Fernando Rodney was with the Tiges from 2002 through
2009. He was the set up man for
years. In 2009 he became the closer with
the end of Todd Jones career. He always
had more K’s then BB’s but at times he made games exciting when you thought
they might already be over. In 2011 he
suffered a back injury and lost his role as the closer for the Angels. He was sent to the Rays in 2012 and finished
with 48 saves and a 2-2 record with a 0.60 ERA and became an all star and won
comeback player of the year for the AL.
Geronimo Berroa played part of his 11 years in the majors on
9 teams and one was with the Tigers. He
came out of the Dominican Republic and signed with the Toronto Blue Jays in
1983. He did not make it to the majors
with the Blue Jays but rather with the Atlanta Braves in 1989. He was a back up
for two years and then went to the Reds and Marlins, before joining the
Athletics in 1994. It was then that he
became a starter but at DH. He showed
that he was a righty batter with good power but was the typical power hitter in
that he K’d a lot. In fact by the time
he left Oakland in 1997 he was K’ing 3 times to every BB. That is not a good ratio. He split 1997 between Oakland and Baltimore. He hit 26 homers that season which was his
second best total in his career. His
tops was the year before, 1996 when he hit 36.
That did not crack the top 10 for the season. At the end of the season the Orioles let
Geronimo go and he signed with the Cleveland Indians as a free agent for
1998. He got in 20 games for the Tribe
hitting only .200 and no homers while driving in only 3 runs. The Tribe then traded Geronimo to the Tiges
for He played part of one year with the Tigers in 1998. In 52 games he hit .238 for the Tigers with
one homer and 10 RBI’s. We got him in a
trade with Cleveland for pitcher Tim Worrell and minor leaguer Dave
Roberts. Geronimo appeared in 52 games for the Tigers
in 1998 mainly as DH. He hit .238 with 1
homer and 10 RBI’s. It was his 8th
game with the Tigers that he got his homer off of Woody Williams of the Toronto
Blue Jays in Tiger Stadium. He had a
great series against Toronto going 7 for 13 with his lone Tiger homer and 2
RBI’s. So at the end of the season when
the Tigers let Geronimo become a free agent it is not hard to understand why
the Blue Jays signed him. The team that
first signed him out of high school finally gave him a job in the majors. But he only hit .194 with the Jays and only
1 homer. He was granted free agency at
the end of the season and ended his MLB career with the Dodgers in 2000.
Dwayne Murphy played on season with the Tigers in the
outfield of 1988 after ten years with the Oakland A’s. he hit .250 with the Tiges. Before you say he stunk with the Tigers
remember he was a career .246 hitter.
His on base percentage was actually pretty decent and was .100 points
above his batting average.
Dick Littlefield pitched part of one season with the tigers
in 1952. He went 0-3 in 28 games as a
reliever mainly. He walked 25 and struck
out 33. He came to the Tigers just
before the beginning of the 1952 season from the Browns with Matt Batts, Cliff
Mapes and Ben Taylor in the deal that sent Gene Bearden Dick Kryhoski and the
guy who pitched to Eddie Gadel, Bob Cain.
Part way through the same 1952 season Dick was sent back to the Browns
in a deal that sent Don Lenhardt, Marlin Stuarts and Vic Wertz to the Browns
for Bud Black, Jim Delsing, Satchel Paige’s friend Ned Garver and Dave
Madison. Dick bounced around quite a bit playing on 9
teams in a 9 year career.
Fred Hatfield was a product of his time and his environment
and was a Tiger. He never knew his
father. He Dad claimed to be a Hatfield
from the famed Hatfield and McCoy’s. He
married Fred’s Mom when she was 16 and left before Fred was born. Fred got his start in professional baseball
in 1942 when he signed with the Boston Red Sox.
It was the first full year of World War II and Fred enlisted as a
paratrooper for the war. After the war
he went back to baseball and got his nickname of “Scrap Iron” for his
willingness to be hit by a pitch. He
reff’d SEC basketball games and also was in the Red Sox farm system. It was there that former Tiger, now Red
Sox manager Steve O’Neil told him to choke up on his bat
to hit for average instead of the power he had been hitting with. The advice was a failure. Fred hit for neither average nor power. He was also advised by O’Neil to become a
bench jockey. This gave Fred the
reputation of being rather rude to black players in the majors. Fred had a great start for the 1953 season
hitting .320 as a third baseman for the Sox who saw that his value was high and
quickly traded him to Detroit for the
rest of the 1952 season. He came to
Detroit from Boston in the deal that sent George Kell to the Red Sox with Hoot
Eves, Dizzy Trout and Johnny Lipon. The
Tiges got Fred and Walt Dropo, Don Lenhardt, Johnny Pesky (of Pesky’s pole fame
for you Red Sox fans) and Bill Wight. Fred
hit only .248 with Tiges but was more know as a solid fielding third baseman
with a strong arm. But third basemen
were paid to hit in that era. Fred
played into 1956 with the Tigers before he was traded. In five seasons he hit .248 as a Tiger,
although he was above average the entire time in fielding as a Tiger third
sacker. He even led the league in
fielding for third basemen in 1952. Fred
went on to play for the White Sox, Indians and Reds before his major league
playing days were over. It was there
that he learned to be a bit more gracious with the black players as he had teammate
Minnie Minoso and later Lary Doby. After
his playing days Fred went on to managing and did well. He was a Tiger farm manager in the early
1970’s and won titles in 3 out of 4 years but was passed up as Tiger
skipper. Ralph Houk eventually hired him
as the Tiger third base coach in 1977 and 1978.
