March 10 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Bill Heath was less than a season with the Tigers.   Big things were expected from Bill when in 1965 the White Sox Al Lopez was trying to figure out his catching situation.  He had 7 catchers in spring training and fully expected the young left handed hitting Heath to be one of them.  As it was, the other were so inspired by Heath that he was left off the clubs roster heading north.  He was called up as a late season call up by the Sox and had one at bat in one game.  The Houston Astros then got Bill in a trade.  He joined a crew of struggling catchers in Houston’s spring training as a non roster invitee.    The Astros had Ron Brand who had a whole lot of errors behind the plate and John Bateman who hit only .197 as players returning from 1965.  Bill was actually the number two catcher for the Astros in 1966 and hit .301.  This was better than any of the other Houston back stops.  But a slow start in 1967 where Bill hit only .091 in 9 games allowed Houston to part with Bill.  The Tigers purchased him from Houston in May of 1967 and was assigned to Toledo.  In June he was called up to Detroit.  In his first start for the Tigers he got three RBI’s on two hits.  Unfortunately he appeared in 19 games for the Tigers and collected only two more hits and one more RBI.  That equated to a .125 average.  He did not get an extra base hit.  Before the 1968 season got under way the Tigers sold Bill to the Yankees.  He never played a game for the Yankees and was signed as a free agent by the Cubs in 1969.  He played in 127 games with the Cubs and had an average of .157 for the Cubs.  His final game as a Cub was a no hitter being pitched by Cubs pitcher Ken Holtzman against the Cubs.  In the 8^th inning Tommie Aaron (Hank’s brother) was pinch hitting for Phil Niekro.  On a foul ball Bill broke his hand and was taken out of the game.  Holtzman got his no hitter with two catchers and Bill never again played in the majors. 

Art Herring played the majority of his first half career as a pitcher for the Tigers.  He was an outfielder for the Tigers in their farm system starting in 1927.  They converted him to a pitcher and from 1929 through 1933 he was with the Tigers.  In his major league debut in 1929 he was a late season call up.  He got the start in his debut against the Red Sox in Fenway Park.  He pitched a complete game and allowed only 1 run on 8 hits.  He started three more games that season and was 2-1 with a 4.78 ERA.  After 1929 Art saw more action as a reliever but he did start a few games.   1931 was his big year for the Tigers.  He was 7-13 with 9 complete games and an ERA of 4.31.  He was also a league leader that year in hit batsmen with 8.  Ouch!  At the end of the 1933 season Art was sold to Brooklyn.  This was the end of his first half of his major league career.  He had one in between season in 1939 when he was with the White Sox for 7 games.  But he continued to play pro ball in the minors.  In 1944, ten years after his first season with the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Dodgers brought him back to the majors.  He would pitch until 1947 when he led the league as the oldest player in the league at the age of 41.  He also had major league record of longest span between hitting doubles.  It was 15 years.  He had hit his fourth career double for the Tigers in 1931 and then hit his next double in 1946.  That record was broken in 2007 by Jamie Moyer who hit a double in 1988 with the Cubs and then in 2007 hit two doubles in the same season for the Phillies.  He broke Art’s record by 4 years and had a career total of 5 where as Art had a career total of 6. 

Jim Curry played half of his career for the Tigers.  In 1909 he got in a game on the last day of the season.  The Philadelphia Athletics were playing the Washington Senators in Philly.  Jim played second base for the Athletics and went 1-4 at the plate and did not commit an error.  Two years later Jim played 4 games for the New York Highlanders, soon to be Yankees.  He went 2 for 11 with the Highlanders and made 5 errors in 22 chances as a second baseman.  Not a stellar job with the glove.  He ended his major league career 7 years later with Detroit.  For the Tigers he got in 5 games in July back in his old stomping grounds of Philly and Washington.  His best game was his second to last game when he faced Walter Johnson and went 2-4 and scored a run as the Tigers won 8-6 and also reached base being hit by a pitch.  Jim only played in one more major league game and went 0-4.  I would imagine being hit by Walter Johnson could make you a little shy at the plate.  For the Tigers he hit .250 with one double.  He played all his games at second base as a 32 year old third string back up.   He continued to play ball in the minors until he was 42 in 1928 mainly class B ball.  Ten years after he retired from baseball, Jim was dead in his home state of New Jersey.