Trey Beamon
Tom Veryzer was the up and coming shortstop of the day while
he was a Tiger. Tom started his major
league career in 1973 as 20 year old late season call up. It was his third
season in pro ball. In his first at bat
as a major leaguer Tom faces Dave Goltz in the 8th inning as a
defensive replacement. He singled to
center to drive in Willie Horton in what would be a 12-1 Tigers romp. Not a bad at bat for a first timer. He went on to hit .300 for the Tiges that
season in 18 games. In 1974 he did a
similar number of games but only hit .236.
1975 was his first full season as a major leaguer. He hit .252 and fielded just above the
league average for shortstops. This
earned him Topps All-Star Rookie honors.
My favorite story involving Tom was actually a Fidrych story. In 1976 Fidrych was arriving at Tiger Stadium
with another player by taxi and Fidrych was amazed at the crowd. He did not understand it was for him. He turned to his fellow Tiger and asked “what
are all these people here for?” His
buddy replied “well, they aren’t here to see Tommy play short!” Tom stuck around as the Tiger shortstop
through 1977 when he had his worst year as a Tiger. He hit .197 with 2 homers and 28 RBI’s. This alone might have spelled the end of
Tom’s time as Tiger but what was worse for Tom was that the Tigers had a new
shortstop named Alan Trammell waiting in the wings. So in December 1977 Tom was traded to the
Indians for Charlie Spikes. Tom went on to spend 4 seasons as the Tribes
shortstop and hit .250 for them before his time as a major league shortstop
came to an end. He played three more
years as a major leaguer with one year as a back for the Mets and 2 years as a
back up for the Chicago Cubs before his career ended.
Ben Oglive was a cautionary tale as a Tiger. Ben started his career as a member of the
Boston Red Sox in 1971. He played three
years with the Sox as a .235 hitting outfielder when after the 1973 season he
was traded to the Tiges for Dick McAuliffe.
Ben or Benji as he was affectionately called by Tiger fans was a Tiger
outfielder for 4 seasons hitting .275 before he was traded to the Brewers for
Jim Slaton and toss in Rich Folkers at the end of the 1977 season. Free agency had just started after the owners
lost their case keeping the reserve clause on the players contracts. Slaton was on average a 12 game winner for
the Brewers over the last 5 seasons before being traded with one year left of
his contract. He had a great season with
the Tiges in 1978 going 17-11. But at
the end of the season he became a free agent.
At that time he resigned with the Brewers. So the trade was really a trade of Benji to
rent Slaton for a year. After that
trade all teams made sure to determine how many years a player had remaining on
their contract before making a trade. Ben
would spend the next 9 seasons as an all star left fielder for the Brewers
hitting .277 for the 9 seasons. The
Tiges had nothing to show for the trade after Slaton resigned with the Brewers
and Folkers was released in the spring on 1978 before ever pitching an inning
for the Tigers.
Willie Smith was a very talented athlete and is a mystery as
a ball player and a Tiger. He was born
in Alabama supposedly in 1939. His full
name was Willie Smith and he would also go by Wonderful Willie. He was rather old at 21 when he signed as a
free agent with the Tigers in 1960.
However, records show he was pitching in the Negro Leagues as early as
1946. That would make him 7 when he was
pitching pro ball. Hmmmm. He supposedly was with the Homestead Grays in
1948 which would have put him at 9 years old when he was supposedly a teammate
of Buck Leonard, Luke Easter and Dave Pope.
Buck was thought to be 40 at the time.
Then 12 years later Willie signed with the Tigers at the age of 21. This shows several things. One, poverty is a great motivator and knows
no age. Two, the records of the Negro
Leagues and even the majors can sometimes be suspect. Even today we really don’t know the ages of
the players coming out of the Dominican Republic and other places that don’t
quite have our standards for record keeping.
Three, even our standards of record keeping are suspect. In 1960, his first year in the Tigers farm
system, he was 10-6 with a 2.96 ERA as a lefty pitcher and hit .297 in class C
ball. He followed that up with a 13-11
record in class A ball in 1961. In 1963
Willie was 14-2 with a 2.11 ERA in AAA Syracuse. The Tiges called up this 24? year old
phenom. In his debut he had a rough
outing. The Tiges were already down 6-0
with the bases loaded against the Red Sox in Fenway with one out. Willie got the call from Tiger skipper
Charlie Dressen. He faced a young Carl
Yastrzemski who singled to right and scored a run. Frank Malzone also drove in a run on a
fielder’s choice to make it two outs.
