January 29 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Alex Avila

Jair Jurrjens started his major league career as a Tiger starter.  He was born and raised on Curacao which is an island in the Caribbean off the Venezuelan coast that used to be Dutch until 2010.  Jair was signed by the Tigers at age 17 and spent 4 years impressively working his way up the Tiges chain.  By 2006 he was the 4^th top prospect in the farm system.  In 2007 he was 7-5 in Erie with a 3.20 ERA and 94 K’s to only 31 walks as a starter.  In August he got the call up to Detroit.  He debuted against the Indians and went 7 innings as the starter and allowed 4 runs on 5 hits and a pair of walks while K’ing 3.  But the Tiges could only muster 2 runs off Tribe starter Roberto Hernandez and Jair got the loss.  6 days later the two ream paired up again with the same pitchers taking the mound.  Again, the Tiges could only get two runs off of Roberto Hernandez but Jair was fantastic going 6.2 innings and giving up only one hit, a homer to Jhonny Peralta in the 6^th.  Jair got his first win in the majors.  He went on to make 5 more starts for the Tigers and posted a 3-1 record with a 4.70 ERA.  At the end of the 2007 season the Tigers tried to cure their shortstop issue.  While Carlos Guillen was fine at the plate his fielding was terrible and the Tigers needed an answer to their short issue if they were to contend in 2008.  So the Tiges sent Jair to the Atlanta Braves with Gorkys Henandez for shortstop Edgar Renteria.  Unfortunately Edgar did not quite come thru for the Tiges and Jair spent 5 seasons as a Braves starter.  His last year with the Braves, 2012,  was a bit rough with Jair only going 11-10 with a 6.89 ERA.  The rightie had been 50-36 with a 3.58 ERA for the Braves.  The Braves let Jair become a free agent and he signed with Orioles for 2013.  He got in only 2 games for the O's and was released in July.  The Tigers resigned Jair in July of 2013.  He went to Toledo and was 1-4 with a 5.49 ERA in 7 starts.  In November of 2013 Jair was released by the Tigers.   H signed with the Reds in May of 2014 who then traded him to Colorado Rockies about a month and half later.  He was 0-1 with the Rockies in two games with a 10.61 ERA.  While not impressive, he was resigned with the Rockies this past November and should be reporting soon to spring training.

Ray Hayworth was the last player to be able to claim Ty Cobb as a teammate.  Ray started his career with the Tigers in 1926 as a back up catcher playing under player/manager Ty Cobb.  He stayed a back up until 1931 when then manager Bucky Harris put him behind the plate as the starting catcher.  He was the starter for two more seasons hitting .293 in 1932 and .245 in 1933.   Things did not look great when in the off season the Tiges signed new player manager Mickey Cochrane who was also a hall of fame catcher.  Ray was the best defensive and one of the best offensive catchers in the league.  The only catcher clearly better than Ray was Mickey.  But Mickey liked Ray and used him in 54 games behind himself.  Ray always said he was happy with the arraignment as he said he would rather be back up on a championship team than starter for a last place team.  Ray hit .293 again and was solid as a back stop.  The Tiges won pennants in 1934 and 1935 behind Mickey and might have done it again in 1936.  But Mickey was high strung and suffered a nervous breakdown in 1936 so Ray became the starting back stop.  But he hit only .240.  The next season Mickey was back as Tiger player manager when in May he was beaned and fractured his skull.  Mickey never played again and his managing skills were totally different after the beaning.  He was too worried for his players and by not getting out on the field could not get rid of the tension of managing.  In the mean time the Tigers needed a new starting back stop to take the place of now 33 year old Ray.  So the Tigers brought in Rudy York.  Rudy had the power bat the Tiges wanted in catcher.  Ray would be a back up for the rest of his career.  He was traded from the Tigers in 1938 and was a back up with the Brooklyn Dodgers.  The Dodgers wanted Ray because the Dodgers had picked up a former Tiger pitcher named Boots Poffenberger.  Boots was the proverbial million dollar arm with a ten cent head.  But Boots had pitched well when Ray was his backstop.  The Dodgers had Ray room with Boots and tried to turn Boots around.  But it didn't work.  Boots was Boots as they said.  He failed to show up when he was supposed to.  Missed games and when drunk on the mound was finally thrown out of baseball.  So Ray was no longer needed and Ray was sent to the New York Giants and St. Louis Browns before his playing career ended during the war year of 1945 at the age of 41.  Ray lived until 2002 and was one of the last surviving players on the Tiges first World Championship team of 1935 and was the last player to have played with Ty Cobb as teammate.  He was 98 when he died.

Hack Simmons