Danny Patterson
Roger Craig
Jack Crimian ended his major league career as a Tiger. He started his professional career by signing
with the Philadelphia Blue Jays in 1944.
The Phillies were so bad by the time World War II broke out that after a
full year of war the Phillies had a contest to rename the team. The winner got $100 and 2 season tickets to
the newly christened Philadelphia “Blue Jays”.
They would keep the name for two seasons and in 1945 World War II came
to an end as did the name “Blue Jays”.
The name Phillies was used for 1945 and Germany and Japan
surrendered. After the war Germany and
Japan would get better. The Phillies
would not until the 1950’s. Jack spent
1944 in the Blue Jays farm system until he was drawn in to World War II to
serve in 1945. He was out and back in
the minors in 1946. At the end of the
season the St. Louis Cardinals drafted him and the righty would make the majors
in 1951 with the Cardinals. He was
called up for the month of July in 1951 and in 11 games and went 1-0 with a
9.00 ERA. Hs one win came when he was
called in to relieve Harry Brecheen in the 6th inning of a tie game
between the Cards and his old team, the Phils.
He basically pitched the rest of the game except the last better. He gave up 3 hits and 1 run in the 3.2
innings pitched and also got a hit going 1 for 2 at the plate. But Jack was back in the minors for the rest
of 1951 and most of 1952 with the exception of 5 games in June on 1952 over a 2
and a half week period in June. He did
not record a decision and had a 9.72 ERA.
At the end of the following year, 1953 Jack was sent to Cincy with
$100,000 for future Tiger coach, Alex Grammas.
After a couple of more moves he was in Kansas City with the Athletics in
1956 and had his only full year in the majors.
He was mainly a reliever in 1956 and in 54 appearances he was 4 and 8
with a 5.51 ERA and 3 saves. At the end
of 1956 he became a Tiger. In a multi
player trade the Tigers sent Virgil Trucks, Ned Garver, Gene Host and Wayne
Belardi for Jim FInigan, Eddie Robinson, Bill Harrington and Jack. He made the team out of spring training and
got in 4 games by May 6. All of them
were in relief and his only decision was a loss in his final appearance. As a Tiger he was 0-1 with a 12.71 ERA. He stayed in pro ball through 1959 but was in
the minors.
Orlin Collier
Eddie Phillips
Eddie Onslow is part of the first
brother combos to play at the same time for the Tigers. There have been three sets of brothers to play for the Tigers at the same
time. The Onslow brothers with older brother Jack and younger brother Eddie did
it first in 1912. Jack was a back up
catcher who played the one season for the Tigers and then had one other cup of
coffee with the New York Giants in 1917.
Eddie was a back up first baseman for the Tiges in 1912 and 1913. He hit .227 his first season as a major
leaguer in 1912 with the Tiges. The
following year he hit .255. He also had
cups of coffee with the Indians in 1918 and the Senators in 1927. The second set of brothers to play for the
Tigers at the same time were the Walker brothers. Older brother Hub and younger brother Gee
both joined the Tigers in 1931 as outfielders.
Hub won a starting role in 1931 while Gee was a backup. But Gee would have the better Tiger career. Come the following year Gee became a Tiger
starting outfielder for the next several seasons and even was a Tiger All-Star
in 1937 while Hub was down in the minors.
The two were joined once more in 1935 when Hub played 9 games for the
Tiges. Hub would be sent to the Reds for
1936 and 1937 and joined the Tigers once more in 1945 after Gee had retired
from baseball. The third set of
brothers to play for the Tiges was the Bolling brothers. Frank signed with the Tigers in 1951 and had
joined the Tigers in 1954 as their starting second baseman thru 1960 with the
exception of the 1955 season when he was serving in the military. He was eventually an All-Star the year he
left Detroit. Milt joined the ranks of
the major leagues before Frank did when he was with the Boston Red Sox in 1952
as a back up shortstop. In 1958 he was
traded to the Tigers. The two becoming a
brother double play combo. They would do
this a total of 13 times. The two
brothers would play in 24 games together.
Milt would never play a game for the Tigers that his brother was not
in. At the end of the 1960 season Frank
was sent to the Milwaukee Braves. Frank
would become an All Star at Milwaukee and moved with the Braves to Atlanta in
1966 where he ended his career. Eddie
Onslow made the Hall of Fame for the International League. He was in the league for 17 years with
Providence, Toronto, Rochester, Newark and Baltimore. He collected 2,445 hits in 2,109 games in the
league. He also managed in the
league. He made their Hall of Fame in
1951. After that he was a scout for the
White Sox and Philadelphia Athletics.
Wally Pipp was a Tiger long before the whole Lou Gerhig
bit.
Stump Wiedman played most of his major league career in
Detroit. He was born in Rochester, NY
and also went to college at the University of Rochester in 1880. That same year he played for the National
Associations team in Rochester and went to play for the Buffalos Bisons of the
National League. That was a busy year,
college, minors and majors all in one season and at the age of 19. The following year he was in Detroit playing
for the Wolverines. He was 8-5 that
first year in Detroit and led the league in ERA with a 1.80 posting. He was not the ace of the staff as the ace
was George Derby who started 55 of the
teams 84 games and pitched them all as complete games. Stump was the second starter starting only
13. But he did complete them all. The following year, 1882, Stump was the ace
staring 45 games and completing 43 for a 25-20 record including a 1-0 victory
that Stump pitched all 18 innings! But
his ERA climbed up to 2.63. While best
on the team it was 7th in the league. He was the ace again in 1883 for the
Wolverines and started 47 games completing 41 with a 20-14 record and a 3.53
ERA. But this ERA was not best on the
team. In fact it was third best of the 4
pitchers who pitched more than 3 games for the team. In 1884 the Wolverines had a terrible season
at 28-84. Stump had a terrible season
too going 4-21 as the number 3 starter. In
1885 Stump regained some of his earlier form and so did the Wolverines. Stump was again the ace with a 14-24 record
in 38 games started and 37 complete games.
The Wolverines were better than the year before at 41-67. But they were still a poor team. At the end of the season Stump was put under
league control by the Wolverines. The
league sent him to the new expansion Kansas City Cowboys. He was 13-36 for KC and after the season the
Cowboys folded and the league sent Stump back to Detroit. Stump was now the third starter for the
Wolverines who were champs of the National League at 79-45. Stump was behind the younger Pretzels Getzien
and Lady Baldwin and was 13-7 with an astronomical 5.36 ERA. But Stump did not play in the World Series
and never played with the Wolverines again.
He was sold to the New York Metropolitans of the American Association
part way through the season for a sum between $800 and $1,000. Stump played thru 1888 in New York when his
playing career ended at the ripe old age of 27.
He died in 1905 at the age of 44.
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