Saturday, January 31, 2015

January 25 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Jose Macias started his major league career as a Tiger.  It was after several years in the minors where he played every position including pitcher that he made his major league debut as a Tiger in 1999 with a cup of coffee consisting of 5 games.  In his second game as a major leaguer he came in as a pinch hitter in the 9th inning against the Indians.  With the Tigers trailing Jose hit a line drive shot to deep right field for a homer.  It was his first hit a major leaguer and it would have been a much more exciting had the Tigers not been trailing 12-5.   That was his only hit in his first year in 4 at bats.  In 2000 he was back with the Tigers and as a back up second baseman, third baseman he hit .254 with 2 homers and 24 RBI’s.  In 2001 he finally made it.  He was the Tigers starting third baseman hitting .268 with 8 homers and 51 RBI’s all career highs for him.  In 2002 he was back as the starting third baseman and was hitting .234 when in May the Tigers and Expos traded third basemen.  Jose went to Montreal and Chris Truby came to Detroit.  Jose stayed in Montreal until he was traded to the Cubs before the 2004 season.   He was done in the majors after 2005.  His career stats were a .256 batting average with 26 homers and 173 RBI’s.  Jose played in Japan in 2006 before coming back to the States and played in the Milwaukee Brewers farm system in 2007 before heading to Mexico to play through 2010.

Richie Lewis pitched for one season for the Tigers as part of a seven season career.  Richie was a short 5 feet 6 inches tall.  Very short for a major league pitcher.  Despite his short mound stature, Richie started pitching in Baltimore in 1992 before going to Florida in 1993.  He had the best year of his career going 6-3 with a 3.26 ERA as a middle reliever.  He stayed in Florida through 1995.  Before the 1996 season he signed as a free agent with the Padres.  But before he ever played a game with the Padres, Randy Smith made a surprising trade with the Padres that involved a catcher.   Catcher Raul Casanova, Melvin Nieves and Richie came to Detroit for Cade Gaspar, Sean Bergman and Todd Steverson.  For Detroit Richie went 4-6 with a 4.18 ERA as a right handed reliever.  He also recorded the only two saves of his career.  The Tigers released Richie at the end of the season.  He was signed by the Oakland Athletics for 1997 and I recall seeing him on the mound while my cousin and I were sitting by the Athletics bullpen at Tiger Stadium.  I swear I saw Richie telegraphing his pitches as sometimes he would hit his glove on his thigh during his wind up and other times he would not.  Richie struggled at Oakland going 2-0 with a 9.64 ERA and was released in June.  Richie went on to Cincy and finally back to Baltimore in 1998 before his major league career was over.  He continued to play professionally in the minors through 2003 and in Korea and Mexico.  He was coaching in the minors in 2006.

Vern Ruhle was born and raised in Coleman Michigan before being drafted by the Tigers.  He made his debut as a Tiger in 1974 as a late season call up.  He got the call to relieve Lerrin LaGrow who had been shelled by the Cleveland Indians.  The score was 6-0 with two outs in the third when Vern came in.  He pitched the next 5.1 innings allowing only 2 hits but getting a no decision.  Vern won two games in 1974, both against the Red Sox.  His first win was a game he pitched against Luis Tiant where Vern went 7 innings and only gave up two hits, a home run and a single to a young Red Sox late season call up, Fred Lynn.    His second win was a complete game victory over Roger Moret.   Vern won 7-4 and Fred Lynn did not get a hit, going 0-4 with a K.  In 1975 Vern was the number three starter for the Tigers behind Mickey Lolich and Joe Coleman.  Vern was 11-12 with a 4.03 ERA in 1975.  He earned his degree from Olivet College in 1975 and was given his diploma at a ceremony at Tiger Stadium that year.  Vern Returned to the rotation in 1976 and again was the third starter behind Dave Roberts and a young Mark Fidrych.  Vern was 9-12 with a 3.92 ERA in 1976. He had a bad season in 1977 going 3-5 and his ERA jumped to 5.70.  In spring training in 1978 the Tigers released him.  The Houston Astros then signed him and with Houston he regained control of his ERA and brought it back down to 2.12 in 1978.  He had some good years with the Astros getting into a strong rotation of Joe Niekro, Nolan Ryan, J.R. Richard, Ken Forsch and Vern.   Vern’s best year was 1980 with the Astros when he was 12-4 with a 2.37 ERA.  He finished his playing days with Cleveland in 1985 and California in 1986 before getting into coaching.  It was while he was a coach for the Reds in the spring of 2006 that he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.  He died in January of 2007, five days short of his 56th birthday.

Carl McNabb was a member of the 1945 World Champion Tigers.  He had been a minor leaguer starting in 1936 and worked his way up to Class B ball as a second baseman before World War II broke out.  He went into the military before coming back to baseball in 1944 in the Tigers farm system.  He made his major league debut with the Tigers in April of 1945 in the Tiger home opener against Steve Gromek and the Cleveland Indians.  He was brought in as a pinch hitter with two out in the ninth with the Tigers trailing 4-1.  Unfortunately Carl struck out.  The game was over as was Carl’s major league experience.  He was back in the minors for the rest of the season and his career.  He was a career .280 hitter in the minors in 13 seasons mainly in Class C ball and never making it to AAA level.   



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