April 6 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Ken Williams played during two seasons with the Tigers in 1989 and 1990.  Like many in the front office and manager roles in baseball, he is the epitome of “those who can’t do, teach”.  He was a career .218 hitter and even worse with the Tigers.  With Detroit he hit .188!  Bob Ueker and Sparky Anderson both hit better than that. The Tigers acquired Ken from the White Sox for Eric King.  Ken left the Tigers in June of 1990 when he was picked up off the waiver line by the Blue Jays.  In 1992 Ken went back to Chicago as a scout for the White Sox.  He moved up the Sox ladder quickly.  In 2000 Ken was named GM for the White Sox.  He did something Bill Veeck could not do.  He brought a World Series title to the Southsiders.

Phil Regan started his major league career as a Tiger in 1960.  He went 0-4.  He was a good number three or number four starter.  1963 was his best year with Detroit when he went 15-9 for the Tigers.  In six years with the Tigers he went a combined 42-44 with a 4.50 ERA.  At the end of the 1965 season Phil was traded to the Dodgers for Dick Tracewski.  That next season he was moved to the closer role for the Dodgers and ended up leading the league in saves as the Dodgers won the NL flag.  He finished 7^th in voting for the MVP that season.  He continued as the closer for the Dodgers before until 1968 when he was traded to the Cubs.  Phil finished his career in 1972 with the White Sox.

Mickey Cochrane was so loved for guiding Detroit to their first World Series championship in 1935 that Detroit named one of the streets around Tiger Stadium after him. Mickey came from New England where he attended Boston University as a football and baseball star.  He went on to become the star catcher for Connie Mack’s A’s in the 1920’s where he won the MVP in 1928.  He was known for his terrible temper after a loss and was referred to as Black Mike by his teammates.  After the 1933 season he was sent to Detroit to Johnny Pasek and the incredible sum of $100,000.  In Detroit he was the catcher and manager.  The players loved him as he supported them as he was one himself.  His first year with the Tigers he took them to the World Series where they lost one of the all time great World Series to the Cardinals Gas House Gang in seven games.  The next year the Tigers returned to the World Series but this time they won, beating the Cubs in six games. Mickey’s competitive drive led the Tigers all the way.  One great story from Tiger pitcher Schoolboy Rowe was how Mickey gave him the knockdown signal.  Rowe shook him off twice.  Mickey came out to the mound and asked “Whatsa matter?’  Rowe replied “I can’t hit this guy.  He’s a friend of mine.”  Mickey replied, “Schoolie My boy, I don’t care if he’s our twin brother.  If he doesn’t go down on the next pitch and bounce when he hits the ground you’re fined $250.”  The following year instead of taking the Tigers back to the World Series, he was in the hospital with a nervous breakdown due to the strains of his inability to accept losses.  The next year would also see Mickey in the hospital.  This time he lost sight of a pitch from the Yankees pitcher Bump Hadley that beaned him.  The ball hit him so hard on the head that it bounced half way back to the mound.  Eldon Auker said he heard it hit him in the dugout and saw him collapse on the spot.  Mickey was in the hospital for seven days.  He returned to the Tigers as the manager in 1937 but did not have the same drive as before.  In 1938 he was done even behind the bench.  During the war he managed the Great Lakes Navel Training Center team in Chicago.  They often beat the major league teams they would face in exhibition games.  In February 1945, Mickey’s only son was killed in the war in action in Europe.  As it would be for any parent, the loss of his son was devastating to Mickey.  He went to Montana and ran a dude ranch before coming back to baseball for a short stint as coach and GM for the Philadelphia Athletics.  One of my favorite pieces of bull that I like to tell people how rotten Al Stump was in his “biography” of Ty Cobb was the story of how the only player to show up for Ty’s funeral was Mickey because Ty had bought Mickey a suit for him as he was down on his luck.  The only problem, as pointed out by Mickey’s surviving daughter, was that Mickey was living in Grosse Pointe at the time.  Hmmm.  Not really down on your luck if you ask me.

April 24 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Omar Vizquel was a decent hitting slick fielding shortstop before he became a coach for the Tigers.  He came out of Venezuela and started his major league career in 1989 with the Seattle Mariners.  He was in Seattle for 5 years before going to Cleveland where people took notice of him.  He played 11 seasons in Cleveland and won 8 Gold Gloves in a row after winning one in Seattle.  He was a .283 hitter in Cleveland and was an All Star three seasons.  He then went to the Giants for 4 years and won another couple of Gold Gloves at the age of 38 and 39.  He played a couple more seasons in Texas, Chicago and finally Toronto until he hung up his glove and bat after 2012 at the age of 45!  At that time he was the oldest shortstop ever to play the position.  He then joined the Angels as a roving instructor for 2013.  But in 2014 the Tigers started the year under a new manager, Brad Ausmus, who hired Omar as the infield coach and first base coach.  I traveled to Cleveland in 2014 for a date when the Tigers were playing the Indians and the Tribe inducted Omar into their Hall of Fame.  In 2015 Omar is still with the Tiges and I suspect part of the reason he was hired was to groom current Tiger shortstop Jose Iglesias.  Right now the combination of the two looks fantastic.  Watching Jose play short is absolutely amazing.  At the plate Jose is hitting a career high and Tiger team high .396.  It is not likely that that will last as it is early in the season.  But if Omar can help Jose be a .300 hitting Gold Glove shortstop and help out Nick Castellanos at third we may have another AL flag in the Tigers future.

Todd Jones spent half his time in the majors as a Tiger.  He started his career as a Houston Astros reliever in 1993.  In 1995 he became the main closer for the Astros and was again the main closer in 1996.  Both years he led the team in saves and both years he had less than half the total saves for the team.  After the 1996 season Tiger GM Randy Smith made a trade with the Astros and a catcher was involved.  The deal was Brad Ausmus, Jose Lima, Trever Miller, CJ Nitkowski and Daryle Ward for Doug Brocail, Brian Hunter, Orlando Miller and Todd Jones.  Todd became the closer that the Tiges did not have.  In 1996 the Tigers had only 22 saves, 8 were by Gregg Olson, 6 by Mike Myers, and 8 more were divided between 4 other pitchers.  Todd jumped in and saved 31 games for the Tiges in 1997.   He remained the Tigers closer into 2001.  In 1999 Todd and a couple of his pitching buddies spent the night sleeping in Tiger Stadium before the final game.  In 2000 Todd led the league in saves with 42 and posted a 3.52 ERA while representing the Tigers in the All Star game.  In 2001 Todd was having problems.  He has 11 saves but also had 6 blown saves.  As many as he had ever had in his career and his ERA was a full run higher than the year before.  So in July the Tigers sent him to Minnesota for Mark Redman.  Todd bounced around over the next few years moving Colorado, Boston, Cincinnati and Philadelphia and posted a total of 5 saves over 4 and half years.  He went to Florida in 2005 and found his form again making 40 saves for the Marlins.   The Tigers signed him as a free agent in 2006 and he became our closer again.  He had 37 saves in 2006 including the only Tiger save of the World Series that year.  He remained the Tiger closer in 2007 with 38 more saves until in 2008 when he split time with Fernando Rodney.  Todd had 18 saves while Fernando had 13.  After the 2008 season Todd retired at the age of 40.

