March 2 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Dave Tobik was the number one draft pick for the Tigers in the 1975 MLB draft.  (Number two overall.  The famed Barry Bonell was the number one pick.  I don’t know why the MLB draft doesn’t draw the excitement of the NFL draft.) He came up to the Tigers in 1978 and went 0-0 with a 3.75 ERA.  Over the next four years with the Tigers he was used mainly in relief.  In 1982 he was the Tigers closer until Senor Smoke, Aurelio Lopez, came back and took over the roll in 1983.  Tobik finished his career with the Rangers and Mariners.  His career stats with Detroit were  10-16 with a 3.65 ERA and 13 saves. 

Jim Nettles is brother of Graig Nettles.  Jim played for the Tigers in 1974.  He hit .227 as an outfielder and tied his career high of 6 home runs that year.  The Tigers released him on my birthday in 1975.  He signed and released by Cleveland and then Pittsburgh and then KC and the Yankees and the A’s having only actually played 12 more games in his career with KC and the A’s.    

Chico Fernandez was the Tigers shortstop in the early 60’s.  He was born in Cuba in 1932.  He signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1951 and was going to be the replacement for Pee Wee Reese who was 32 at the time Chico signed as an 18 year old.  After only 2 years he was up at AAA Montreal where in three seasons he kept improving each year hitting .247, .282 and .301 while his fielding also continued to improve at .952, 964, and .973.  Clearly he was the next Dodger shortstop.  And in 1956 he got his chance as a mid season call up.  He got in 34 games and hit .227 to Pee Wee’s .257.  Chico was also 8 years younger.    But things were changing in Brooklyn.  The last season of the Brooklyn Dodgers was 1957.  After that they moved to Los Angeles.   Chico did not make it to LA.  He was traded to the Phillies in the spring of 1957.  He was the first black player for the Phils in their history.  There is some irony that he left the first team to integrate to join the last NL team to integrate and be their first player across the color barrier.  I believe he was injured in June of 1959 and was replaced at short by Joe Koppe for the PHils.  Koppe ended the season hitting .261 while Chico had been a .242 hitter for the Phils.  Thus Chico was expendable and traded to the Tigers with Ray Semproch for minor leaguer Alex Cosmidis, Ted Lepcio and Ken Walters.  In his first two years in Detroit he hit 4 homers and then 3.  This fit with the previous 4 seasons when he hit a total of 12.  But in 1963 Chico’s bat exploded and he hit 20 homers.  He would only hit 2 more the rest of his time in the majors.  He was the Tigers starting shortstop for three seasons until a guy by the name of McAuliffe came around and took over that spot.  He was a .243 hitter in Detroit with an average glove.  He was one of those players who is not going to hurt you but will not win you a championship.   Unfortunately for him he finished his career with the 1963 Mets.  No championship  in sight there.  However, the interesting thing was how he got to the Mets.  He was traded by the Tigers to Milwaukee Braves on May 8 for Lou Johnson and cash.  But he never got to Milwaukee.  That same day the Braves traded him to the Mets.  Kinda makes you feel wanted.

Mel Ott was never a Tiger but he covered the Tigers on radio and TV from 1956 thru 1958 with Van Patrick.  In 1958 he was killed in a car crash.  The Tigers then found a guy by the name of George Kell to work with Van Patrick.  George then helped bring a guy by the name of Ernie Harwell to Detroit. 

Another notable with a birthday today is Moe Berg.  Moe played with the Tigers from 1921 to 1923.  That would be the Princeton Tigers.  He played shortstop for the Princeton Tigers and talked to his second baseman in Latin.  He knew ten languages and as Dave Harris of the Senators said “yeah, and he can’t hit in any of them.”   Moe made a career out of being a back up back stop bouncing around the American League.  He was a career .243 hitter with a total of 6 homers in 15 years.  But what Moe is famous for is being a spy (Kind of the ironic to be famous for being clandestine.) for the US prior to and during WWII.  While on tours of Japan during 1932 and 1934 he took pictures of Tokyo that may have been used to help plan the Doolittle Raids during the war.  During WWII Berg worked for the OSS (kind of a precursor to the CIA) and later worked for the CIA.