Doug Fister in 2013 ended
his tenure as a Tiger. He played ball at
junior college at Merced Junior College in California. The lefty pitcher then went to Fresno State
and pitched there for his final two years of eligibility. He then signed with the Seattle Mariners and
by 2009 was up in the bigs as a late season call up. His debut was against the Tampa Bay Rays when
he came in to pitch the ninth of a losing cause. He got Ben Zobrist to ground out for his
first batter faced in the majors. He
then go out former Tiger Carlos Pena before giving up a single, wild pitch and
a walk to put runners on first and second.
But he got his first K to end the inning. He then went on to start his next 10 games
and was 3-4 with a 4.13 ERA. He improved
a bit his next season with the Mariners going 6-14 with a 4.11 ERA. He improved his ERA further in 2011 going
3-12 with a 2.83 ERA before he was brought to the Tigers in a multi player
deal. The Tigers sent Charlie Furbush, Casper Wells
and Chance Ruffin for David Pauley, minor leaguer Francisco Martinez and
Doug. Doug looked fantastic his first
season as a Tiger when he was 8-1 with a 1.79 ERA. In the post season he was 2-1 in the post
season with a rough outing in relief but a good five innings against the Yanks
in game 5 of the ALDS to get the clinching win.
In 2012 he was still solid at 10-10 with a 3.45 ERA. He did well in the post season again even
though he did not get a win in 2012. In
fact he got a loss in the 2012 World Series when he went 6 innings giving up
only 1 run on 4 hits and a walk. But the
Tiger bats were silent and managed only 2 hits all night. In 2013 Doug looked like a great number 3 man
in the rotation going 14-9 with a 3.67 ERA.
It was tough saying who was the number 3 or number 4 man as Doug got
more starts than anyone but Justin Verlander.
However, Anibal Sanchez but had a lower ERA. Both Anibal and Doug had the same number of
wins. In the post season Doug was solid
again pitching a win in game 4 of the ALCS against the Boston Red Sox. He pitched 6 innings and allowed only 1 run
scattering 8 hits a walk while racking up 7 K’s and beating Jake Peavy. But that would be the last game Doug pitched
as a Tiger. He was traded to the
Washington Nationals on December 2, 2013 for Robbie Ray who in 2014 was 1-4
with a 8.16 ERA as a lefty starter in 6 starts, Ian Kroll who is a lefty
reliever with a 4.96 ERA for the Tigers in 2014 and Steve Lombardozi who was
traded to the Orioles for Alex Gonzalez who played 9 games and hit .167 for the
Tiges in 2014 as a 37 year old back infielder.
Doug was 16-6 with a 2.41 ERA, which was 4th best in the NL
for the Nats. Here’s hoping this trade looks
better in 2015.
Chris Bando was the
younger brother of Sal Bando of the Oakland Athletics and was briefly a Tiger. He started his major league career in 1981
with the Cleveland Indians at the age of 25.
He was a back up catcher who was solid at nailing runners trying to
steal on the Indians. He played 8 years
for the Tribe mainly as a backup until 1987 when he finally won the starting
role for the Indians. But this was short
lived. While he hit a lowly .218 as the
starter in 1987, in 1988 he dropped to .125 and the Indians could not afford to
keep him as a starter let alone even on the team and in August they released
him. Chris was better against lefties then righties. The Tiges signed him on September 2. The Tigers were in the midst of a pennant
race. They led the Boston Red Sox by
only 1 game and the Yankees trailed by 4 while the Brewers were only out by
6. The Tigers had young Matt Nokes who
had dropped from a .289 hitter in 1987 to a .251 hitter in 1988 and was better
against lefties. They also had the aging
Mike Heath who at 33 was actually behind Nokes as far as defensive skills and
hitting .247 and could not hit lefties at all.
So Chris was a “just in case” player.
On September 13 Mike Heath had replaced Nokes as a pinch hitter and for
some reason Heath had replaced Nokes against a lefty in the 8th with
the Tigers trailing the Jays 9-1 in Toronto.
Mike grounded into a double play.
I am sure Matt could have done the same.
In the bottom of the 8th Mike was not behind the plate. Instead, Chris was called in to play back
stop for Paul Gibson and the Tigers.
After 4 batters the Jays were done in the inning. The Tiges would do nothing in the 9th
and the game was over. Chris never got an
at bat and never got in another game.