Bill Krueger pitched 13 years in the majors, 1 and a half with the Tigers.  He started his career as a Oakland A’s starter in 1983.  He was 7-6 his rookie year and had a 3.61 ERA.  His sophomore year he had more wins, 10, but also more losses, 10, and a ERA that was a full run higher at 4.75.  When his third year was more like the second, Bill came out of the rotation.  He was traded to the Dodgers in 1987 and bounced around with Milwaukee, Seattle, Minnesota and Montreal through 2002.  His best season was 1991 with Seattle when he showed his rookie form and was 11-8 with a 3.60 ERA.  After the 1992 season Bill signed as a free agent with the Tigers.  For Detroit in 1993 he was 6-4 with a 3.40 ERA as a spot starter and reliever.  In 1994 he was back with Detroit and mainly as a reliever.  But after giving up 21 earned runs in 16 innings for a 9.61 ERA, and an 0-2 record, Bill was released.   Bill went on to play briefly with the Padres in 1994 and 1995 before ending his career with Seattle in 1995.  His final career record was 68-66 with 4 saves.  For Detroit he was 6-6 with no saves and a 4.60 ERA.  Today Bill works as a FSN Northwest analyst for the Seattle Mariners.

Howard Ehmke played most of his career with the Tigers, won 20 games with the Red Sox but is best known as a Philadelphia Athletic.  Howard started his major league career with the Buffalo Blues of the Federal League.  The Federal League was a short lived major league in 1914 and 1915.  It was the last serious threat to the “reserve clause” until Curt Flood.  Because of the fact that it did challenge the reserve clause the American and National Leagues made sure to kill it as it would have destroyed the way the owners knew how to run their clubs.  So after his one year in the majors, the Federal League died and Howard was a player without a team.  He signed with the Tigers for 1916 and resigned himself to the reserve clause.   Howard would pitch the next six seasons with the Tigers.  His best season was 1919 when he was 17-10 with the Tigers with a 3.18 ERA.  He would also win 17 games in 1922 when he was 17-17 with a 4.22 ERA.  After the 1922 season the Tigers traded Howard to the Boston Red Sox with Danny Clark, Babe Herman and Carl Holling and $25,000 for Rip Collins and Del Pratt.  Howard responded by having his best year in the majors going 20-17 with a 3.78 ERA while leading the league in complete games with 20.  He won 31 more games with the Red Sox over the next two and half years before he was sent to Philly and Connie Mack’s Athletics.  He was ageing at 32 years old and no longer the top notch starter he had been.  By 1929 at the age of 35 he was no longer in the starting rotation.  It was that year that Howard will be forever remembered by baseball fans and loathed by Cub fans.  The 1929 World Series featured the Connie Mack’s Athletics against the Cubbies.  Mack felt that Howard’s side arm delivery and control pitching would throw off the Cubs hitters.  He gave Howard the last week of the season off to go scout the Cubs after the Cubs had clinched the pennant.  Howard then started game 1 of the 1929 World Series and promptly beat the Cubs in Wrigley Field 3-1 in 2 hours and 3 minutes.  He gave up 8 hits and the only run was an unearned run in the 9^th with one out.  That win set the tone for the series and the Cubs lost it in 5 games.  Howard never won another major league game and was out of the majors after 1930.  He started his own company that sold tarps to major league teams to cover the infield during rain delays.  The company is still in business, Ehmke Manufacturing Company based in Philly and is a defense contractor today.

April 23 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Elam Vangilder was a fastball pitcher who did not always have control even when he was with the Tigers.  Elam started his career in the majors with the St. Louis Browns in 1919.  He was a late season addition to the 6^th place Browns who got in his first game against the 7^th place Washington Senators coming out of the bull pen.  He pitched the last two innings of the game and allowed 1 run.  But the Senators were already up 11-3 when he came in.  Elam got a no decision.  But his performance was impressive enough that a week later he got his first major league start against the first place Chicago White (Black) Sox in Chicago.  In only his second game in the majors he held Chicago to one run on 8 hits in a complete game victory 3-1.  He struck out 6 and only walked 1.  At the plate Elam was 2 for 3 and scored a run for himself.   Elam stayed with the Browns for the next 8 years.  He had only one year that he K’d more batters than he walked.  That was the great Browns season of 1922.  That year Elam was the number two starter and posted a record of 19-13 while K’ing 63 and only walking 48.  Elam also hit .344 that season for the Browns with a .559 slugging percentage.  Only George Sisler, who hit .420 that season for the Browns had a higher batting average than Elam (batters with 100 or more plate appearances.).  The next season Elam led the league in walks with 120 while only recording 73 K’s.  In the 9 total seasons Elam played with the Browns he was 88-91 with a 4.30 ERA.  At the end of the 1927 season Elam was traded with outfielder Harry Rice and shortstop Chick Galloway to the Tigers for Heinie Manush and Lu Blue.  Elam was considered the closer for the Tigers in 1928 by our standards.  He started 11 games and pitched 7 of those as complete games.  But he also came in and finished 21 other games.  He had a record of 11-10 with a 3.91 ERA and led the team in 5 saves (saves were not a stat at that time.) which was fifth best in the league tied him with three other players.  Elam still had 43 K’s to 68 BB’s.  Elam started 1929 with the Tigers but was not as effective.  He pitched against his old team, the Browns on April 20 in relief and gave up 5 runs in the one inning he pitched, the 8^th to take the loss 9-4.  It was his only decision of the season.  About a month later he faced the White Sox, a very different team from the one he faced in 1919 when he did so well.  This time he gave up the tying run in the bottom of the ninth.  He was removed after the 11^th and the Tigers would lose in the 14^th.  Elam never pitched in the majors again.  He finished the season with the Montreal Royals in the minors with a 12-13 record.  Elam pitched in the minors for another 5 years.  His final record in the majors was 99-102 with a 11-11 record for the Tigers.

Harry Coveleski was a Giant killer before he was a Tiger ace.  Harry is the older brother of Stan Coveleski who is in the Hall of Fame.   Stan came around after Harry and made his fame by winning 172 games for the Cleveland Indians over 9 years.  He won three games for the Tribe in their 1920 World Series title and helped lead the Washington Senators to the 1925 World Series.  But Harry was in the majors 5 years before his little brother.  He came up with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1907 and in 1908 beat the New York Giants 3 times in 5 days and kept them from winning the flag.  That was the year of Merkle’s boner and the last year the Cubs won a World Series.  So Cubs fans should thank Harry.   Despite Harrys’ fast ball he never caught on in the majors and found himself in the minors with the Chattanooga Lookouts in 1914 when the Tigers purchased his contract before the season.   Harry was an immediate success for the Tigers as he became the ace of what was basically a three man rotation with a team of pitchers making the occasional 4^th start.  Harry would be second in the league in starts over the next three years.  That first year for the Tigers the lefty Harry was 22-12 and he followed that with a 22-13 and a 21-11 record for 1915 and 1916.  In all those years Harry never faced off against his brother.  Both brothers had requested that they never face off against each other directly and their managers obliged.  Occasionally they would come in as a reliever in a game the other was pitching but they never started against each other.  Harry also had a quirk in that for some unknown reason he had an aversion to the song “Silver Threads Among the Gold”.  Other teams would start to hum or sing the song and this could throw him off his game.  The Yankees were merciless on him with this song and drove him out of games that way.  After three years of being on top Harry suddenly had arm problems in 1917 and his record dropped to 4-6 in 1917 and 0-1 in 1918 and was back in the minors in 1919 and out of baseball a pitcher by 1920 when his brother was winning the World Series.   Harry managed in the minors in 1922 but when that did not last he went on to become a police officer rather than go into the coal mines of his home in Pennsylvania.  He later worked a couple years as a detective at the Ford River Rouge plant.  Later he opened a café but was fined when he was found to be selling alcohol against the prohibition laws of the time.  After the repeal of prohibition he opened a tavern call “The Giant Killer’.

