Dwayne Henry ended his major league career as a Tiger. He started his career as a relief pitcher for
the Texas Rangers in 1984. He was with
the Rangers for 5 seasons and was 3-4 with 4 saves and a 5.54 ERA. The Rangers then traded him to the Atlanta
Braves for a minor leaguer. He lasted 2
years and was basically the same with the Braves and was 2-4 with a 5.29
ERA. In 1991 he was a free agent and
signed with the Houston Astros. Dwayne
started to turn things around almost doubling his innings pitched and putting up
only a 3.19 ERA. It was his best year to
date. But he was 29 and the Astros
waived him. The Reds claimed him and he
was 3-3 with a 3.33 ERA as a reliever for the Reds. He was back with the Reds in 1993 and was 0-1
with a 3.86 ERA when he was sold to the
Seattle Mariners. He lasted only one
year with Mariners going 2-1 with a whopping 6.67 ERA. He was released at the end of the season and
went off to Japan where he was 3-7 with a 3.48 ERA. Clearly Japan is not the same as the US
majors. The Tigers signed him in the
spring of 1995 and he went to Toledo where he was 1-1 with a 3.35 ERA as a
reliever. He was a September call up at
the age of 33. He pitched an inning or
less in 10 games for the Tiges and made 5 saves and a win and had an ERA of
0.00 ERA for his first 7 games. But in
his last 3 games he gave up 2 runs in each outing and the outings lasted 0.2,
0.0, and 1 inning. So his ERA jumped up
to 6.23. He was released at the end of
the 1995 season and pitched in the minors and Mexico until 2001 when at the age
of 39 his career was over.
Glenn Abbott was a member of the 1984 Tigers. He started his major league career with the
Oakland Athletics whom he signed with in 1969 out of high school. He worked his way up the minors until he made
his MLB debut in 1973. He got a start
but no decision as he was pulled in the fourth inning. He was used a right handed starter in Oakland
and in 4 seasons he was 13-16 with a 4.08 ERA.
The Seattle Mariners drafted Glenn in the 1976 expansion draft as the Mariners
24th overall pick. He was the
ace of the staff for that first Mariners team going 12-13 on a team that was
64-98. He spent 6 seasons with the
Mariners going 44-62 with a 4.54 ERA. He
missed the 1982 season due to bone chips in his elbow and a case of spinal
meningitis. But he did return for his
last season in Seattle in 1983. During
that season he was 5-3 with a 4.59 ERA.
The Tiges purchased Glenn in August of that season and Glenn went 2-1
with a 1.93 ERA in 7 starts. In 1984
Glenn started the season as a reliever.
He was 1-0 as a reliever at the end of April with a 1.80 ERA. He got his first start and went 5.1 innings
allowing 4 runs on 6 hits and a walk. He
then had 2 more relief outings before getting another start in June. He took the loss lasting only 3.1 innings and
giving up 5 runs on 6 hits. His next
outing was also poor as he lasted only 2.2 innings and allowed 3 runs on 7 hits
and a walk. This was followed with his
best game as a Tiger. He pitched a
complete game victory allowing only 1 run on 5 hits and a walk. But he promptly reverted back to his old ways
and was would never win another game as a Tiger. In his last 4 starts he only had 1 that lasted
longer than 3.1 innings. On August 14th
he was released by the Tigers and was not picked up by any other team. His final record as a Tiger was 5-5 with a
3.87 ERA.
Bob Didier was part of the Jim Price replacement
search. Jim had retired after the 1971
season after five years backing up Bill Freehan. In 1972 the Tigers replaced Jim with 35 year
old Tom Haller and 31 year old Duke Sims.
This was because Tiger skipper Billy Martin liked his veterans over the
younger players. But in 1973 Haller was out
of baseball. So the Tigers picked up a
young Bob Didier. Bob had had a great
rookie season when he was the Atlanta Braves starting catcher and hit .256 on
the playoff bound Braves. But the Braves
like Bob failed in the post season as they were swept by the New York Mets and
Bob went 0 for 11. Bob was demoted to
back up in 1970 for the Braves and his hitting suffered. But he was the preferred catcher for knuckle
ball pitcher Phil Niekro. He would be
the Braves back up for 2 more seasons before the Tigers traded Gene Lamont for
him. Bob hit .290 and was called up in
September as a 24 year old back up catcher.
