Andres Torres proved himself a clutch player after he was a
Tiger. He started his major league
career with the Tigers after four years in the Tigers farm system. He never hit .300 in the minors and always
struck out more than walked, the classic signs of a power hitter. However, the most homers he ever hit in a
season in the Tigers farm system was 11 in 535 at bats in 2000 when he spent
most of the season in Lakeland and a bit in AA Jacksonville. No, power was not his specialty, speed
was. He made his major league debut in
2002 a week into the season when he made a start as the starting centerfielder
in a game against the Cleveland Indians.
He got his first hit in the bottom of the eighth with the Tigers
trailing 4-1 to the Indians and CC Sabathia.
He tripled and drove in the Tigers only run of the game. Andres stayed around for 19 games but only
hit .200 in 2002. In 2003 he had more
time with the Tiges but in 59 games only managed to hit .220. He made a token appearance in 3 games in 2004
as a defensive replacement and a pinch runner, never getting to the plate. He did manage to steal a base in those three
appearences in the beginning of April 2004.
But that was not enough. He was
released before the end of April. He
bounced around from farm system to farm system with the White Sox, Rangers,
Twins, Tigers again, and Cubs with only a short 8 game appearance back in the
majors with the Rangers in 2005. But in
2009 he finally became a Giant and made it stick in the big leagues for a
bit. He played with the Giants as a starting
centerfielder. In 2010
the Giants won the World Series and Andres hit .318 with four doubles and a
homer and a stolen base for good measure.
He was traded to the Mets for 2012 and then was back in San Fran in
2013. He was released at the end of the
season and signed with the Red Sox but was in the minors until being released
in June of 2014. He is an unsigned free
agent for 2015.
Tim Pugh ended his 6 season career as a Tiger. He had started his career with the Reds in
1992 and as a right handed starter and went 4-2 with a 2.58 ERA as a late
season call up. He then had his career
year in 1993 when he went 10-15 with the Reds.
He stayed with the Reds until May 10, 1996. Then he started earning frequent flyer miles
when he was waived by the Reds and picked up by the Royals. On July 8, the Royals waived him and he was
picked up again by the Reds. Four days
later he was waived by the Reds and the Royals picked him up a second
time. About a month later the Royals
waived him and the most shocking thing happened. The Reds claimed him for his third stint with
the Reds in the same season. At the end
of the season the Reds granted him free agency and he sighed with the
Tigers. In his first game as a Tiger he
faced his old team the Royals and went 8 innings giving up just 1 run on 3 hits
and 2 walks to get a win for the Tiges.
Seven days later he got the start against the Rangers. However, this time the results were not as
good. He lasted one inning and gave up 4
runs on 3 hits and 3 walks and was tagged with the loss. He would never play in the majors again.
Rick Schu played part of one of his 9 seasons with the
Tigers. He was a right handed hitting
third baseman and first baseman playing his first four years with the Phillies
starting in 1884. He was the starting
third baseman in 1985 when Mike Schmidt moved to first for the season. But Schmidt moved back to third in 1986 and
Rick was back as a back up. After four
years as a Phllie and a .250 batting average he was traded to the Orioles and hit
.256 for the 1988 season. In 1989 he
played one game for the Orioles before he was purchased by the Tigers in
May. He became the Tigers starting third
baseman but hit .214. On December 5,
1989 the Tigers signed free agent Tony Phillips. Three days later Rick was released by the
Tigers. Rick signed with the Angels in
1990 and finished his career with a brief return to the Phils in 1991 and finally
a game in 1996 with the Expos. Today
Rick is a minor league coach.
Cesar Gutierrez was a Tiger when he set a major league
record. He started his career as a Giant
in 1967 as a typical light hitting shortstop.
In 18 games hit .142. He did not
appear in the majors again until 1969 when he got in 15 games for the Giants
before coming to the Tigers to complete the earlier trade of Don McMahon for a
player to named later. Cesar was the
starting shortstop for the Tigers in 1970 when the Indians came to town and
played a double header in Detroit. Cesar
did not play the first game but did play the second and hit second. In the first inning he got a single to right
field. He scored on a Jim Northrup
ground out. 1 for 1 with a run
scored. In the third he singled to left
field and scored when Al Kaline hit a homer.
2 for 2 with 2 runs scored. He
came up again in the fifth and hit a single to short to lead off the inning but
did not score. 3 for 3 with 2 runs
scored. In the seventh he led off with
a double to left and scored on a Jim Northrup homer. 4 for 4 with 3 runs scored. He came up in the next inning and hit a
single to right scoring Gates Brown. 5
for 5 with 3 runs scored. The game went
into extra innings tied 8-8 and in the tenth, Cesar singled to short but did
not score. 6 for 6 with 3 runs
scored. In the twelfth he singled to
center but did not score. The Tiges did score on a Mickey Stanley homer
that inning to win the game. Cesar’s
final line in the box score, a major league record 7 for 7 with 3 runs scored
and an RBI. For the season Cesar hit
.243. He was back with the Tigers in
1971 but only played 38 games as the Tigers had a new shortstop in Eddie
Brinkman. The Tigers sold Cesar to the
Expos before the 1972 season but Cesar never did play again in the majors.