Below is a 1916 M-101-4 card of Harry from my collection.

April 22 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

David Purcey played his latest games in the majors with the Tigers.  He was drafted out of high school but chose to go to school at my freshman year college, the University of Oklahoma.  The lefty finally signed with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2004.  After a few years in the minors he made his major league debut in April of 2008, four days before his birthday, against none other than the Tigers.  He got the start in a game against Kenny Rogers.  He went 4.1 innings and allowed only 2 hits, a double to Pudge Rodriguez who would eventually score, and another double to Miguel Cabrera.  The Pudge run would be the only run he gave up.  But the Tiges scored three after he was pulled and David got a “no decision”.   David spent his first two years in the majors a spot starter before moving to the bull pen in 2010.  He was 4-9 as a Jays starter but with an ERA above 5.50.  After his move to the bull pen he dropped his ERA to 3.71 in 33 games in 2010.  But in 2011 he posted an 11.57 ERA in five games and the Jays felt he was expendable.  On the third aniversay of his major league debut the Jays traded him to the Oakland Athletics.  He lasted about a month and a half with the Athletics in 2011 with a much improved 2.13 ERA when Oakland traded him to the Tiges for Scott Sizemore.   David was used out of the bull pen for the Tiges and on June 13^th he came in to pitch the 10^th of a 1-1 game against the Tampa Bay Rays.  He gave up a single and an walk but no runs.  The Tiges came to bat and Ramon Santiago hit a triple off of former Tiger Kyle Farnsworth to make the score 2-1 and give David the win.  It would be his only win as a Tiger.  In the rest of 2011 he would lose 2 games and his final record as a Tiger was 1-2 with a 7.23 ERA in 19 games.    After the season the Tigers released him.  He went to the Phillies and spent his last time in the majors in 2013 with the White Sox in the bullpen.  He was 1-1 with a 2.13 ERA.  He was back in the minors in 2014 and was out of baseball for 2015. 

Terry Francona was the son of a Tiger.  His father was Tito Francona who played for the Tigers in 1958.  Terry was the Tigers third base coach in 1996 under Buddy Bell.  I remember him being a very cautious coach at third.  He left Detroit and went to Philadelphia to be their manager.  He was there for four seasons and was a losing manager every year.  He went back to coaching for the Texas Rangers and Oakland Athletics before he became the Red Sox manager who broke the curse of the Bambino.  He led the Sox to their first World Series Championship since 1918 as a first year manager for the Sox in 2004.  He is the son of Tito Francona who spent 1 of his 15 years in the majors with the Tigers in 1958.  After a stellar career at the University of Arizona, the son, Terry started in the majors in 1981 with Montreal as a back up outfielder and first baseman.  He was in Montreal for 5 years before heading to the White Sox.  He also played for Cincinnati, Cleveland and Milwaukee before his playing days ended in 1990.  After that he went into coaching and made it to the Tigers in 1996, his debut as a major league coach.  This year he is in his third year as manager for the Cleveland Indians.  He has been a winning manager since leaving the Phillies. 

April 21 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Aquilino Lopez was a relief pitcher for the Tigers in 2007 and 2008 after playing bits of four seasons with the Blue Jays, Rockies and Phils.  He was a reliever who pitched well in Toledo but did not fair so well in Detroit.  He had a 5.19 ERA in 2007 with the Tigers.  In his first 7 appearances for the Mud Hens that year he did not allow a run.  Called up to the Tiges April 20, he made his first appearance the same day pitched 2 innings of scoreless ball.  In his next outing he gave up 2 runs in one inning.  He had one more outing a couple days later where he pitched 3.1 innings and walked three, gave up three hits and two runs.  The next day he was back in Toledo.  In 2008 he faired better and stayed around to appear in 48 games with the Tigers and had an ERA of 3.55.  He had a 4-1 record but did not record a save.  After 2008 he was done with baseball.

Les Lancaster was a late addition in April to the 1992 Tigers after being released by the Cubs in late March.  He had been a decent pitcher for the Cubs winning nine games each of his last two seasons.  But Les did not do so well with the Tiges.  He went 3-4 and his ERA jumped up to 6.33.  His ERA for five years with the Cubs had been 3.82.  The Tigers granted him free agency at the end of the 1992 season.  He signed with the Cardinals for 1993 and did better than in Detroit.  Les went on to be a pitcher manager in various independent minor leagues and last year was still managing for Sioux City in the American Association.

Bill Faul pitched for Detroit for one game in 1962.  Against the Twins he gave up 6 runs on four hits with 3 walks in 1.2 innings.  That gave him an ERA of 32.40.  One of the hits a homer to Harmon Killibrew.  Bill did not pitch for Detroit again that season.  In 1963 Bill faired better.  He went 5-6 with a 4.64 ERA.  He also pitched two victories that were complete game three hitters.  One against the Senators and one against the Red Sox.    In 1964 Bill made one appearance again and had an ERA of 10.80.  He never pitched for Detroit again.  In 1965 he was sold to the Cubs and was 7-10 in two seasons with the Cubs.  He was in the minors for the Reds, Indians and Royals organizations before make one more trip to the majors with the Giants in 1970. 

Hardy Richardson was one of the stars of the Detroit Wolverines from 1886 thru 1888.  He was purchased from the Buffalo Bisons before the 1886 season and it was a good move for the Detroiters.  He led the league in hits and homers in 1886 with 189 and 11.  Yes, 11 homers led the league.  He was also fifth in the league in batting that year with a .351 average.   1887, the year the Wolverines won the NL pennant and the World Series against the St. Louis Browns, found him in the outfield with two Hall of Famers in Sam Thompson and Ned Hanlon.  Hardy hit 94 RBI’s that season and was only 10 RBI’s from second place.  However, he was not close to his outfield mate Sam Thompson who drove in 166!  After the 1888 season Hardy was sold to the Boston Beaneaters.  In 1889 he jumped to the Boston Beaneaters of the National League.   But that did not last long.  He jumped to the Boston Reds of the Players league in 1890.  The Players League was an ill fated attempt by the players to create a league that was for the fun of the game.  It was run by players for players.  It lasted one year.  The owners of the NL and American Association killed it by signing the stars to large sums of money.  After the league folded, the stars pay was reduced and reserve clause which held players as property was kept on the books.  It would stay on the books until the 1970’s and free agency came about due to Curt Flood and Marvin Miller.  When the league folded the Boston Reds stuck around and joined the American Association.  George was on that Boston Reds team of 1891.  They would later become the Boston Red Sox.  Hardy finished his career in the majors with the Senators and the Giants. 

Below is a Gold Coin Chewing Tobacco card of Richardson from 1887 from my collection.