The Tigers finished a game behind the Red Sox and Chris was released
after the season. He was signed by the
Oakland Athletics and played one game for them as well before his MLB playing
career ended. He was a Brewers coach
when his brother Sal was the GM in the 1990’s and has stayed in the game with
the Diamondbacks and now is college coach with the San Diego Christian College
as late as 2010. His three sons also
played pro ball but very limited and mainly in Independent ball.
Rusty Kuntz was on the 1984 Tigers. He had started his major league career in
1979 with the Chicago White Sox after coming out of Cal State University,
Stanislaus. He was a back up outfielder
for the Sox hitting .230 until June of 1983 when he was traded to the Minnesota
Twins for a minor leaguer. He was not
with the Twins long. At the end of the
season the Twins traded Rusty to the Tigers for Larry Pashnick. Rusty entered spring training as a member
of the minor league camp. However, coming out of spring training in
1984 Tiger manager Sparky Anderson called Rusty into the office with GM Bill
Lajoie. He sat him down and told him they
were going to give him a big league contract.
But that he was going to be a defensive replacement. And that was about what he was. He did start 35 games as a as a right
fielder, center fielder and DH but he played in a total of 84 games. He hit .286 and hit he game winning RBI for
the clinching game of the World Series.
People think it was Kirk Gibson’s homer that was the winner. But Rusty was called in to pinch hit for Johh
Grubb in the bottom of the 5th with the bases loaded. He hit a sac fly driving in Kirk Gibson to
make it a 4-3 game. Lance Parrish hit a
homer in the 7th to make it 5-3.
Kurt Bevacqua hit a homer in the top the 8th to bring the
Padres closer at 5-4 and then Gibson hit his homer in the bottom of the 8th. But the game winner was Rusty Kuntz. Kuntz was back with the Tiges in 1985 and got
in 5 games before being sent to the minors.
He hit only .222 and was released at the end of the season. He never played pro ball again. Last year he was first base coach for the
Kansas City Royals. His son, Kevin, was
also drafted by the Kansas City Royals last year.
Stan Papi was a backup utility infielder who ended his career as a
Tiger. He started his career in the
majors in 1974 with 8 games where he got 1 hit in 4 plate appearances. Before the 1975 season Stan was traded to the
Expos. But in 1975 Stan was out of
baseball with a mysterious illness. The
illness turned out to be a severe case of hypoglycemia. After getting treated he was back in AAA for
Montreal and hit .270 as a utility infielder.
He was in AAA again in 1977 where he won AAA shortstop of the year
hitting .296. This got him a call up for
13 games as a look see in Montreal. In
1978 Stan was in the bigs full time but only part time playing. He was again a utility infielder hitting only
.230. After the season the Expos traded
Stan to the Boston Red Sox for Bill “Spaceman” Lee. Stan hit only .188 for the Sox in 1979 and
only about a month into the 1980 season he was shipped off to
Philadelphia. He lasted only a couple of
weeks and never got in a game for the Phils before they sold him to
Detroit. In his first game as a Tiger he
drove in three runs and scored a run himself.
In 45 more games for the Tiges that season he only drove in 14 more runs
and scored only 11 more times. He was
considered an able backup infielder but a weak hitter hitting only .237. In 1981 Stan’s average dropped to .204 in 40
games. He was 30 years old, and the
Tigers had utility infielder Mick Kelleher who hit about 20 points higher than
Stan. So before spring training of 1982
Stan was released and his baseball career came to an end.
Joe Sparma was a former Ohio State quarter back who was the number
4 starter for the 1968 Tigers. He was platooned at quarterback by Woody
Hayes and this frustrated him. So he
left school and signed with the Tigers in 1963.