Dick Stuart then ended the inning grounding out to short. About two weeks late Willie got his first
major league start against the Angels in Detroit. He pitched 7.1 innings allowing 5 runs on 6
hits and 5 walks. But he did not get a
decision as the score was tied 5-5 when he was pulled from the game. At the plate he went 1 for 3 and scored a
run. It was his only hit as Tiger. He would appear in 17 games as a Tiger in
1963 and go 1 for 8 at the plate while going 1-0 with a 4.57 ERA as a pitcher
in 11 games. In 1964 the Tiges sent
Willie back to the minors in Syracuse.
He was 0-1 pitching and hitting 2 for 3 when he was traded to the Angels
for Julio Navarro. Willie would play
though 1971 after converting to an outfielder.
In fact he played more games in the outfield 339, than he pitched (29)
in his career. He hit .248 for his
career with the Angels, Indians, Cubs and Reds before it ended in 1971 at the
age of 32? He showed good power at times
hitting 11 homers in 1964 with the Angels and 14 the following year. He also showed speed hitting 21 triples in
the 9 years he played in the majors. Yet
as a pitcher in the majors he was 2-4 with a 3.10 ERA. Clearly Willie was great athlete. I doubt that he was 21 when he signed with
the Tigers. It is possible that the
“Willie Smith” of the Negro Leagues in the 1940’s is not this “Willie
Smith”. Personally I think it is most
likely he was 10 years older at every point in his career. This means he was 17 when he was pitching in
the Negro Leagues. That is possible. This means he was 31 when he signed with the
Tigers. That is possible. He very well lied about his age to say he was
younger and it stuck. He probably did
not tell anyone about his time in the Negro Leagues in the 1940’s. And that means he was still playing major
league ball at the age of 42. That is
also possible. He died in 2006
supposedly at the age of 66 in his hometown of Anniston, Alabama. But I think he was actually 76.
George Alusik made his mark in baseball not with the
Tigers. George was signed by the Tigers
in 1953 out of high school in New Jersey.
He worked his way up the minors showing decent power and hitting for a
decent average too. He averaged a .303
mark in his minor league career and hit 129 homers in 997 games. He finally got a late season call up in 1958
and in a game in Briggs Stadium against the Washington Senators. The Tiges were leading 4-2 in the 4th
and with 2 out George was called in to pinch hit for Tiger pitcher Al
Cicotte. Unfortunately he K’d. He made another appearance 2 days later in
Briggs Stadium against the Baltimore Orioles he was called in to pinch hit
again. The Tigers were up 13-1 in the top
of the 7th and Tiger skipper Bill Norman was giving his starters a
rest. George came in to replace leftfielder
Charlie Maxwell. He made a catch of Bob
Hale’s fly ball in the 8th and he himself got an at bat in the 8th. He flew out to Oriole second baseman Billy
Gardner. In the 9th a young
Brooks Robinson hit a single to George.
That was the last time George would see the majors for three years. He went back to the minors where he played
very well. In fact in 1960 for Denver he
hit .329 with 26 homers. This was not a
fluke. In 1961 he was hitting .298 with
14 homers when he was finally called back to Detroit in August. In his third game back with the Tigers in now
Tiger Stadium he faced the Orioles again.
The Tigers trailed 2-0 going into the bottom of the 9th. Dick McAuliffe had led off and grounded
out. Chico Fernandez doubled followed by
a Frank House ground out that sent Chico to third with 2 outs. Reno Bertoia singled in Chico. The score was now 2-1 O’s with 2 outs. Bubba Morton singled and moved Reno to
third. George came up and singled
scoring Reno and tying the game at 2.
It was George’s first major league hit.
Al Kaline then singled to drive in Morton and win the game as George
made it to second. George would get one
more hit two days later and that would be his last hit of the season. His stats for the 1961 Tigers was 2 hits in
14 at bats in 15 games while driving in 2 runs.
He was on the Tiger roster in April of 1962 and in two games was 0 for 2
in 2 at bats. On May 7th he
was sold to the Kansas City Athletics.
George got his revenge against the Tigers in July. It was the first game he faced his old
team. He went 3 for 4 with a double
scoring 2 runs. But the Tiges still won
10-3. A little over 2 weeks later George
went on a tear hitting 5 homers in 5 days.
For the season George hit 11 homers and hit for a .270 average as an
outfielder and 1 game at first. George
played two more years for the Athletics hitting .260 for his three
seasons. Before the 1965 season he was
traded to the San Francisco Giants for Tim Talton. He spent 1965 in the minors hitting .231 with
7 homers at the age of 30. He never
played pro ball again.
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