss.
But for the season he had the best ERA on the team by far but won only 7
games on the poor Browns. Ned continued
to play great for a poor team. In fact,
in 1951 he became the first pitcher to win 20 games for a team that lost 100
games. He was 20-12 with league leading
24 complete games. He was an All Star
and finished second in MVP voting. Again
from Greg Wolf’s bio on Ned “In a highly
contested MVP race in the AL, Garver came in second behind Yogi Berra. "I
was called by the Associated Press in Cleveland," Garver said about an
episode that was a source of disappointment his entire life. "I was told
that I won the night before the award was announced. The Associated Press
congratulated me for being the MVP. The next morning they called me again and
told me they were sorry, but I didn't win the award after all. Apparently New
York writers left me off the ballot entirely. I don't have any bitterness
toward baseball except for this." Berra, Garver and Allie Reynolds each
received six first-place votes; however, Garver received only two second-place
votes.” In 1952 Ned was on a 7th
place Browns team when a trade took place.
It must have been mixed feeling for Ned as he was being traded to the
only team worse than the Browns, the Tigers.
However, he was leaving his manager Rogers Hornsby whom he did not get
along with. Hornsby did not tell Ned. Ned heard it on the radio. The deal sent Bud Black, Jim Delsing, Dave
Madison and Ned to the Tiges for Don Lenhardt, Dick Littlefield, Marlin Stuart
and Vic Wertz. In his first full season
with the Tigers in 1953 Ned won a team leading 11 games. The following season Ned was second on the
team with 14 wins. In 1955 he had more
starts than any other Tiger pitcher but was fourth in wins with a 2-16 record
and a 3.98 ERA. As so often is the case
with athletes, Ned suffered a knee injury that messed up his back and arm. He hurt his elbow at the start of 1956 and
only pitched in 6 games. At the end of
the season he was traded to the Kansas City Athletics. He was again an ace on the Athletics winning
12 and 10 games in 1958 and 1959 for a 7th place team. Ned finished his career as a member of the
1961 Los Angeles Angels in their first year of existence. In his 14 seasons he was 129-157 and a 3.73
ERA. For the Tiges in 5 seasons he was
38-40 with a 3.68 ERA.
Bill Akers
Alex Jones
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