Marcus Thames was a member of the 2006 Tigers. He started his major league career in 2002
with the New York Yankees after playing in college and several years in the
minors. He only played in 7 games with
the Yanks but he showed what he was. He
had 3 hits. 1 homer, 1 double and a
single and drove in 2 runs. But he K’d 4
times and hit only .231. After 30 games
in Texas in 2003 he joined the Tigers in 2004.
He was a free agent signing. He
played mainly left field and DH over 6 years as a Tiger. He hit .245 with 99 homers and a .501
slugging percentage. His issue was he
K’d 411 times and hit .260 vs lefties while only hitting .236 against
righties. The problem with this is there
are a lot more rightie pitchers in the league vs. lefties. In that magical season of 2006 Marcus was the
starting DH for the Tigers and hit .256 with a third best on the Tiges, 26
homers and 60 RBI’s. His K’s, 92, looked
good compared to Curtis Granderson’s 174, Brandon Inge’s 128, Craig Monroe’s
126 and Chris Shelton’s 107. So no one noticed
his weakness. The Tiges made the
playoffs in 2006 as a Wild Card team. It
was their first appearance since 1987.
The Tiges backed into the playoffs in 2006 and celebrated in the
visitors’ clubhouse in Kansas City. In
my basement is Marcus’s jersey from that celebration. But Marcus weakness finally caught up to him
and after the 2009 season he was granted free agency by the Tigers. He signed with his old team, the Yankees and
had about his best year in majors as he hit a career high .288 with 12 homers
in 82 games. He hit .300 against lefties
and .268 versus righties. But it wasn’t
enough. He was a free agent again at the
end of the season and signed with the Dodgers for 2011. He only got into 36 games and hit .197. The Dodgers let him go at the end of the year
and no one in MLB would take a chance on a 35 year old who struggled against
righties. Marcus career was over as a
.246 career hitter with some good power and a penchant to K.
Gabe Alvarez
Roberto Duran
Joe Hall
Ed Mierkowicz
Joe Orrell
Bob Swift was a back stop for ten years with the
Tigers. He was originally a Tiger farm
hand but through a couple of unknown transactions was moved to the Yankees farm
and then the St. Louis Browns farm. In
1940 Bob made his debut as the Browns starting catcher on opening day. The Browns catcher of 1938, Billy Sullivan,
was now a Tiger back up. The Browns 1939
catcher, Joe Glenn, was with the Red Sox less than two weeks into the season so
the starting job was all Bob’s. Bob was
not bad for a rookie. He hit .244 but
had no power as he did not hit any homers in 130 games. As for behind the plate, the league average
in fielding percentage for catchers was .982 and Bob was right in there at .980
as a rookie. While those are not great
numbers it clearly showed that Bob was a major leaguer as a rookie. This was
all done while he earned $3,000 for the year.
But the Browns did not show faith in their young catcher. For 1941 they brought in the aging Rick
Ferrell at 35 to be the back stop. Rick
woud hit .252 to Bob’s .259. The
following season the Browns traded Bob to the Philadelphia Athletics. Bob did not respond well to this arrangement. In two seasons Bob hit .209. The Athletics traded Bob with Con Heffner to
the Tigers after the 1943 season for Rip Radcliff. Bob was behind Paul Richards when he first
arrived in Detroit but in the 1945 pennant race and World Series title for the
Tigers, Bob was the starting back stop.
He still split time with Richards in the Series but hit .250 as the
Tigers beat the Cubs in 7 games. Bob was
the starter until 1949 when the Tigers brought in Aaron Robinson. Aaron came from the Yankees by way of the
White Sox. The Yankees had a young kid
who was looking like he might amount to something by the name of Yogi Berra so
Aaron went to the Sox who dealt him to the Tiges. Aaron hit about 30 points higher than
Bob. So Bob started the back up part of
his career as a Tiger. Bob was a weak
hitting catcher but a great defensive catcher.
He was always above average in fielding and runners caught
stealing. But starting in 1949, the best
he hit was .238 and more often than not, he was below .200. It was as a back up catcher that Bob got his
moment in baseball lore. He was the
catcher when his former team, the St. Louis Browns, brought in the midget,
Eddie Gaedel to have one at bat. The
story is that a seven foot cake was wheeled out onto the field between games of
a double header between the Tigers and Browns in St. Louis. Eddie popped out to cheers from the
fans. Then the 3’ 7” Eddie went to the
plate with a toy bat and the number 1/8 on his jersey. Browns owner, Bill Veeck (as in wreck) told
Eddie that he had a sniper on the roof top and if Eddie tried to swing he would
be shot. The Tiger pitcher, Bob Cain had
no idea what to do. Bob Swift wanted to
lay down behind the plate to give Swift a better target. But the ump said no. So Bob Swift gave Bob Cain the only advice he
could, “pitch him low”. Eddie walked on
four pitches and was replaced by a pinch runner. Eddie would never play in the majors
again. Bob was still a Tiger back stop
in 1953. Bob was a highly regarded
baseball mind. His pitcher and a future
great manager Fred Hutchinson said he never shook of Bob. Bob would have one more run as a Tiger in 1965
and 1966. He was the skipper at the
start of the season in 1965 when starting skipper Chuck Dressen of Brooklyn
Dodger fame had a heart attack in spring training. Bob was 24-18 before Chuck came back. Bob was again a skipper in 1966. It was the ill fated year for Tiger
managers. Chuck had another heart attack
and Bob took over again. But Bob was
then diagnosed with lung cancer. Bob was
replaced by Frank Skaff. Chuck died in
August while Frank was skipper. Bob died
in October shortly after the season ended.
Frank was replaced for 1967 by Mayo Smith who would lead the Tigers to
the 1968 World Series title. Frank out
lived Chuck, Bob and Mayo finally dyeing 1988.
Bob was a career 56-43 as Tiger skipper and a .231 hitter as a catcher
in a 14 major league career.
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