Mike Hessman may not be done in the majors but he last
played for the Tigers in 2008. Mike was
18 when he signed with the Braves out of high school in 1996. He worked his way up the Braves farm system
until 2003 when he made his major league debut with the Braves and played
outfield, first and third. He is the
typical power hitter in that he K’s quite a bit. In 2004 with the Braves he had 69 at
bats. This included 3 doubles, 2 homers
and 24 K’s. After that performance in
2004 the Braves granted Mike free agency.
He then signed with the Tigers before the 2005 season for a one year contract. He spent 2005 in Toledo and hit .214 with 19
doubles and 28 homers but K’d 154 times.
He resigned in 2006 and it was worse.
He hit .165 with 11 doubles, 24 homers and 129 K’s. But the Tiges did not give up on him. He made his Detroit debut in 2007 and in 17
games had 12 hits for a .235 average. He
had 4 homers and K’d 17 times. He was
also in Toledo for most of the season and was named International League MVP
hitting .254 with 31 homers and 101 RBI’s.
In 2008 he got in only 12 Tiger games and hit .296 with only 9 K’s and 5
homers. That was his best year in the
majors. He was back in the minors in
2009 but hit .217 with a drop in homers too falling to 23. The Tiges released him after 2009. He signed with the Mets and played briefly
with them in 2010. In 2011 he was
playing in Japan. He came back to the
states after he signed a contract with the Astros for 2012. He played in their
AAA Oklahoma City team and hit .231. For
2013 he played with Louisville, the Cincinnati Reds AAA team. He was a .240 hitter with 25 homers and 53
walks but 134 K’s. In 2014 he was back
in the Tiges farm system and playing in Toledo he hit his 400th
minor league homer. He became the 8th
player to ever accomplish this fete.
Brian Hunter led the league in stolen bases as a Tiger. He started his career with the Astros in 1994
and by 1996 was their starting centerfielder.
He hit .276 but had an OBP of only .297 due to a pension to K. He has 92 K’s. Randy Smith traded for Brian as he was an
Astro and there was a catcher involved.
The trade was catcher Brad Ausmus, Jose Lima, Trever Miller, CJ
Nitkowski and Daryle Ward for Doug Brocail, Todd Jones, Orlando Miller and
Brian. He was the Tigers starting center
fielder and in 1997 led the league in stolen bases with 74. He hit .269 but with 121 K’s he only had a
OBP of .334. His hitting a OBP continued
to drop the next two years with the Tigers and he would never hit 50 stolen
bases again in a year. I took my son to
a game at Tiger Stadium and we were in the front row and Brian came over and
was signing autographs. My son, Charlie,
had a little glove and Brian signed it for him then gave it back to
Charlie. Charlie saw the signature and
started crying as his glove was now dirty and he asked us to take it off. Brian was very good about this and
laughed. The Tigers traded Brian to the Mariners
during the 1999 season. Brian would go
on to play for the Rockies, Reds, Phillies and end his career with back with
the Astros in 2003. For his career Brian
hit .264 with 581 K’s for a OBP of .313 with 260 stolen bases in exactly 1000
games.
Jerry Udjur pitched most of his career as a Tiger. He played at the University of Minnesota with
Paul Molitor before signing with the Tiges in 1978. He debuted in relief Mark Fidrych. Mark was trying to come back but was getting
hit hard. Jerry came in in the fifth
with a runner on second and two outs with the Tigers down 6-1 after Mark had
just given up 5 runs in the inning.
Jerry gave up a double to Richie Zisk to score the runner on second
before he struck out the Rangers Pat Putnam to the end the inning. In the sixth Jerry gave up single to John
Grubb who was then thrown own trying to steal second. In the seventh Jerry got into trouble and
gave up three runs on three hits and a walk.
He was then replaced by Aurelio Lopez.
His final line score was 2.1 innings, 5 hits and 3 runs. Jerry’s next outing was a start against the
Brewers three days later in Milwaukee.
Jerry went 6 innings giving up 3 runs on 8 hits and got his first win as
a major leaguer. He got his old
teammate, Paul Molitor to ground out four times. That would be Jerry’s only win until 1982
when he had his best year in the majors.
That season Jerry went 10-10 with a 3.69 ERA as the number four starter
in the rotation. Jerry lost two games to
the Brewers in 1982 but never gave up a hit to Paul Molitor. Jerry was 0-4 in 1983 and at the end of
Spring Training of 1984 he was released.
He signed with the Indians and went 1-2 with Cleveland to end his
career. He finished his career with a
record of 12-16 and a 4.78 ERA.
Lu Blue was the Tigers first baseman for most of the
1920’s. As a child Lu was beaten by his
father in an effort to stop him from sneaking off and playing baseball. The rest of Lu’s siblings also tried to get
Lu to realize the error of his ways. Finally
the family sent him off to a military boarding school to impart some discipline
on the young Luzerne Atwell Blue.
