Jerry Morales
Leo Marentette was born in Detroit before he became a Tiger.
He was offered a football scholarship out of high school with Arizona State but
he signed with the Tigers from Wayne High school at the age of 19 in 1960. He had been a catcher in high school but
switched to pitcher when he signed with the Tiges. He worked his way up the minors but his role
was never really defined for him in regards to being a starter or a
reliever. But he always looked decent
with a low ERA in the 3’s or low 4’s and always striking out more than he
walked. At the end of the 1963 season he
was sold to the Los Angeles Angels but was returned to the tigers before the
1964 season started. In 1965 he started
26 games and completed 11. He was 12-11
with a 3.03 with Rocky Mount which was class A.
He had pitched in AA and AAA in 1964.
The Tigers made him a late season call up in 1965 and he made his debut
in Detroit against the Indians in a game that the Tigers trailed and was
already out of hand, 7-1 when Tiger skipper Chuck Dressen called him in to
pitch the 9th. Leo came in
and got Fred Whitfield to fly out for his first batter faced. He then struck out Max Alvis before giving up
a single to Larry Brown before ending the inning by getting Duke Sims to ground
out second to first. Five days later, on
the last day of the season, the fourth place Tigers were playing the 8th
place Senators in Washington DC. Joe
Sparma had started against future Tiger Joe Coleman (the son). It was the 6th and the Senators
lead 3-2. Dressen pulled Sparma and put
in Leo. Leo walked future Tiger Frank
Howard. Don Lock came in to pinch run
for the lumbering Howard but was picked off by Leo. Leo then got Willie Kirkland and Woody Held
to end the inning. In the 7th
Leo got the Senators out 1-2-3 including future Tigers Eddie Brinkman and Joe
Coleman who K’d. In the 8th
Don Demeter came in and pinch hit for Leo.
Leo would never again play in a Tiger uniform. His final record as a Tiger was 3 innings
pitched in 2 games. He gave up only 1
hit and 1 BB while recording 3 K’s. His
ERA was 0.00. He was back in the minors
for the Tigers after the 1965 season until he was sent to the Houston Astros
before the 1969 season. The Astros did
not keep Leo long before they sold him to the new Montreal Expos before the
season started. Leo got in 3 games as an
Expo and was 0-0 with a 6.75 ERA during one last week in the majors in June of
1969. He played with the Expos AAA team
in 1970, the Buffalo Bisons who moved to Winnipeg and became the Whips. The Whips were a short lived team the turned
me into an Expos fan as I saw them play as a 7 year old.
Bob Miller is a confusing Tiger. There is Bob Miller the pitcher who played on
the expansion Mets and the Tigers. And
there is the Bob Miller the pitcher who played on the expansion Mets and the
Tigers. This is the former, er,…maybe
the latter. Today’s Bob Miller is the
righty Robert Lane Gemeinweiser who changed his name to Bob Miller. Not the leftie Robert Gerald Miller. Today’s righty Robert started his career in
1957 with the St. Louis Cardinals as a “bonus baby”. He pitched for the Cards through 1961 going a
combined 9-9 for the Cards. At the end
of the season he was drafted by the expansion New York Mets. His roommate on the Mets was, Bob
Miller. They ended up with nicknames
Righty and Leftie to distinguish themselves.
Righty Bob became the number 4 starter for the expansion Mets and went
1-12 on that abysmal team that had a combined 40-120 record. But Bob was stuck with the Mets for only one
year and was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 1963 season. He dropped his ERA a full 2 runs by joining
the Dodgers and over the next 5 years was 29-33 as a starter only his first
year and then as a bull pen standard. He
was traded around after the Dodgers going to the Twins, Indians, White Sox,
Cubs, Padres, Pirates and back to the Padres by early 1973. Along the way he got into 9 postseason games
including 6 World Series games in 3 different series. While his team won 2 of the 3 World Series
Bob never won a game. In June of 1973 the
now 34 year old Miller was with the Padres (Among his teammates was Jerry
Morales.) and Bob was 0-0 with a 4.11 ERA.
The Padres waived Bob in order to go with more youth in the pitching
staff. The Tigers picked up Bob off of
waivers and Bob had a bit of a resurgence under Billy Martin and the
Tiges. In his first appearance as a
Tiger Bob relieved Mickey Lolich in the 5th with the game tied 5-5
between the Brewers and Tigers at Tiger Stadium. Bob got the next six batters in out. He did give up 1 run on 3 hits to make the
score 6-5 Brewers in the 7th. But sent
he Brewers down 1-2-3 in the 8th while the Tigers bats scored 2 in
their half of the 8th and Bob got the win in his first Tiger
appearance. Bob appeared in 22 games for
the Tiges all in relief and was 4-2 with a 3.43 ERA and one save. But Billy Martin did not last the season for
the Tigers and the aging Tiges desperately needed to rebuild with youth. So in September of 1973 Bob was sold to the
New York Mets where he ended his career in 1974. Three years later he became the first Toronto
Blue Jays pitching coach in their history.
Later he was with the San Francisco Giants organization. He would die in car accident in 1993 at the
age of 54 while he was an advance scout for the Giants.
Frank House was a bonus baby for the Tigers. He signed out of high school in Alabama for
$75,000 and 2 cars in 1949 with the Tigers.
That was considered about the biggest signing bonus ever at the time for
an amateur free agent. He made his major
league debut against the New York Yankees as a defensive replacement as he was
known for being a strong defensive catcher with a solid arm. He would mainly ride the bench that first
season getting in only 5 games and making only 5 plate appearances. His first plate appearance was in late August
again, against the Yankees. He was a
pinch runner and stayed in the game. He
came to the plate in the 8th and was struck out by Allie
Reynolds. He would not see the plate
again while holding a bat until the last game of the season. He got his first major league start that day
against the Indians and his first major league hit by going 2 for 4 and scoring
a run. Frank, or “Pig”, which was his
nickname, got into 18 games for the Tiges in 1951 before his career was
interrupted by the Korean War. Frank was
in the military for the next two years and did not play before returning to
baseball in 1954. That season he was the
starting catcher for the Tigers. (One of
the pitchers Frank caught was a young LEFTY named Bob Miller.) Frank started the season very well among the
league leaders in hitting. But as the
season wore on Frank wore out. He
dropped almost 40 pounds that season and was in the hospital a couple of times
but they never found the reason for his weight loss. Frank came back and continued to be the
Tigers starting back stop from 1954 through 1957 hitting .250. His best season was 1955 when he hit a single
season high of 15 homers and drove in single season high of 53 RBI’s. At the end of the 1957 season the Tiges went
with righty hitting Red Wilson as their number one back stop and in a big trade
Frank ended up on the Athletics in Kansas City with Kent Hadley, Duke Maas, Jim
Small, John Tsitouris, Jim McManus and Bill Tuttle for Billy Martin, Mickey
McDermott, Tom Morgan, Lou Skizas, Tim Thompson and Gus Zernial. Frank spent two years in KC and then was sent
to the Cincinnati Reds for 1960. Frank
was a back up by that time and hit only .179 for the Reds. He was sold to the Baltimore Orioles by in
1961 but never played a game for them but was in their farm system until the
Orioles traded him back to the Tigers for back up back stop Harry Chiti. Frank got in 17 games for the Tiges that season
and hit .227. He was released at the end
of the season. After his playing days
Frank spent some time in the Alabama State Legislature and also helped found
the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. He died
in 2005 at the age of 75.
Herm Wehmeier
Joe Gordon
Larry Twitchell
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