In 1979 Ralph was done as manager and the Tigers hired Les Moss as
skipper. Les would soon be replaced by
Sparky Anderson. But Fred’s career went
in the other direction. Instead of
continuing as a Tiger coach or AAA manager, Fred went all the way down to A
level Lakeland to be their skipper.
After managing poor minor league teams to poor finishes he was soon
scouting for the Oakland Athletics. He
eventually retired from baseball. His
first wife died and he remarried. His
second wife helped him search and find his father. It turned out Fred’s Dad was not from the
Hatfield and McCoy’s but was actually named Richardson and had died in 1943,
before Fred ever became a major leaguer.
Hal White pitched for the Tigers from 1941 to 1952, with a
couple years off for WWII. His best
season was 1942 when he went 12-12 with a 2.91 ERA and pitched 12 complete
games in 34 games total. We traded him
to the Browns in 1952 (imagine that, a trade with the Browns in 1952) in a deal
that sent away my Mom’s favorite player, Johnny Groth and Virgil Trucks of two
no hit game fame for Owen Friend, Bob Nieman and Jay Porter. He was a career 40-49 with the Tigers.
Eddie Lake ended his MLB career as a Tiger. He came out of Oakland, CA in 1937 when he
signed with the Cardinals. He went to
Grand Island of the Nebraska State League(Class D) in 1937 to start his professional
career. He hit .297 with 9 homers
playing second base. The next year he
was moved up to Decatur of the Three I League (I’s are for Illinois, Indiana
and Iowa, Class B) and was moved to shortstop while hitting .279 with 6
homers. In 1939 he moved up a again to
Houston of the Texas League (Class A1) and hit .261. But while his average dropped hit power
jumped up as he hit 14 homers playing shortstop and his fielding was vastly
improved. By the end of the season the
Cardinals wanted to see what he was about and called him up for a late season
look see. In his debut he was used a s
pinch runner for Johnny Mize in a game against the NL Champion Cincy Reds. He did not advance. A couple of days later he was given a start and
went 1 for 3 with a walk playing short and hitting lead off. His first hit was off of Bill Lee of the
Cubs. Eddie split 1940 between Sacramento of the PCL
and St. Louis. He hit .295 in Sacramento
but only .212 for the Cards. But 1941
brought changes. For Eddie he had his
first full season in the majors playing utility infielder. The other big change was that the Japanese
bombed Pearl Harbor and the US was at war.
Eddie did not go off to war.
Instead he went back to Sacramento to play shortstop. It
was in 1942 that the record first shows that Eddie had a great eye and could
take a pitch. In 1942 at Sacramento
Eddie got 176 hits for his .278 average.
But he also walked 107 times.
This gave him a .385 OBP! But
this was in a time when walks were not given the credit they get today thru
SABRmetrics. So Eddie was sold the Red
Sox at the end of the 1942 season.
During the next three war seasons with the Sox Eddie was only a .247
hitter. But his walks took his OBP to
.382! In 1945 he led the league in OBP
with a .412 while playing shortstop. But
it only garnered him a 31st rank in MVP voting. Before the 1946 season the Red Sox traded
Eddie to the Tigers for aging slugger, Rudy York. In
1946 Eddie jumped right in to the Tiges shortstop spot replacing Skeeter Webb
who hit only .199 witn 30 walks the year before. Eddie hit .254 and his 103 walks led the team
and gave him a .369 OBP which was third on the team. He also hit 8 homers which was 4th
best on the team. In 1947 he again had
over 100 walks and a .343 OBP along with 12 homers which was third best on the
team. But this was not recognized and in
1948 Eddie was replaced at short by Johnny Lippon who hit 30 points higher but
had an OBP that was 40 points lower.
Eddie was also moved over to be back up shortstop to Eddie Mayo. Eddie would never be a starter again. He was dropped to the role of utility
infielder where he would stay through 1950 with the Tigers. Eddie was done in the majors after
1950. He had been a career .229 hitter
for the Tigers yet had a .364 OBP for that same time. To put that in perspective, he would have
been third best on the 2014 Tigers behind only Miggy and V-Mart. Instead Eddie went to the minors and learned
to pitch. He did not pitch a lot but
pitched every season until his minor league career ended in 1956 at the age of
40.
Al Benton was the Tigers third starter in the rotation in
the World Championship season of 1945.
He was 13-8 with the Tiges that season and posted a 2.02 ERA. He pitched in relief three times in that
series with a 1.93 ERA against the Cubs.
He was a career 71 and 64 with Detroit with a few years off for the war.
Wiley Taylor pitched one year with Detroit in 1911 and
posted 0-2 record in three games as a
Tiger pitcher. He debuted against the
St. Louis Browns in September. He left
Detroit for the White Sox in 1912 and fisnshed his career with the Browns in
1913 and 1914.
No comments:
Post a Comment