April 20 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Tim Tolman is someone who I have to say I don’t understand how he was a major leaguer.  I have tried to always be respectful of anyone who makes the majors because as you may know, I never made the majors.  However, I can not understand a guy who never hit .200 in a season was able to stay in the bigs.  Yet he played in the bigs in seven different seasons as a first base outfielder.  He didn’t show a lot of power, five homers in 196 career at bats.  His career slugging was .296.  He didn’t have a lot of speed as he stole only 1 base and was caught stealing 3 times.  His one steal was with Detroit in 1986.  And his record in the minors does not shed a lot of light on his career either.  In 12 seasons in the minors he hit a career .296 and in 1226 games he hit only 91 homers.  He played on the Tigers in 1986 and 1987.  As I said, I respect anyone who plays pro baseball or any other pro sport.  But for the life of me, I can not figure out how Tim played that long in the majors.  It must be that he knows what to do but just can’t do it.  Maybe he is like a Billy Beane from Moneyball.  He did go in to coaching after his playing career and as late as 2010 was coaching in the majors with the Cleveland Indians.  Those who can’t do, teach.

Milt Wilcox started his major league career with the Reds in1970. He stayed there for two seasons before being traded to the Indians.  The Tribe sent Uncle Miltie to the Cubs in 1975.  In those six years Milt was 22 – 30 and 6 saves.  In 1976 the Tigers purchased Milt from the Cubs.  Starting in 1978 Milt became the pitcher I think of him as.  He won 13 games in 1978 and would win 11 to 13 games every year until 1984 and was a solid number 2 starter or a great number 3 starter.  In 1983 Milt took a perfect game into the ninth inning.  With two outs in the ninth pinch hitter Jerry Hairston hit s signed to center field and ruined his perfect game.  In 1984 Milt had his career year.  He started the season 6-0 and went 17-8 with a 4.00 ERA for the Champions for the season.   He won his game in the ALCS and pitched game 3 of the World Series and went six innings giving up only one run and winning the game.  But the wheels came off after the 84 season.  In 1985 he went 1-3, a low in wins he had not had since 1975.  He was released by the Tigers after the season and signed with the Mariners.  He was 0-8 with a 5.50 ERA with the Mariners in June of 86 when he was released.  He did not play pro ball again.  Today he trains dog dock jumping and competes nationally with his dogs Nash, Jetson and Sparky.

Earl Harrist started his major league career with the Reds but was not protected and drafted by the White Sox in the rule 5 draft.  He had the best ERA (3.61) of all the relievers with 50 or more innings that year on a bad Reds team.  In fact he had a better ERA than most of the starters.  He had a similar performance with the White Sox in 1947 on a similarly bad team.  The 1948 White Sox were even worse than the 47 and Earl’s performance was also worse.  So he was sent to the Senators where he was on a bad Senators team.  He spent the next season in the minors in the Yankees organization.  The Oakland Seals of the PCL bought him from the Yanks and he showed good promise going 18-8 in 1950 with a 3.69 ERA while being the number two starter for the PCL pennant winners.  By 1952 he was back in the majors with another poor team, the Browns where again he was a middle of the road reliever.  1953 Earl was on his first winning team in the majors, the 34 year old Earl was used in only 7 games for the White Sox.  In May of that year the Tigers picked up Earl off of waivers.  He played 8 games with the Tigers and was sold to Seattle of the PCL.   I kept looking for the nugget in Earl’s record but could not find it.  His totals in the majors were a 12-28 record with 10 saves and a 4.34 ERA.  

Lou Vedder  came in to pitch the 8^th and 9^th innings of the September 18, game between the Red Sox and Tigers in 1920.  The Red Sox were ahead 7-2 when Lou came in.  He pitched perfect ball for those two innings and even struck out one batter.  But the Red Sox still won 7-4.  That was the extent of Lou’s major league career.  In fact, that appears to be Lou’s entire pro baseball career.  

April 19 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Heath Murray was a pitcher for Troy High School in Michigan and then went to the University of Michigan from 1992 to 1994.  But we won’t hold that against him.  He made his major league debut coming in to replace former Tiger Sean Bergman who was pitching poorly with the Padres (5 earned runs in 2.1 innings) in a game against the Marlins who were managed by future Tiger manager Jim Leyland.  Heath pitched 3.2 innings and gave up 1 earned run.  His ERA would never be that low again.  Two days later against Atlanta he would pitch 2.1 innings and time up 2 earned runs.  He would get his first win on June 2, 1997 when he beat Greg Maddux 5-4.  Heath gave up all four runs in 7 innings.  He would not win another game until 2001 when he was with Detroit.  He beat Roy Halladay and the Blue Jays 4-3.  He pitched 5 innings and gave up 2 of the Jays 3 runs.  Heath would never win another game in his major league career.  He had a career record of 2-15 with a 6.41 ERA.

Sean Whiteside made his major league debut on April 29, 1995.  He pitched one inning of relief against the Mariners and gave up 2 walks, 2 hits and 2 runs.  That gave him an ERA of 18.  Four days later he came in the game in relief again against the Indians and pitched 2.2 innings.  He gave up 5 hits, 2 walks and 4 runs.  One of the hits was a homer to Eddie Murray who also got a single off of Sean.   Sean did strike out Omar Vizquel and Albert Belle.  At the end of the game Sean’s ERA stood at 14.73.  He never got another chance to lower it. 

John Wyatt pitched for 9 seasons in the majors.  Mostly with the Kansas City A’s from 1961-1966.  He was used mainly as a closer for that A’s and posted 73 saves for them and made the All Star team in 1964.  He was traded to the Boston Red Sox and became their closer and was second in the league in saves in the Sox pennant winning season of 1967.  He was known to throw a spit ball and referreed to it as “the big one”.  He would go for “the blob” which was Vaseline he hid under his belt.  In game 6 of the 1967 World Series he faced Lou Brock with the Sox ahead 4-2 in the 7^th.  He told Sox shortstop. Rico Petrocelli, he was going to throw “the big one”.  He loaded the ball and Brock proceeded to hit a cannon shot 420 feet on a rope for a game tying homer.   Rico went up to John and said “I thought you were going to get “the Blob”, “the Big One”.  Wyatt, who was known to be a bit of clown responded “I Did!  He must have hit the dry side!”  But John stayed in the game and got the win.  Other teams also knew he threw a spitter.  The Yankees Joe Pepitone claimed that John has so much Vaseline on him that if he slid into second he would keep sliding until he hit the left field wall.  Once, while caught in a run down he lost several items out of his pockets of his warm up jacket.  The items included a pack of cigarettes, his car keys and a jar of Vaseline.  In early 1968 John was not the same as he had been in 1967 so the Sox sold him to the Yankees.  He was with the Yanks onle a short time before he was sold again to the Tigers in June.  He won one game and saved two others for the 1968 Tigers while posting a 2.37 ERA.    John did not make the World Series roster as the Tigers took Eddie Matthews instead.  John  was released by the Tigers before the 1969 season started.  Signed by his old A’s who were now in Oakland, John played until May 27 when he was released and ended his pro ball career.

Bernie DeViveiros made his major league debut with the Chicago White Sox in 1924.  He went 0-1 against the Yankees Bullet Joe Bush.  He did not appear again in a major league uniform until three years later when he was Tiger and appeared in 24 games.  He went 5 for 22 in those 24 games and walked twice.  He drove in 2 runs and scored 4 himself.  But his minor league career was much longer.  In fact Bernie played in the minors until he was 39 years old.  He even was a player manager his last four years in class B and D ball.