Bob Nieman made the news in his major league debut but not
as a Tiger. He debuted as a St. Louis
Brown in 1951 and against the Red Sox.
In his first at bat in the second inning against future Tiger Mickey
McDermott he homered. He next came up in
the third and facing Mickey again homered becoming the first major leaguer to
homer in his first two at bats. Bob
drove in a run in the fifth and hit single in the ninth. His final line was 3 for 5 with 4 RBI’s and
scoring 3 runs. Unfortunately the rest
of the Browns did not do as well and the Browns lost 9-6. Bob was the Browns left fielder in 1952 but
after the season he was traded to the Tigers with Owen Friend and J. W. Porter
for Johnny Groth, Virgil Trucks and Hal White.
Bob was the Tiges starting left fielder in 1953 and hit .281 and was second
on the team with 15 homers and third on the team with 69 RBI’s. In 1954 Bill Tuttle was the Tigers starting
centerfielder. This moved center fielder Jimmy Delsing to left and Bob to the
bench. At the end of the season Bob was
traded with Walt Dropo and Ted Gray to the White Sox for Leo Cristante, Ferris
Fain and Jack Phillips. Bob would
continue to play in the majors through
1962 with the White Sox, Orioles, Cardinals, Indians and Giants. His career stats were a .295 batting average
with 125 homers and 544 RBI’s over 12 seasons.
Charlie Gelbert played part of one season with the
Tigers. He started his major league
career in 1929 as the St. Louis Cardinals starting shortstop after they sold
Rabbit Maranville to the Boston Braves.
Charlie stepped in and played the next four years as the Cards starting
shortstop. He missed the next two season
and almost the rest of his career after he severely hurt his ankle in a hunting
accident after the 1932 season. He did
come back and played two more seasons with the Cards I 1935 and 1936 before
being sold to the Reds in 1937. He only
played 43 games with the Reds before being waived and then picked up by the
Tigers in July of 1937. Charlie got in
20 games with the Tigers as a back up shortstop to Billy Rogell but got only 4
hits in 47 at bats. He spent 1938 with
Toledo hitting .284 before making it back to the majors in 1939 with the
Washington Senators as a back up. He split
the 1940 season between the Senators and the Boston Red Sox again as a back up.
After the 1940 season he was done in the
majors with final stats of a .267 average with 17 homers and 350 walks.
Tubby Spencer ended his career as a Tiger back up
catcher. He began his major league
career in 1905 with the St. Louis Browns in 1905 after playing in Waco Texas
with the Waco Tigers. But the bigger
story behind Tubby appears to be that he was the ne’er do well for his father
who kept trying to get him out of baseball.
He was reported to have graduated from Princeton. But he apparently turned to baseball with his
brother Charley who was a pitcher. By
1907 he was the Browns starting back stop.
His nickname of “Tubby” came about due to his weight. When he debuted he weighed 215 and apparently
grew from there. He also had the
disease of alcohol and was drinking too much as was common among major leaguers
at the time. He admitted to being an
alcoholic and soon dropped out of the majors after 1911. His dad offered him money to retire from
baseball and he did. He was to be
married but that failed in the end as he was arrested a few times breaking into
saloons and the like. He figuratively
and literally rode the rails as a hobo.
His Dad bailed him out after he was arrested again in Indianapolis
and his dad got him a job in a logging
camp. But in 1914 his father died and
Tubby inherited millions of dollars when millions of dollars was a lot of
money. He then reappeared in the majors
in 1916 when the Tiges gave him a second chance. He then became part of the revolving door
that was the Tiger catcher situation in the late teens. He lasted three years as a Tiger and hit a
respectable .249. He defeated his
alcoholism by 1922 and he continued to play in the minors and ended his career
in 1925. However, he appeared to never
get the baseball bug out of his system.
He continued to appear in “Old Timers” games. He died in 1945 at the age of 61.
Bob Casey played his entire time in the majors with the
Detroit Wolverines. He was a store clerk
in Syracuse, New York when he started playing for the independent Syracuse
Stars. He was good enough he the Detroit
Wolverines picked him up in July of 1882.
Morgan Earp, brother of Wyatt Earp was killed as was Jesse James and the
first pancake was made in a department store all in the months shortly before
Bob joined the Wolverines. About a week after
he joined the Wolverines he had his biggest day. He hit his one and only major league home
run. It won the game for the Wolverines
against Buffalo. But a couple of days
after that he returned to Detroit for a series against Chicago. He made an error that allowed Chicago to
score 4 runs and beat the Wolverines 6-3.
And then went 0-9 in the next two games against Chicago. The Wolverines left town for an east coast
trip without Bob. He never made the
majors again. Later he claimed he was
the inspiration of the poem “Casey at the Bat”.
While Ernest Thayer, the author himself, and others have denied this,
there may be something to this as he K’d 15 times in his 39 at bats. There is a short but nice bio about Bob in
“The Rank and File of 19th Century Major League Baseball”. I pulled much of my information from that
article.
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