March 14 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Mike Strahler pitched on season with the Tigers in 1973.  He played for three years with the Dodgers from 1970 to 1972 when he was part of the trade that sent Frank Robinson, Len Gabrielson, Bobby Valentine and Bill Singer from the Dodgers to the Angels for Andy Messersmith and Ken McMullen.  However, before Mike was able to play a game for the Angels he was traded to Detroit for Charlie Sands.  Mike was used as a fifth starter during the middle of the season starting 11 games for the Tiges mostly in June and July.  On June 26, he faced the Orioles in Baltimore.  He went the distance and allowed only 3 runs for the complete game victory.  He had a total of four wins for the Tigers, two against Baltimore.  In his last major league appearance he pitched the ninth inning of an 8-3 loss.  He struck out two and forced his last batter to hit into a ground out.  It also was against Baltimore. 

Marty McManus was primarily a second baseman in the 1920’s and 1930’s.  He saw military service during WWI before starting his pro baseball career in 1920.  In fact, it was while he was stationed in the Panama Canal Zone that he took up baseball.  He was spotted by a St. Louis Browns scout and signed for $5,000.  He became a starter in 1921 and was the starting second baseman on the famed 1922 Browns team that finished a game out of first.  He was second on the team with 109 RBI’s but he led the league in errors at second base.   Marty was a .298 hitter for the Browns over 7 years.  He came to Detroit in a trade prior to the 1927 season that brought himself, Pinky Hargrave and Bobby LaMotte to Detroit and sent Otto Miller, Frank O’Rourke, Billy Mullen and Lefty Stewart to the Browns.  Detroit already had a second baseman by the name of Charlie Gerhinger (HOF) so Marty was used as a utility infielder in 1927 and then shored up third the rest of his time in Detroit.  He was always considered hot tempered and it got the best of him early on with the Tigers.  He got in a shouting match with his manager George Moriarity in the club house and was fined $200.  Apparently the conflict was enough to spark the Tigers as they won 17 f the next 21 games.  He was very handy in the lineup too hitting .287 with the Tigers along with 47 homers and 374 RBI’s.  Marty stayed with the Tigers until part way through the 1931 season when we traded him to Boston for catcher, Muddy Ruel.   Marty actually was the manager for the Red Sox during 1932 and 1933 however, not very successfully.  After leaving the majors for good in 1934 he toiled in the minors playing and managing into the 1940’s.  In 1944 he was managing in the AAGPBL (All American Girls Professional Baseball League) for the Kenosha Comets and in 1948 managed the South Bend Blue Sox also of the AAGPBL.

Hub Pernoll pitched for the Tigers from 1910 and 1912.  He was an Oregon boy through and through.  He was born in Applegate, OR in 1888 with the name Henry Huston Pernoll.  But he is known in the record books as Hub and he also went by the nicknames Piano Legs and Jud.  The lefty pitcher started his professional career in his home state of Oregon with the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League in 1907.  In 1908 he split time between Portland and Aberdeen Grays of the Northwestern League.  In 1909 Aberdeen moved down the road a few miles to become the Grays Harbor Grays.  Hub was part of a great tandem of himself and former Tiger Ed Siever who pitched on the 1900 Tigers.  Ed was 23-16 while Hub was second best in the league in wins with 25 against 19 losses.  It was in August of 1909 that the Tigers purchased the contract of Hub for $4,000.  In 1910 he was 4-3 with the Tigers, a far cry from his record of 25-19 in the minors but his ERA was a respectable 2.96.  In 1911 he was sent back to Oregon to pitch with Portland in the Pacific Coast League.  He posted another phenomenal 23-16 record with Beavers.  He came back to Detroit in 1912 and failed to win a game in 3 games and was done playing with the Tigers in May.   His final record for Detroit over the two seasons was 4-3 in 14 games.  At the plate he was 1 for 19 with a stolen base.  He finished his time in baseball in 1915 after playing a few more seasons with the Oakland Oaks and later the San Francisco Seals in the PCL.  He died in Grants Pass, OR and was buried there in 1944.