Chick Shorten was born in Scranton PA in 1892.  In 1915 he debuted with the Red Sox and played three seasons for the Sox.  1918 found Chick out of baseball.  My suspicion is he was in the Army.  1919 found Chick playing in Detroit as a starting outfielder with Ty Cobb and Bobby Veach.  He hit .315 with the Tigers that year and continued to play the outfield for them through 1921.  In December of 1921 the St. Louis Browns picked him off of waivers from the Tigers.  He played one season with the Browns and then one more season with the Reds and his playing days in the majors were over.  He played a few more years in the minors finishing up his minor league career with the Scranton Minors in 1928.  When Chick died in Scranton and was buried in Abington Hills Cemetery in Clarks Summit, PA.

April 18 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Miguel Cabrera is 28 today.  Hopefully he does well this season and is not the elephant in the locker room that tears the team apart.  I am hopeful that he becomes the Josh Hamilton of the Tigers.  I truly admired the Rangers last year for forgoing the Champaign in club house after the ALCS so that Josh could join them.  Let’s hope Miguel can have a end of the year like that.

Rico Brogna started his career in Detroit as a first baseman in 1992.  He played nine games for the Tigers.   In 1994 he was traded to the Mets for Alex Zinter.  He had his biggest success with the Mets where he hit .291.  He went on to play for the Phils and hit .269 there.  He was a very good fielder throughout his career.  In 1995 he even led the league in fielding % for first baseman. 

Brian Dubois was a Tiger in 1989 and 1990.  He showed real signs of promise in the minors prior to joining the Tigers.  He also showed real signs of promise when he came up in 1989.  While his record was 0-4, he had an ERA of 1.75 in 36 innings pitched.  He made his major league debut as a late call up and the Tiger fans saw him start against the Yankees and throw for 6 innings giving up 6 hits and 2 earned runs.  He lost 1-2.  He earned one save that year when he came in and pitched the last five innings against the Royals and held them scoreless.  He also lost to the Blue Jays when he pitched seven innings and game up 2 runs on 4 hits.  He lost the game 0-2.  In 1990 he went 3-5 but his ERA climbed to 5.09.  After 1990 he was done in the majors.  He continued to pitch in the minors until 1996 when his pro ball career ended.

Doug Flynn finished his career with the Tigers in 1985.  He had played mainly in the NL since 1975 mainly as a middle infielder.  With the Tigers he played at 20 games at second, 8 at short and 4 at third.  He hit .255 with the Tigers compared to a career .238 average. 

Wahoo Sam Crawford is in the Hall of Fame as a Tiger.  He played with Ty Cobb for much of Cobb’s career.  Sam’s career started in 1899 in the minors and by the end of the season he was in Cincinnati playing for the Reds.  In 31 games with the Reds that year he hit .307 with 20 RBI’s.  In 1901 he led the league in homers with 16.  At the end of the 1902 season the AL and NL were not getting along, as usual.  There was no agreement between the leagues about signing the others players so both leagues were trying to get the stars to have a better product and hurt the other league as much as possible.  Crawford was signed away from the Reds by the Tigers.  A judge ordered the Tigers to pay Cincy $3,000 but it was well worth it.  His first year with the Tigers he was fifth in the league in RBI’s, second in average, and led the league in triples.   He still holds the career record for triples with 309.  A record that is not likely to be broken any time soon.  The current active leader for triples is Carl Crawford (ironic name) with 105.  In 15 years with the Tigers he hit .309, drove in 1264 runs which is 47^th all time and played in three World Series with the Tigers.  If you want more on Sam you should read The Glory of Their Times.  Wonderful interviews with the players from Crawford’s era.  If you can pick up the audio version I recommend it as well.

Sam Crawford

Q. Who is the only player to lead his league in triples more than five times?

Hint: No one has ever broken his record of 12 inside-the-park home runs in a season.

Hint: Yeah. He was fast.

Twint: He was the first batter to lead different leagues in home runs.

A. SAM CRAWFORD (6 3b titles; HR titles: NL 1901, AL 1908 [since accomplished also byFred McGriff])

Q. Who hit the first major league home run ever surrendered by Walter Johnson?

Hint: He had more RBIs than teammate Ty Cobb for four consecutive seasons.

Hint: His hometown was his nickname.

Twint: He had the most at-bats in the first decade of the twentieth century.

A. SAM CRAWFORD

(HR 02-Aug-1907; RBI total's over Cobb 1912-15; B. Wahoo, NE;  AB  1901-10 = 5,670)

Below is a 1907 Dietchse postcard of Crawford from my collection.

April 17 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Ryan Raburn has been playing most of his career with the Tigers.  He started in the Tigers farm system in 2001.  In 2004 he made his major league debut as a late season call up.  With runners on first and second and one out in the 9^th, the Tigers were trailing the Twins 8-4.  Ryan came in to pinch hit for shortstop Jason Smith.  Ryan took it to a full count before striking out swinging.  Ryan got in 12 games that season but hit only .138 with 15 K’s in 29 at bats.  He did not make it back up to the Tiges until 2007.  He did better that year.  He hit .304 in 49 games as a back up outfielder/second baseman.  He just about doubled his playing time in 2008 getting into 92 games as back up outfielder/second baseman/third baseman but his average dropped to .236 and his K’s were still high at 49 in 182 at bats.  2009 has been his best season to date.  He hit .291 with 16 homers and only 60 K’s while being the starting left fielder.  Since then his average dropped every year until in 2012 he was hitting .171 for the Tiges with 53 K’s in only 205 at bats.  Often power hitters are allowed to be free swinging with lots of K’s and a low average.  But with Ryan’s lack of average and high K’s cane only 1 homer.  After making $2.1M last year the Tigers released him at the end of the season.  2013 found Ryan with the Cleveland Indians and hitting .272 for the Tribe as a back up outfielder.  He kept the back up role in 2014 but with diminished time and average hitting only .200.  In 2015 he is a starting DH for the Tribe.  He is 4 for 16 in 6 games to date.

Max St. Pierre has spent a long time in the Tigers farm system and has enjoyed a cup of coffee with the Tigers.  He started his career out of high school in Quebec at the age of 17 with the Lakeland Tigers in 1997.  He has worked his way up to AAA Toledo at times but has spent most of his time in AA with Erie.  He has been a good defensive catcher with a .988 fielding percentage and a 35% rate of throwing out base stealers.  In 2007, after 10 years in the minors he signed with the Kansas City Royals only to be traded to the Milwaukee Brewers.  The Brewers tried to turn him into a pitcher but before he even pitched one game they gave up on the experiment and released him. He resigned with the Tigers and in 2010 got the call up to the Tiges at the age of 30.  He watched from the bench for three games before getting into a game.  He got the start behind the plate against the Royals and was hitless in his first three at bats when in the 8^th, with the score tied 4-4 he got a single.  Will Rhymes followed with a single that moved Max to second.  There he was removed for pinch runner Brennan Boesch who scored the winning run on a single by Austin Jackson.  The Royals did not steal on Max.  Max got in 3 more games as without a hit.  Then on October 1 he got into a game against the Orioles when he replaced Alex Avilla behind the place defensively with the Orioles ahead 9-1.  In the top of the 8^th he led of and on the first pitch he hit a line shot double to deep left.  Four batters latter Ryan Raburn drove in Max.  When the season ended Max had a total of 2 hits in 6 games and scored one run.  He was back in the Tigers farm system in 2011.  When the season ended Max was released.  He signed with the Red Sox before the 2012 season but was released by the Red Sox on March 29.  In April Max was suspended for 50 games for PED’s.  Maybe the Sox were tipped off that he was about to get busted.   After serving the suspension Max then went to his roots and Quebec to play for the Les Capitales de Quebec of the Canadian American Association in June and July.  He actually pitched in 11 games and was 1-0 with a 10.80 ERA before his career ended in July.  He never played in pro ball after that.   