Unfortunately for the parents the school was run a Sid Lodge who had
played organized ball when he was younger and Lu became part of the team. Lodge got him a job as a switch hitting minor
league first baseman. In 1917 while in
the minors it was reported that in one game Lu hit a grand slam in the 9th
to tie a game and then in the 12th hit another grand slam from the
other side of the plate to win the game.
Lu’s contract was sold to the Tigers in 1917 but WW I broke out and Lu
enlisted. When he got out of the army he
went back to baseball. He started at
first base for the Tigers in 1921 and in his first season hit .308 fitting into
the line up that had a stellar outfield of Bobby Veach, Harry Heilmann and Ty
Cobb. The switch hitting Blue would stay
in the line up as the first baseman for the Tigers through 1927. When he first received a $10,000 contact Lu
sent a letter to his family reminding them of their efforts to correct him of
the error of his ways. In seven seasons
as a Tiger Lu hit .295 but drew an additional 589 walks to give him a .403
OBP. In 1927 the Tigers got a new
manager in George Moriarty who had replaced Ty Cobb as the Tigers skipper. Moriarty wanted to shake things up on the
team and moved Lu from the leadoff spot to 7th in the line up. Things did not get any better as the season
progressed and at the end of the season Lu announced he would never play again
for George or the Tigers. He was
promptly traded to the St. Louis Browns with Heinie Manush for Harry Rice, Elam
Vangilder and Chick Galloway. Lu played
three seasons with the Browns before heading to the Chicago White Sox for two
seasons and then one game for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1933 while trying to get
the job as a minor league manager for the Dodgers. When Lu died he was buried in Arlington
National Cemetery as a veteran of WW I and since he was born and raised in
Washington DC.
Rabbit Robinson played one year as Tiger. He was born William Clyde Robinson and started
his baseball career in 1900 at the age of 18 in the minors with Columbus and
moved up to the Kansas City Blues for 1901 and 1902. In 1903 he made it to the majors with the
Washington Senators. While he had more
plate appearances than three of the Senators starters Rabbit was not a starter
as he played multiple positions. He hit
.212 with the Senators which was also better than one starting outfielder and
barely behind a couple other starters who only hit .214 and .215. In 1904 Rabbit was with the Tigers and again
Rabbit was not a starter but had more plate appearances than two of the Tiger
starters and his .241 average was better than four of the Tiges starters. But Rabbit was not a regular starter in any
one position. He played 30 games at
short, 26 at third, 20 in the outfield and 19 at catcher. He went back to the minors in 1905 and played
mainly with Milwaukee before making his final appearance in the majors in 1910
with the Cincinnati Reds. He played two
games for the Reds and then was back in the minors. His last team was the Waterbury Contenders in
1914 where he hit .227. In the spring of
1915 Rabbit died at the age of 33.
Sam Thompson had a Hall of Fame career that started and
ended in Detroit. Sam was a roofer and a
carpenter when, the story goes, that he was coaxed off a roof to come and play
for the Detroit Wolverines at the price he was getting as a roofer of $2.50 a
day. He joined the Wolverines in 1885
and in 63 games hit .303 as a starting right fielder. He batted left and had a phenomenal season in
1887 leading the Wolverines to the National League championship and led the
league with a .372 average and led the league in the following categories, 203
hits, 23 triples, 166 RBI’s, .565 slugging percentage and 308 total bases. All this was in 127 games. He was second in singles and third in OBP at
.416. He only K’d 19 times that
season. He was fifth in the league in
fielding percentage and assists. In the
World Series that year against the St. Louis Browns of the American
Association, he led all the starters on both teams with a .362 average and his
two homers matched the homers for the entire Browns team. (Dan Brouthers had a .667 average but that
was 2 hits in 3 at bats in 15 games.) He was still with the Wolverines when
they dropped from the National League at the end of the 1888 season. The Wolverines sold him to the Philadelphia
Quakers for $5,000 after the season. He
stayed in Philadelphia when they became the Phillies and in 1894 he played 50
games in the outfield without an error.
This is when players used palm sized gloves. Later in the season he sat out a month when
his finger hurt and it was diagnosed as “dead bone”. Rather than have the finger cut off, Sam had
a couple of bones removed from the finger and got back in the line up. In 1896 he made 7 errors all season at a time
when the average game would have 5 or 6 errors.
He would play in Philly through 1898.
When he retired he had a .331 batting average and a .394 OBP. He was second all time with 126 homers and
had 232 stolen bases. When he retired he
went back to Detroit and was friends with the Detroit Tiger owner Frank
Navin. In 1906 the Detroit Tigers had
a rash of injuries late in the season.
They called 46 year old Sam out of retirement and he played in 8 games
as a Tiger and hit .226 with a triple and 3 RBI’s at the age of 46. He became the only player to play for the
Wolverines and Tigers. Sam’s career
RBI’s to games ratio of almost 1 is still a record. Sam was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1974
by the Veteran’s Committee, 52 years after his death.
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