Duke Sims was struggling. He was
hitting .313 at the beginning of June but was down to .245 when Bob was called
up. Bob went 3 for 5 his first game and
2 for 2 his second with 2 walks. His
third game he was 1 for 2 with a walk when he was pulled for Duke Sims who
pinch hit for Bob to lead off the 9th. Duke flied out to center. Dukes fate was sealed. Five days later he was waived by the
Tigers. Bob would stayed on and hit .455
for the Tiges. Billy Martin was gone as
manager and things looked good for Bob.
But he Tiges took back Gene Lamont from the Braves in the rule 5 draft
as well as picked up John Wockenfuss in a deal the Cardinals and Jerry Moses in
a three way deal with the Yanks and Indians.
Bob was now trade bait. So Bob
was sold to the Boston Red Sox in spring of 1974. He would get in 7 games for the Red Sox
before his major league career was over.
He was done playing ball in 1976 but was already making the transition
into coaching as a player/coach in 1976 at the age of 27. He has remained in baseball since as a coach
or scout or roving instructor ever since.
Red Cox spent his whole cup of coffee with the Tigers. He was born in 1895 in North Carolina as
Plateau Preston Rex Cox and had the nickname “Red”. He was 25 in the spring of 1920 when he made
his professional debut in the second game of the season on April 17. It was Hughie Jennings last year as Tiger
skipper and he called Red in to pitch the 9th of a game that the
Tiges had little chance of winning as the score was 4-0. White Sox pitcher, Eddie Cicotte was pitching
a gem allowing only 5 hits and 1 walk in 9 innings. (This would be Eddie’s last season in the pro
ball as he would be banned from baseball at the end of the season after the Black
Sox scandal broke.) Red replaced Ernie
Alten and faced Ted Joudan, Swede Risberg (also a Black Sox member) getting
both out before giving up a hit to Hall of Famer Ray Schalk. He then got Eddie Cicotte out to end the
game. Three days later Red was called
in to face the Indians in Cleveland. Again
he was replacing Ernie Alten who started the game and had given up 5 runs on 4
hits and a walk while only getting out one batter. He got the Indians out in the first without
allowing another run. In the second he
allowed one run for his only run he would allow in the game. He got the Indians out in the third without a
run and had given up only 3 hits and a walk.
AT the plate he K’d in his only time to at bat. The Tigers would try a come back but the 5
run first was too much and the Tiges went down 11-10. Ten days later he was called in again to face
the Indians but this time it was in Detroit’s Navin Field. The Tigers trailed 9-3 in the 8th
when Red got the call. He faced Hall of
Famer Tris Speaker first and Tris got his 4th hit of the game. Rd then got out Smoky Joe Wood before giving
up another hit to Larry Gardner. Last,
Red got out Bill Wambsganss to end the inning.
Bill would make World Series history in the World Series that year when
he turned the only unassisted triple play in World Series play. Bill’s out was also the last time Red
appeared in a major league game. He
never got a decision in his three games and K’s in his only plate
appearance. Red went to the minors
through 1923. His best season was 1921
when he was 20-13 with a 2.29 ERA.
John Sullivan spent most of his time in the majors with the
Tigers. He started his time in pro ball
in 1900 at the age of 27. His first pro
team was the Denver Gizzlies of the class B Western League. He was their starting catcher until moving on
to Kansas City to play for the Blues of the American League. The following year when the American League
was deemed a major league, Kansas City was not part of the league. He was playing for the Helena Senators back
in Class B ball. In 1903 he started two
seasons the St. Paul Saints where he was their starting catcher hitting .230
and .250. The 1905 Tigers were looking
for help at catcher. They had Lew Drill
as their starter but Lew was only and average fielder but a decent batter
hitting .263. But catcher was a tough
position and they were always looking for help at the spot. In the second game of the season he was
called in to finish the game at back stop.
He would do that 12 times for the Tiges that season and while he was an
average fielder he was not successful at the plate hitting only .156. He was then sent back to the minors and
would not return to the majors until 1908 at the age of 35 for the Pittsburgh
Pirates. He would play one game for the
Pirates and his major league career was over.
John went back to the minors for another two seasons before his baseball
career was over at the age of 37 with only 14 games as a major leaguer.
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