Pedro Garcia played briefly as a Tiger during his career.  He was originally signed by the Seattle Pilots as an amateur free agent in 1969.  The Pilots moved to Milwaukee in 1970 and became the Brewers.  Pedro also became a member of the Brewer’s farm system.  He worked his way up to the big leagues in 1973 when he replaced Ron Theobald at second base for the Brew Crew.  He hit .245 that first season and tied for the league lead in doubles with Sal Bando at 32.  That was the lowest league leading total ever in the American League.  But he did not have a good eye for taking walks (40 BB to 119 K’s) and only had a OBP of .296.  His fielding was also just below the league average for second basemen.  In 1974 Pedro struggled at the plate with a .199 average and only a .248 OBP.  Yet he was still the Brewers starting second baseman.  In 1975 Pedro was still hitting only .225 and the Brewers were trying out other possible second basemen such as Kurt Bevacqua, Bob Sheldon and Tim Johnson.  In 1976 the Tigers and Brewers traded second basemen.  The Tiges sent Gary Sutherland to the Brewers for Pedro in June.  Gary had been hitting .205 and Pedro was hitting .217 at the time.  Pedro became the Tiger starting second baseman while Tim Johnson became the Brewers starter.  Pedro would hit only .198 for the Tiges in 77 games.  At the end of the season the Tigers released Pedro in December without another second baseman in the wings.  It was not until February the Tigers signed Tito Fuentes as the second baseman for the 1977 season.  Pedro signed with the expansion Toronto Blue Jays for the 1977 season.  He was third in the depth charts for the Blue Jays at second.  At the end of the season Pedro was done in the majors.  He played until 1982 in the minors and in the Mexican Leagues.  Pedro’s career batting average was .220. 

Charlie Jaeger played his entire time in the majors with the Tigers.  He was first in organized ball in 1904 at the age of 29 with the Rockford Red Sox of the III League.  He ended that season as Tiger rightie pitcher after the Tiges bought his contract from Rockford.  He made his debut against the St. Louis Browns in Detroit.  The Tiges split a double header with the Browns with the Tiges taking game one 3-1 and the Browns taking the second game 5-0.  It is not known which game Charlie pitched.  Charlie did pitch in 8 games for the Tigers and started 6 of those.  5 of those 6 starts were complete games.  He posted a 3-3 record with a 2.57 ERA.  He struck out 13 while walking 15.  At the plate he did manage to get one hit for a .059 average.  He K’d 10 times and walked only once.  Charlie never played in the majors again after those 8 games.  He stuck around in the low minors mainly in his home state of Illinois for another 10 years, until he was 39, and posted a known record of 56-64.    

April 16 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Fernando Vina was an injury prone second baseman before ending his career as a Tiger.  He has started his career in 1993 with the Mariners.  He was only in 24 games and was off to the Mets for 1994.  He was a utility infielder for the Mets as they had Jeff Kent at second.  The Mets traded Fernando to the Brewers for 1995 where he became a starter at second.  He played 5 years for the Brewers hitting .286 with two of the seasons being cut short by injuries and was an All Star in 1998.  After the 1999 season he was traded to the Cardinals.  He spent 4 seasons in St. Louis hitting .285 and winning two Gold Glove awards.  His last year with St. Louis was cut short due to an injured hamstring.  After the 2003 season he was signed as a free agent by the Tiges.  This was the time when the Tiges were searching for a second baseman and they thought they had one in Fernando for $3,000,000.  But Fernando only got in 29 games for the Tigers before he was placed on the DL for a strained hamstring.  In those 29 games he hit .226 and committed five errors.  He was on the roster in 2005 earning another $3,000,000 but still was not ready to play.  For the 2006 season he was not given a contract by the Tiges but was invited to the Seattle Mariners spring training.  He did not make the team.  IN 2007 he was an analyst for ESPN’s baseball tonight.  In December of 2007 Fernando was named in the Mitchell report for using steroids as early as 1993 while with the Mets and later HGH.  He denied it even though checks from him were found written out to Kirk Radomski who was the Mets clubhouse boy who was found to be providing steroids.  Fernando did admit to using HGH in 2003 to recover from his injuries. 

Bruce Taylor pitched his entire career as a Tiger.  He worked in the minors for four and half years as a reliever (he started 7 games for his first team in A ball) before getting his call up to the Tigers in 1977.  He made his debut against the Rangers in Detroit in the 8^th inning with two outs and the Rangers up 6-0.  He got Claudell Washington to fly out to end the inning.  Bruce returned in the 9^th to get the top of the order out 1-2-3.  The Tigers failed to score and Bruce got a no decision.  He got in his last game of the year in the Tigers second to last game of the season.  He was brought in to face the Yankees in the 5^th inning with the game tied 5-5 and a runner on first.  He got out of the inning with no further damage.  He pitched the rest of the game and got the win 10-7 giving up only 2 runs on 3 hits and 1 walk in 4.1 innings.  This was his only decision of the season.  He spent all of 1978 in Evansville going 4-7 with a 4.57 ERA with the exception of one inning with the Tigers.  He finished one game the Tigers and put the side out 1-2-3 in the 9^th.  But the Tigers lost the game.  He started the 1979 season on the Tigers roster.  He came into a game against the White Sox in May trailing 4-3 with runners on first and second.  He got a double play in the 8^th to the end the inning.  The Tigers came up and Land Jason Thompson and Lance Parrish drove in runs to take the lead 5-4.   Bruce came in to pitch the 9^th and got the side out HBP 2-3-4 to end the game.  This was his second and final win of his time in the majors.  Two weeks later he pitched his last game in the majors against the Yanks at Tiger Stadium.  Bruce finished the season and his career in Evansville. 