He had a blazing fastball and in 1964 was called up to the Tiges. He got 11 starts and also spent some time in
the bull pen going 5-6 with a 3.00 ERA despite a struggle for command of his
pitches. He was solidly in the rotation
in 1965 going 13-8 with a 3.18 ERA having gained some better control pitching
winter ball. He hurt his index finger on
his right hand (throwing hand) in spring training in 1966 in a car door. He would only make 13 starts for the season
and wound up 2-7 with a 5.30 ERA. He did
not complete a single game and continued to have control problems. Tiger manager Bob Swift said of his control
“the son of a bitch looks like he never threw a baseball in his life.” But he was back in 1967 and had the best year
of his career going 16-9 with a 3.76 ERA as the number 3 man in a 4 man
rotation of Earl Wilson, Denny McLain, himself and Mickey Lolich. He had reduced his elaborate wind up and
picked up the pace of his game as he was considered one of the more deliberate
pitchers in the league. In 1968 Joe was back
in the rotation but he had a rough first half of the season. In the year of the pitcher he was 7-8 with a
4.01 ERA. Things did not get
better. He was feuding with Tiger
skipper Mayo Smith and there was talk of him being traded when he happened to
get an emergency start for the Tiges with their magic number at 1 to clinch the
pennant. The fans actually booed when he
was announced as the starter. He gave up
two singles in the first but then sent down 19 of the next 21 batters. He drove in the first run of the game himself
in the 5th. By the 8th
the fans were back on his side and game him a standing ovation when he came to the
plate. The Yankees tied the game in the
9th but the Tiges scored in the bottom of the 9th to give
Joe the win and win a pennant. Jo would
finish the season at 10-10 with a 3.70 ERA.
In the World Series Joe got in one game as a reliever. He got Dal Maxvill to ground out to end the
third with the Cardinals up 4-0. In the
4th Card pitcher Bob Gibson led off the inning with a homer off of
Joe and then Lou Brock followed that with a triple and Mayo took Joe out of the
game. Joe and Mayo did not make up in
1969 and Joe did not get any control. He
K’d 41 while walking 77 in 92.2 innings that season. He was 6-8 with a 4.76 ERA. At the end of the season he was traded to the
Montreal Expos for Jerry Robertson. He
only got in 9 games for the Expos and was 0-4 with a 7.06 ERA. That would be the last year for him in the
majors. That same year, 1970, I saw him
pitching for the Montreal Expos AAA club the Winnipeg Whips.
He could not find that plate and was bouncing the balls into the catcher.
But I became an Expos fan in spite of his lack of control. Joe died young at the age of 44 after
complications from triple bypass surgery.
He had been a chain smoker all during his playing days. His son, Blase, went to Ohio State and also
played pro ball in the Braves farm system but did not make the majors.
Eddie Ainsmith was the starting catcher for the Tigers in 1919.
He was born in Russia in 1890 under the Czar as Edward Anshmedt. It is not known when he came to the US. He started a life in proball at the age of 18
in 1908. By 1910 he was in the majors
with Washington. He would play there for
9 seasons. Part of the time there he was
a teammate of Germany Schaefer. He did
not become the starter until 1917 when he was 27. He was the starter again in 1918. But his problem was the he was not very good
at the plate. He hit .207 for the
Senators during those 9 seasons although he did show some speed for a catcher
stealing 66 bases in those 9 seasons. On
January 17 he was traded twice. The
first was a trade to Boston who promptly traded him that very same day to
Detroit with Slim Love and Chick Shorten for Ossie Vitt. The Tigers had been looking for a permanent
catcher. In 1918 they had used a three
man rotation of Archie Yelle, Tubby Spencer and Oscar Stanage. In 1919 they uses Eddie was the starter for
over 100 games. This was made possible
by his jump in hitting to .272 for the season.
But in 1920 his average dropped back to .231 and Oscar Stanage was back
as the starter behind the plate in 78 games to Eddie’s 69. Finally in 1921 the Tigers found Johnny
Bassler who take up duties behind the plate for the next 5 years for the
Tigers. Johnny was a career .304 hitter
and Eddie was now obsolete at the age of 31.
In July he was released and signed with the St. Louis Browns as a back
up to Verne Clemons. However, in 1922
Verne had a big drop in production with a batting average that dropped from 320
in 1921 to .256 in 1922 and Eddie was again the starter with a .293
average. However, 1923 brought another
drop in his production to a .213 average and Verne brought his average back up
to .285 while the Browns other back up, Harry McCurdy, hit .265. Eddie’s starts dropped back to about half the
browns starts. Before the season was
over, the Browns released Eddie and he signed with the Brooklyn Robins. He got in only 2 games for the Robins and was
with the New York Giants for 1924. That
would be the end of Eddie in the majors.
He would stay in the minors until 1929.
In the 1940’s he was a manager for the All American Girls Professional
Baseball League for the Rockford Peaches and Fort Wayne Daisies.
