January 5 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Jose Iglesias

Kevin Witt played most of his major league games as a Tiger in 2003.  He first hit the majors in 1998 with the Blue Jays as a September call up where he got in 5 games and got one hit in seven at bats.  He then started the 1999 season with the Blue Jays but was returned to AAA to spend most of the season as he was hitting only .206 for the Blue Jays in 15 games.  He stayed in the minors until he was granted free agency at the end of the 2000 season.  He then signed with the Padres and spent most of the season as a Portland Beaver.  He did get a late September call up but hit .185 in 14 games.  He spent 2002 in the Reds minors before signing as a free agent for the Tigers for the 2003 season.  He got in 93 games as a utility player playing DH, 1B, OF, and 3B.  He hit .263 with 10 homers.  However, the Tigers had the young Carlos Pena as a first baseman and decided to keep working on Carlos in 2004 rather than Kevin.  Kevin did get one more season as a major leaguer in 2006 when he played 19 games for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays hitting .148.  He has also spent 2 different seasons in the Japan minor leagues but never really amounting to much in Japan.  He was done in baseball in 2007.

Mark Redman played ten seasons in the majors with 8 teams, one of which was the Tigers.  Mark started his major league career with the Twins in 1999.  He pitched for parts of three seasons for the Twins before being traded to the Tigers in mid 2001 for Todd Jones.  Mark was 0-2 for the Tiges in 2001 with a 6.00 ERA.  He was back with a very poor Tigers team in 2002 and pitched well, going 8-15 with a 4.21 ERA.   However, before the 2003 season started he was traded to the Marlins with minor leaguer Jerrod Fuell for Nate Robertson, Gary Knotts and minor leaguer Rob Henkel.   Mark went on to play for the Marlins, Athletics, Pirates, Royals, Braves and Rockies and posted a career record of 68-85 with a 4.85 ERA.

Bill Laxton pitched his big year for the Tigers in 1976, the same year as Mark Fidrych.  However, the comparison ends there.  Bill had started his career with the Phils and Padres starting in 1970 before getting to Detroit by way of the Mets in the deal that sent Mickey Lolich and Billy Baldwin to New York for Rusty Staub and Bill at the end of the 1975 season.  Bill got in 26 games for the Tigers in 1976 but was 0-5 with losses to the Twins twice, Yankees, Orioles and Rangers.  But he also had saves against the Athletics and White Sox.  In the off season he was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the expansion draft.  He was traded by the Mariners before the 1977 season was over to the Indians with cash for Ray Fosse.   He was done in the majors after 1977 and for his career was 3-10 with a 4.73 ERA and 5 saves.  He has two sons who also played pro ball.  Brett Laxton pitched for the Royals and Athletics in 1999 and 2000 and his brother Josh pitched in the Marlins minor league system.