Kevin Whelan
Brian Johnson was a Randy Smith trade product. Yes, he played catcher and came from the
Padres. He started his major league
career in 1994 as the Pads back up catcher behind future Tiger Brad Ausmus
where he hit .260 and hti 14 homers and 80 RBI’s. After three seasons as the Padres back up he
was sent to Detroit with Willie Blair for Joey Eischen and minor leaguer Cam
Smith. He got in 45 games as the Tiger
back up behind Raul Casanova. He hit
.237 and was about an average back
stop. He lasted until July of that
season when he was traded to the San Francisco Giants for catcher Marcus
Jenson. When he left Detroit his average
jumped up over 40 points to .279. He
also hit two game winning homers in the last 11 games of the season to help the
Giants win the pennant. He played a few
more years with the Reds, Royals and Dodgers before his major league career
ended in 2001.
Randy Nosek was drafted out of high school by the Tigers in
1985. In 1986 while pitching for Bristol
in Rookie ball he pitched a two hitter.
He had a decent year in 1987 but in 1988 he had an elbow injury that
limited him to only 8 starts. But in
1989 the rightie got the call from AA London to replace Jack Morris in the
rotation when he went down with an injury.
He made his debut against the Kansas City Royals. He walked 2 and gave up a passed ball in the
first inning but got out of the jam that inning. However, in the third he was not so
lucky. He gave up two runs and was
behind 2-0. The He did not give up any
more runs but had a final line score of 4.2 innings pitched with 2 runs off of
3 hits and 8 walks. He also K’d 3. 4 days later he got another start against the
Baltimore Orioles at Tiger Stadium. He gave up a leadoff walk to Brady
Anderson. He then stole second. Afer striking out Phil Bradley he game up a
single to Cal Ripken that scored Anderson.
He then walked Mickey Tettleton which moved Ripken to second. A double by Joe Orsulak brought in Ripken and
moved Tettleton to third. Jim Trabor’s
homer to right cleared the bases. Larry
Sheets grounded out before Rene Gonzalez drove another ball deep to left for a
homer. Randy was pulled with a line
score of .2 innings pitched while giving up 4 runs on 6 hits (2 homers) and 2
walks. He also K’d 1. He was sent back down to the minors for the
rest of the season. He was called up again
in 1990 in September. In his first start
he pitched much better than his 1989 season.
He went 6 innings and allowed 5 runs on 6 hits and 5 walks. But the Twins Allan Anderson had given up 6
runs in the first 3 innings and the Tiges bats added 3 more to give Randy his
first major league win. He got another
start 5 days later but after walking the first 4 batters he was pulled. He took the loss. He would get in the second to the last game
of the season in Yankee Stadium when he was called in to pitch the 6th
of a game that was tied 1-1. He got the
side out 1-2-3. He would never pitch in
the majors again. He was done in
baseball the following season. His final
record in the majors was 1-3 with a 10.22 ERA.
He walked 19 and struck out 7.
Reno Bertoia started and ended his career as a Tiger. He was born in Italy and moved to Windsor,
Ontario. After high school he went to
the University of Michigan. He was
signed in 1953 as a “bonus baby”. The
rule was if you signed a player for more than $4,000 the player had to spend
the first two years on the major league team.
He was signed for $10,000 and $1,000 to send his mother to Italy, plus
the Tigers agreed to pay the rest of his college costs as well as they bought
him 2 suits. His roommate was another
bonus baby by the name of Al Kaline. The
two roomed together for 5 years. In his
debut he was put in as a shortstop even though his normal position was second. In the first on a play at second he got
spiked and threw wildly to first for an error.
He got to the plate and K’d on three pitches. His mother was in the stands that day when
her son had to get 3 stitches from the spiking.
She would never watch another game he played. In his first four seasons as a Tiger he was a
.186 hitter with 3 homers and 17 RBI’s in 115 games. He had always been a very tense player and in
1957 he started taking tranquillizers to reduce his tension. It worked.
He hit .275 that season as the Tigers starting third baseman. He was the starter again in 1958 but his
production dropped and he hit only .233.
The next season he was traded to the Washington Senators. He stayed with them and made the move to
Minnesota when the Senators became the Twins in 1961. But he did not stay there. He was sent to the Kansas City Athletics in
June and then sent back to Detroit in August with Gerry Staley for Bill Fischer
and Ozzie Virgil. He got into 24 more
games that season as a Tiger but hit only .217.
He was back with the Tiges in 1962 but in 5 games did not make a plate
appearance. His career line as a Tiger
was 8 years hitting .238 with 14 homers and 76 RBI’s. He was mainly a third baseman in the majors
but also played some second and short.
He went over to Japan after his time in the majors and played again with
the Tigers however, this time it was the Hanshin Tigers. After his retirement he became a college
teacher and a scout for the Tigers. He
was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988. He died in 2011 of lymphoma.
Bud Weiser never was a Tiger. But I loved his name. He was born Harry Budson Weiser. He was called Bud. He was an outfielder for the Phillies in 1915
and 1916. I could not find any record of
him going into the beer distribution business.
But I did not look too hard.
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