Germany Schaefer was a character as a Tiger. He was born in
Chicago as William Herman Schaefer. His
parents were German immigrants, hence the nickname. He started his career in the majors as a
Chicago Orphan in 1901, when the Orphans purchased him from the St. Paul Saints
of the Western League. He played with
Chicago and one of his teammates was Davy Jones in 1902 where Davy was in the
outfield and Germany played third. It
was in 1902 that the famed Cub double play team of Tinkers, Evers and Chance
first played together. Germany was the
third baseman when they first took the field together. In 1903 the Orphans changed their name to the
Cubs. Davy stayed in Chicago and Germany
went back to the Saints. In 1904 Germany
was in Milwaukee with the Brewers who were in the American Association. In 1905 Germany joined the Tigers when they
purchased him from Milwaukee to help fill the middle infield as Germany became
the regular second baseman. This was the
same season the Tigers picked up Ty Cobb.
The following year Davy Jones also joined the Tigers and the Tigers
would win three pennants in a row starting in 1907. Davy Jones gave an interview for one of the
all time greatest baseball books, “The Glory of Their Times” by Lawrence
Ritter. In it he says “What a man! What stunts he could pull! I used to laugh at that guy till I
cried. Far and away the funniest man I
ever saw. He Charlie Chaplin any day of
the week….One day…we were behind 2-1 going into the 9th. Then in the 9th we got a man on first with 2 out. Well, Schaefer walked out there (as a pinch
hitter) and just as he was about to the batter’s box he stopped and took off
his cap and faced the grand stand. "Ladies
and gentlemen, you are now looking at Herman Schaefer, better known as 'Herman
the Great,' acknowledged by one and all to be the greatest pinch-hitter in the
world. I am now going to hit the ball into the left field bleachers. Thank
you." He hit the game winning homerun on the second pitch. He ran to first and slid into first and yelled
Schaefer leads at the quarter!” Then jumped
up and headed for second and slid into second yelling "Schaefer leads at
the half!" and so on. After hook-sliding into home, he popped up, doffed
his cap, bowed, and said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, this concludes this
afternoon's performance. I thank you for your kind attention." There is another great story how he got
kicked out of a game for something he did quite a while early and not in a
game, This is from the SABR bio on Germany.
Schaefer did not reserve his pranks for players alone. According to one
story, umpire Jack Sheridan wandered into his favorite Chicago watering-hole
for a few drinks one evening. After tilting back a few too many spirits,
Sheridan fell asleep on his table, located near a drainpipe. When Schaefer
ambled in and saw the ump snoozing, he hopped upstairs and knelt on the floor.
Cupping his hands, he moaned into the drainpipe, "Jack Sheridan, your time
has come..." After Schaefer's creepy warning was repeated, Sheridan shook
himself awake and streaked from the saloon, frightened sober. The incident so
spooked Sheridan that he reportedly gave up drinking for a time. Later,
Schaefer let the cat out of the bag during a game that Sheridan was working in
New York. When Germany strolled to the plate, he couldn't resist moaning, "Jack
Sheridan, your time has come..." Sheridan's neck snapped toward Schaefer,
"You Dutch so-and-so, you're out of this game!" But
probably his most famous stunt was when he stole first. He got on first with a single and the hit and
run was on. The batter did not make contact and Germany found himself on
second. Trying to get it right, the next pitch he stole back to first.
Then they did make a successful hit
and run after that. The rules were changed after that play to prohibit
runners from going backwards on the base paths.
But Germany was a good player too.
He was named captain of the team in 1907 when they won their first of
three pennants. However, he did not have
a great performance in either the 1907 or the 1908 World Series. In August of 1909 he was traded to Washington
with Red Killefer for Jim Delahanty. He
played in Washington until 1915 when he jumped to the Federal League with the
Newark Pepper. The following year he was
with the Yankees for a game. When World
War I broke out Germany changed his name to “Liberty” as many things were
having their names changed such as sauerkraut being renamed “liberty
cabbage”. In 1918 the now “Liberty”
played his last game in the majors for Cleveland. In 1919 he was scouting for John McGraw and
the Giants when he died of a hemorrhage on a train. He was 43.
Below is a T-206 card of Schaefer from my collection.
Below is a T-206 card of Schaefer from my collection.
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