Chris Zachary was a member of the 1972 AL East Champion
Tigers. Chris started his professional
career due to expansion when he signed as an amateur free agent with the
expansion Houston Colt .45’s. Chris
spent most of his career in Houston with the Colt .45’s and the Astros. He made his major league debut in 1963 with
Houston at the age of 19. He was called
in from the bull pen to pitch the 9th inning against the San
Francisco Giants who were already ahead 4-1.
He faced Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda for his first
three batters as a 19 year old major leaguer.
Not an enviable task. The three
Hall of Famers proceeded to get a walk, a single and homer to make the score
7-1. But Chris did get the next three
batters out to end the inning and earn a no decision. Chris went on to be a spot starter for the
Houston franchise and over the next 5 years compiled a record of 6-16 with a
4.64 ERA. He had baseball cards in 1964,
1966 and 1967 for Houston. He described
himself as being “a pretty decent 10th man on a 10 man staff”. He was in the minors in 1968 but expansion
came to his aid again. This time the
Kansas City Royals picked him up from the now Houston Astros and Chris played
for the expansion Royals in their debut season of 1969 where he was 0-1 in 8
games. In reward for his 1969
performance Topps made a card of him in 1970 with the Royals. However, he spent the whole season in the
minors and was traded half way through the season to the St. Louis
Cardinals. He was brought back to the
majors in 1971 with the Cards and was 3-10.
However, Topps did not bother with a card of him in 1971 or 1972. After the 1971 season the Cards sent Chris to
the Tiges for Bill Denehy. Chris
proceeded to show Topps they made a mistake by not making a card of him in 1972
by appearing in 25 games for the AL East champ Tiges and posting a 1.41 ERA in
relief. Chris pulled off a win for the
1972 Tiges when he came in to pitch the bottom of the 7th inning for
the Tiges in a game they trailed the Brewers in Milwaukee 5-4. Chris got the Brewers out 1-2-3 and the Tiges
came back to score 4 in the 8th to give Chris the win. It was his only win as a Tiger but as the
Tigers won the pennant by half a game, it was an important win. Chris got into the 1972 post season with the
Tiges and in game 2 of the playoffs he got the call with the Tigers trailing
the Oakland Athletics 2-0. With Bert
Campaneris on third and Jesus Alou on first Chris faced Joe Rudi. He gave up a wild pitch that scored Campy and
moved Alou to second. A second wild
pitch moved Alou to third before he gave up a walk to Rudi. He was then pulled from the game. Chris never pitched in the series again. Topps rewarded a post season appearance with
a baseball card in 1973 as a Tiger.
However, just before the 1973 season Chris was traded to the Pittsburgh
Pirates for Charlie Sands without ever making another appearance as a
Tiger. He was done in the majors after
going 0-1 with the Pirates and done in baseball after 1974. He died in 2003 at the age of 59 of
cancer.
Jackie Moore spent his entire major league playing career as
a Tiger. He was signed as a amateur free
agent in 1957 by the Tiges. He then
spent the next 8 years working his way up the Tigers food chain as a catcher
hitting about .250 in the minors with decent defensive abilities. He finally got the call in 1965 when he
started a game at catcher against the Los Angeles Angels in Dodger
Stadium. His first at bat came against
Rudy May in the second. Jackie struck
out looking. He came up again in the
fifth and the 26 year old struck out looking again. He made two more outs until the 13th
inning with the score tied 1-1. Will
Horton lead off with a single. Jackie
then followed with his first major league hit, a single to center to move
Horton to third. Jackie was then taken
out of the game for pinch runner Jim Northrup.
Northrup would score as did Horton and Dick McAulilffe to give the Tiges
the win 4-1. Jackie would start 15 more
games and appear in a total of 21 games.
He would get 4 more hits and 2 RBI’s while K’ing another 11 times in the
season. His last at bat would come
against the Cleveland Indians. Jackie
was a pinch hitter for Terry Fox in the 13th facing Sam
McDowell. He struck out. He would never appear in another game as a
player again. His final batting average
as a Tiger was .094. The next year
Jackie was part of the deal that brought Bill Monbouquette to the Tigers from
the Red Sox. Jackie must have recognized
that his play would not keep him in the game because in 1968 he started
managing in the minors for Boston’s A- level club in Jamestown. Managing and coaching would keep him in the
game. He managed in the majors for the
Oakland Athletics from 1984 to 1986 and was managing Houston’s AA team as late
as 2007. In 2012 he was bench coach for
the Texas Rangers. His lone player card is a 1965 Rookies card
with John Sullivan.
Russ Sullivan had all the potential to be a great Tiger and
was an all around class act. He joined the Navy out of high school in 1943
rather than a baseball team. After all,
there was a war going on. He served
aboard the USS Hancock which was an aircraft carrier. He served in the battle of Okinawa and
sometimes went on missions as a tail gunner.
After the war he joined the Tigers and baseball. He was already 25 when he signed in
1948. He hit .335 his first year in pro
ball in class C and led the league in homers and RBI’s while being chosen as an
all star as an outfielder. He was again
an all star in class A in 1950 with Williamsport where he hit .317 with 25
homers. He was in AAA at Toledo in 1951
and hit .341 with 11 homers and 88 RBI’s.
That year he was also a late season call up for the Tigers and made his
major league debut in September. He
started a game against The White Sox in Chicago replacing Vic Wertz in right
field. He walked in his first major
league plate appearance against Lou Kretlow.
He then went 0 for 3 for the rest of the game but was perfect in the
field. Russ got in a total of seven
games for the Tiges that season and went 5 for 26 with 2 walks for a .250
OBP. He also hit one homer. Russ had another late season call up in 1952
where he hit .327 in 15 games. The high
lite of his career was when he was taking batting practice in Boston and Ted
Williams was watching. Williams watched
Sullivan hit ball after ball into stands and said “Boy, you hit ‘em as hard as
I do”. That same year he helped Hal
Newhouser win his 200th game of his career when he hit a homer atop
the right field roof of Briggs Stadium similar to the blast Reggie Jackson hit
years later in the all star game. Russ
would play in 23 games for the Tigers in 1953 also and hit .379. The problem for Russ was that he was
already30 at that time and the Tigers were starting to rebuild. Youth was what they would be looking for in
the likes of Al Kaline and others. In
fact, after the Al Kaline appeared Russ was sent to Kansas City. He stayed in pro ball through 1957 but never
appeared in the majors again after the Tigers.
His final stats were 45 games in three seasons with a .267 average and 5
homers with 12 RBI’s.
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