Pat Underwood played his entire career in Detroit but it
ended just a year early. He was the
Tigers number one draft pick in 1976.
Since the Tigers were fairly poor at that time he was the number two
pick overall behind Floyd Bannister. He
followed his older brother Tom into the majors and on May 31, 1979 made his
major league debut against his brother who was a pitcher for the Blue
Jays. It was a great pitchers duel
between lefty brothers. Pat was perfect
through the first four innings. In the
fifth Pat finally gave up his first major league hit, a lead off double to Rico
Carty. But Rico was stranded there. Pat gave up his first walk in the 6th
to Rick Cerone. Cerone was moved over to
second with sac bunt but got no further.
Meanwhile brother Tom gave up a lead off homer to Jerry Morales in the 8th
for the first run of the game. That was
Tom’s 5th hit given up in the game.
He would only give up one more. Pat
gave up his second hit in the 8th when he gave up a single to Dan
Ainge (the NBA player as well as MLB player).
Ainge moved on to second but Pat picked him off second for the third out
of the inning. Pat got the lead off
hitter out in the 9th and then gave up a double. At that point he was pulled. His final line score was 8.1 innings pitched,
3 hits, 1 BB and no runs. He also beat
his brother to get the win 1-0. Not a
bad debut. Pat got 5 more wins that
season for a record of 6-4 with a 4.59 ERA.
In 1980 he was coming out of the bull pen more and was 3-6 with 5 saves
and 3.59 ERA. Pat spent 1981 in
Evansville, Detroit’s AAA team. 1982 saw
Pat back in the majors but he was mixed as a spot starter and reliever. He won 4 games. The last four games of his major league
career. Pat got into 4 games for the
Tiges in 1983 but did not get a decision.
He was traded in June to Cincinnati for Wayne Krenchicki but never appeared
in another major league game again. Arm
troubles ended his career after 1984.
John Young spent his entire time
in the majors with the Tigers. He was a
first round pick for the Tigers in 1969 and had a great 1969 season as a first
baseman for the Lakeland Tigers, hitting .325 with 60 RBI’s. He was moved up to AA Montgomery in 1970 and
in 1971 was hitting .297 for Montgomery when he was called up for look
see. He made his major league debut in
a game against the Red Sox at Tiger Stadium.
In the bottom of the ninth with the Tiges trailing 12-6 he was called in
to lead of the inning as a pinch hitter replacing weak hitting Eddie
Brinkman. He hit a ground ball to third
baseman Rico Petrocelli who threw him out at first. Two weeks later John was called upon to
replace Al Kaline at first in the top of the fourth in a game against the
Tigers led 7-5 against the Yankees. John
led off the fifth with a double. He
moved to third on a single by Willie Horton and then scored on a Mickey Stanley
fly ball. John came up again in the 6th
but grounded out to second to end the inning.
In the bottom of the 8th, John came up for one last at bat
with runners on first and second. He
singled to center scoring Cesar Gutierrez.
John never played in the majors again.
He was hitting .311 at Evansville in 1972 when he was injured and his
season ended. When asked about his
injury he pointed to his left wrist and said “that’s it”. He then went on to explain that it took
months for them to diagnose his injury.
What had happened was that he had torn a tendon away from the bone. It was a doctor from Red China who finally
diagnosed the injury as he had seen it with Chinese ping pong players due to
the rotation of the wrist. John had
surgery where they took a tendon from another part of his body and reattached
the tendon. But it was never the same
and in about 8 months it happened again.
He would continue to play in the minors until 1977. At that time he became a scout but is better
known for helping found RBI, Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities, a group whose
goal is to help kids stay away from gangs and on the playing field. Some of RBI’s grads include James Loney and
Coco Crisp.
Vic Wertz was an All Star outfielder for the Tigers. He started his major league career in Detroit
in 1947 backing up Hoot Evers, Dick Wakefield and Pat Mullin at the age of
22. He hit .288 which was better than
Wakefield’s .283 and Mullin’s .256. He
replaced Wakefield in 1948 but oddly enough, Wakefield performed better hitting
.276 with a on base percentage of .406 to Vic’s .248 and .335. In 1949 Vic was firmly in place in the
outfield hitting .304 and leading the Tigers in RBI’s with 133 and 20
homers. His RBI total was good for
third place in the league and he was an All Star that year. He continued to hit homers at a good clip
hitting 27, 27, and 23 over the next three years to go along with RBI totals of
123, 94 and 70 as well as earning two more All Star appearances. In 1952 Vic was hitting .246 with 51 RBI’s
and 17 homers when in mid August he was traded to the St. Louis Browns with Don
Lenhardt, Dick Littlefield and Marlin Stuart for Bud Black, Jim Delsing, Dave
Madison and Ned Garver. He stayed there
for about two seasons when he was traded to the Cleveland Indians in 1954. It was in Cleveland that Vic gained his
prominence that he holds today. In the
1954 World Series the Indians played the New York Giants. In game one Vic hit a long fly ball to
deepest centerfield, 450 feet from home, that Willie Mays ran down and caught
with an over his shoulder basket catch and then whirled and threw to the
infield. It is referred to often as “the
catch”. The quote of the day was “that
would have been a homerun in any other park, including Yellowstone”. Vic played 5 years at Cleveland hitting .270
before heading to Boston with Gary Geiger for young Jimmy Piersall. Vic played 3 years in Boston until late in
1961 when he was hitting .262 with Sox that he was released and picked up by
the Tigers. He played 8 games for the
Tiges in 1961, all of 1962 as a back up and 6 more games in 1963 before he was
released by the Tigers. In that time he
was about a .300 hitter again. The Twins
picked him up to finish the 1963 season before his career was over in the
majors. He died 20 years later and is
buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield, MI.
Don Hankins was a Tiger for his entire major league
experience. He started his professional
career in 1921 as a 19 year old pitcher for Tampa and then moved on to Lakeland
in 1923 before Lakeland was the Tigers home for Spring Training. In Lakeland he had one of his best seasons
going 11-5. His best season came in 1926
when he was 16-7 for Newark in the International League. The next year he was with the Tigers. Don was strictly a fast ball pitcher as he
had broken his elbow as a 14 year old and when the doctor set it on his kitchen
table, he had no way on knowing that there were loose bone chips in his
elbow. Any time Don tried to pitch a
curve it would cause him great pain and even if he was just pitching regular he
could find his arm getting numb. In his
debut he faced the St. Louis Browns and pitched one inning or a game the Tiges
already trailed 7-12. Don came in and
pitched the seventh giving up 2 runs on 2 hits.
He got his first win against those same Browns in July when he came in
to start the seventh again in a game the Tiges led 6-5. But Don gave up 3 runs in the seventh to blow
the save. However, the Tigers came back
for 3 of their own in the top of the 8th and Don came in to pitch
2/3ds of the inning to become the pitcher of record and get his first major
league win. Don would face the
Philadelphia Athletics in Detroit of a game the Tigers trailed 9-2 and Don was
called in to pitch the 8th and then the 9th. He did not give up a run in the two innings
and the Tigers rallied for 1 run in the 8th and 7 runs in the ninth
to give Don his second win of his time with the Tigers and his final win of his
major league career. His final stats
were a 2-1 record with a 6.33 ERA. Don
would return to the minors in 1928 when the Tigers sold him to Toronto. He would pitch in the minors until 1931 but
he never appeared in the majors again.
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