Dutch Leonard was the reason Ty Cobb did not finish his career as a Tiger and Tris Speaker did not finish his career with the Indians and Ban Johnson lost his job as the American League President.  Dutch was originally a lefty with the Boston Red Sox starting in 1913 when he was 14-17.  The next year he was 19-5 with league leading 0.96 ERA, the lowest ERA of the 20^th century.  He stayed with the Red Sox through 1918, when he was traded to the Yankees.  Hmmmm, it is possible the curse of the Bambino was really the curse of Dutch.  However, Dutch never pitched for the Yankees.  Instead he was sold to the Tigers in May of 1919.  He was 14-13 with the Tigers that first season as the number four starter.  He was primarily a fast ball and curve ball pitcher but by the time he became a Tiger he had picked up a spitter as his main pitch and in 1920 he was grandfathered in and allowed to continue to the spitball while most other pitchers were prohibited from using it.  He was the number one starter in 1921 going 11-13 and led the team with a 3.75 ERA.  He got into a contract dispute with Tiger owner Frank Navin and jumped his contract and went to play with Fresno.  Major League Baseball banned him for the next two years due to his breaking of the reserve clause.  He returned to the Tigers late in the 1924 season after being reinstated into baseball.  In 1925 he was one of the Tiger starters but was feuding with manager Ty Cobb.  The two hated each other.  Cobb went out of his way to literally destroy Dutch.  He overused him intentionally even after the Tigers team physician stated he was being overused.  The feud came to head in July when against the Philadelphia Athletics Cobb kept Dutch in the game despite the fact that Dutch had given up 12 runs on 20 hits.  Connie Mack, the Athletics manager, pleaded with Cobb to take him out of the game but Cobb laughed at the idea.   Cobb then waived Dutch but made sure no other team signed him so he could trade him out of the majors to the Pacific Coast League.  The next year Dutch told American League President, Ban Johnson that Cobb had conspired with Cleveland Indians manager Tris Speaker to fix a game in 1919 in order for the Tigers to finish third and earn some bonus money as the third place finisher in league.  Johnson took this info to heart and told Speaker and Cobb their days in the American were over.  They resigned as managers and retired from baseball.  But Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis wanted to look further into the accusations.  Dutch refused to show up to a meeting with the Judge and the letters from Cobb and others Dutch had provided to Johnson, while talking about betting were vague about details and did not show that anyone actually threw a game.  Landis reinstated Speaker and Cobb.  However, both were no longer under contract and were free to sign with the highest bidder.  Tris Speaker signed with the Washington Senators and Ty left Detroit for the Philadelphia Athletics.  Later that summer the American League owners voted out Ban Johnson as President.  Dutch was done in baseball and went on to run a winery in California.

Gene Ford spent his entire time in the majors with the Tigers.  He started his professional career with the Indianapolis Indians in 1903 and was 17-16.  The next year he moved on to Minneapolis and the Millers.  There he was 17-11.  Before the end of the 1904 season his contract was purchased by the Tigers in August of 1904.  He made his debut against the St. Louis Browns in St. Louis.  The Tiges lost the game 11-7.  He would get into six more games over the next two months for the Tiges.  His last game was against the Indians in Cleveland and again the Tiges lost but this time by a score of 14-3.  After those two months he returned to Minneapolis in 1905 and went 2-4.  He pitched in the minors for three more seasons.  His best season was 1906 when he was 21-13 for the Millers.  His final record as a Tiger was a 0-1 record in 7 games with a 5.66 ERA.  He only started one game and it was a complete game loss.    

April 15 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Dick Sharon started his major league career as a Tiger.  He was originally signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates but was traded as a minor leaguer for Jim Foor and Norm McRae to the Tigers after the 1972 season.  He was with the Tiges in 1973 as the Tiges were starting their rebuilding after the failed 1972 bid for a championship.   Dick was the back up right fielder behind 33 year old Jim Northrup.  Northrup hit .307 to Sharon’s .242.  But Dick was 10 years younger and had shown promise in the minors hitting .268 in AAA with some good power.  In 1974 Dick was still a back up but now backing up both Northrup in right and aging Willie Horton in left.  But Dick did worse than he did in 1973 by hitting only .217 and not much power with only 2 homers in 145 at bats.  He was deemed expendable and at the end of the season was traded to the San Diego Padres with Eddie Brinkman and Bob Strampe for Nate Colbert.  Dick did even worse for the Padres hitting only .194 in 1975.  His major league career was over.  He was traded by the Padres for Willie Davis at the end of the year and was in the Cardinals, Angels and Red Sox organizations in 1976 but not back in the majors.  After 1976 his baseball career was over.

Ray Bare was in the starting rotation of the Tigers.  He started his career as a St. Louis Cardinal in 1972. He was a mid season call up who went to the bull pen.  He was in the minors in 1973 but back up with the Cardinals in 1974 where he was 1-2.   But in April 1975 the Cards waived him and he was signed by the Tigers.  He was in the bull pen until June when he got his first start and remained in the rotation.  In August of that year he faced the Angels when the Tigers had a 19 game losing streak on the line.  He blanked the Angels in 8 innings on two hits and ended the losing streak.  He would always dominate the Angels.  By 1977 he was 5-1 against the Halo’s with a 3.66 ERA against them.  This was not a mastery he shared over the Yankees.  By 1977 he as 0-4 against the Yanks with a 13.50 ERA against them.  In 1975 he posted his highest wins in a season with an 8-13 record for the Tigers.  This was followed by a 7-8 record in 1976.   But 1977 found the end of his major league career.  He was 0-2 with a 12.56 ERA in early May and was sent down to the minors.  By the end of the season in the minors he was 6-8 with a 5.43 ERA but the Tiges did not call him back.  They had a couple of new starters in Dave Rozema and Milt Wilcox and Dave was not needed in the rotation.  He was in the Orioles organization in 1978 and was 7-13 with a 4.05 ERA in AAA.  But the O’s never called him up either and his career in baseball was over.  His overall for the Tigers was a 15-23 record and a 4.04 ERA over 3 seasons.  He died at age 44 in 1994 of leukemia.  At our house we had a stuffed bear that was a puppet as well, when the kids where young.  We named it Ray Bear.  Charlie and Kristen loved it.  We still have it in the house somewhere. 

Joe Hoover was the Tigers shortstop in 1943 and 1944.  In 1945 he split time at short with Skeeter Webb.  Joe was .240 hitter and Skeeter was a better fielder.  Eddie Mayo put it this way, “with the bases loaded and the last ground ball coming to the shortstop in the World Series, I’d want Skeeter out there.”  Joe went 1 for 3 in his part of the 1945 World Series.  Skeeter hit .185.  After the 1945 Series Joe played one more season in baseball with the San Francisco Seals of the PCL.

Eddie Mayo was picked up by the Tigers in the rule 5 draft in 1943 after the Red Sox tried to send him to Louisville.  Eddie had played for the New York Giants, the Boston Bees’ and the Philadelphia Athletics prior to joining the Tigers.  In one game Eddie had a runner caught in a run down when the ball caromed of a runners head and hit him in the eye.  He played his entire time in Detroit with a blind spot in his left eye.  He was not a flashy player and did not have great stats but was a leader for the team and very solid fielder.  In fact, The Sporting News named him their MVP in 1945 instead of Hal Newhouser who the League picked as MVP.  In the 1945 World Series Eddie anchored the infield at second base and hit .250.  Eddie was asked to join some players at card shows and was told he could make a fortune.  Eddie refuses saying he got about 5-8 requests a week for autographs and was tickled to sign.  Eddie died in 2006, after the Tigers World Series.

Sy Sutcliffe started his professional baseball career with the Chicago White Stockings of the National League in 1884 as a back up catcher.  He stayed with the White Stockings into 1885 but finished the season with the St. Louis Maroons.  1886 found him in the minors in Savannah but 1887 found him in Detroit with the Wolverines.  He played one game with the Wolverines that season yet managed to get into the World Series against the St. Louis Browns where he went 1-11 and scored one run.  In 1888 he returned to Detroit and hit .257 as a left handed hitting catcher.  1889 found him playing with the Cleveland Spiders.  1890 found him playing as the starting catcher in Cleveland but with the Cleveland Infants of the short lived Players League.  Another league used Sy in 1891 when he played with the Washington Statesmen of the American Association.  In 1892 Sy was playing with the Baltimore Orioles of the NL where he was now a starting first baseman.   1893 found Sy suffering from Brights disease.  It is a today it is a group of different kidney infections.  Sy died before the season started in February of 1893, at the age of 30.  Sy played in a World Series and with hall of Famers Cap Anson, King Kelly, Dan Brouthers, Ned Hanlon, Sam Thompson, Ed Delahanty, Wil Robinson, John McGraw, Ned Hanlon, Joe Kelley and one who should be in the Hall, Jack Glasscock.  

April 14 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Kyle Farnsworth

Steve Avery

Brad Ausmus is on his third stint as a Tiger.  He grew up in Connecticut and went to college at Dartmouth.   Although he did not play baseball at college.  Instead he was drafted and signed with the Yankees out of high school.  He played catcher and had made it as far as AAA with the Yankees when he was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 1992 expansion draft.  He never made it to the Rockies but was traded to the San Diego Padres in mid 1993.  The Padres GM was Randy Smith.  He became the Padres starting back stop in 1994 and was there until part way through the 1996 season when new Tiger GM Randy Smith traded Tiger catcher (of all things) John Flaherty and Chris Gomez for Anujar Cedeno a minor leaguer and Brad.  Brad became the Tiger starting back stop for the rest of the 1996 season hitting .248.  However, at the end of the season Randy Smith traded Brad to the Houston Astros with Jose Lima, C. J. Nitkowski and Daryle Ward for Doug Brocail, Brian Hunter, Todd Jones and Orlando Miller and cash.  Brad was the Astros catcher for two seasons hitting .266 and .269.  In January 1999 Randy Smith sent a couple of minor leaguers, Dean Crow, Brian Powell and a catcher (of all things) in Paul Bako to get C.J. Nitkowski and Brad back in Detroit.  1999 would be Brad’s lone appearance as an all-star when he was the Tigers lone representative to the mid summer classic.  Brad hit .275 for the Tiges that season and was the Tigers starting catcher in 2000 when they moved to the Coma err, Comerica Park.  He hit .266 for the Tiges that first season at the Coma and was rewarded by being traded to the Astros with Doug Brocail of the first Ausmus trade and Nelson Cruz for Roger Cedeno, Chris Holt and a catcher (of all things) in Mitch Meluskey.  Brad was the Astros starting catcher for the next 8 years hitting .240 and showing himself to be a solid catcher behind the plate.  He played his last two seasons in the majors in 2009 and 2010 with the Dodgers as a back up catcher.  He then joined Randy Smith who was back in San Diego as a special assistant.  He then became the skipper of the Israel National team in 2013 before joining the Tigers in 2014 for his third stint but this time as the Tiger skipper.  He took the Tigers to the AL Central title in his first season.  The Tiges had a 90-72 record.  The Tigers Pythagorean theorem puts them at 86-76.  (The baseball Pythagorean theorem states that a teams winning percentage should be equal to ((runs scored^1.83)/(runs scored^1.83  + runs allowed^1.83)).   Maybe this year he can be another Mayo Smith and take the Tiges to a World Series title in only his second season. 

Jess Doyle

Parson Nicholson

April 13 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Doug Strange

Mark Leiter

Ike Brown

Jake Mooty

Roxie Lawson

Ken Jones

Rufe Clarke

Al Platte

Red Killefer

Kid Elberfeld

Herman Long

April 12 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Brennan Boesch started his major league career by hitting the first pitch he ever saw for a double to deep left field.  He went on to go 2-4 that day.  He hit 12 homers with 49 RBI’s and a batting average of .342 before the All Star break in 2010.  Then it fell apart.  He hit 2 homers with 18 RBI’s and hit only .163 after the break.  In 2011 he  brought it back and hit .283 with 16 homer and 54 RBIs’s.  But his pre all star average was 80 points higher than his post All Star average.  In 2012 is was all below .250 with him hitting .243 before the break and .237 after the break.  So this year the Tigers tried to hold him as trade bait.  But there were no takers.  I can’t blame the other GM’s.  You see Brendan was about 7^th on the outfield depth charts for the Tiges.  You know at some point they will have to let him go.  So you wait to sign him as a reduced cost free agent.  The Yankees did so.  He was batting 5^th for the Yankees on opening day.   I am sorry to say but that is more a sign of the Yankees injuries than Brandon’s abilities.  He is hitting .250 with 1 homer and 2 RBI’s with the Yanks this year.  Do not expect to see him hitting 5^th at the end of the season.

Woody Fryman was part of the 1972 Tigers.  He started his career in Pittsburgh in 1966.  In only his 9^th start he gave up a lead of single and then picked off the runner.  He then retired the next 26 batters in a row for a unique non perfect game.  The starts before and after that game were complete game shutouts.  He was sent to the Phillies prior to the 1968 season and became an all star.  He had gone 4-10 with a 4.36 ERA for the Phils in 1972 when he was waived in August.   Detroit picked up off of waivers and he promptly went 10-3 with a 2.06 ERA and helped the Tigers win the division title.  He stayed with Detroit two more years before being sent to Montreal for back up catcher Terry Humphrey and pitcher Tom Walker.  Woody became a closer for Montreal and continued to pitch into 1983.  He had started his career in the NL in 1966 with the Pirates.  I wrote him a couple of times and he always responded very promptly.  The last time I wrote him was January 2011.  He died about two weeks later on February 4.   The Tigers honored Woody and several others who died in the off season at opening day with a moment of silence.  

Charlie Lau started his career in the majors with the Tigers in 1956 as a weak hitting back up catcher.  How weak?  He hit .157 with Detroit.  He was sent to the Braves of Milwaukee in 1960 and he hit .200 for the Braves.  The Braves sent him to Baltimore and then things changed for Charlie as he changed his batting stance to that of a contact hitter.  In 1962, his first full year with the Orioles he hit .294.  For his seven years in Baltimore he hit .269.  He spent some time in Kansas City with the Athletics and finished his career with the Braves of Atlanta in 1967.  After his playing days he became a batting coach.  He is one of the more famous batting coaches.  In fact he is known for his rules of hitting.  Maybe you could call them Lau’s laws.  He was the batting coach for Royals in the 1970’s with guys like Amos Otis, Hal McRae, Willie Wilson and an average hitter by the name of George Brett.  He then went on to Chicago to coach Carton Fisk and Harold Baines.  Charlie died in 1984 from cancer.

Bill Wight was a lefty pitcher for eight teams when the major leagues consisted of 16 teams.  He played part of two seasons with Detroit and racked up a 5-12 record.  As a pitcher he was used all over the place.  As a starter, as a reliever and as a closer.  His most wins in a season was in 1949 with the White Sox when he won 15 games.  The next he won 10.  He never won in double digits after that.  Basically, he made a career out of being a lefty. 

Black Jack Wilson was a pitcher mainly for the Red Sox in the 1930’s.  He compiled a record of 67-67 with the Sox in 7 years.  He was normally the number two starter behind Lefty Grove.  His best year was 1937 when he won 16 and lost 10.  Six days after Pearl Harbor, Jack was traded to the Senators.  Later in the season he was sold to the Tigers.  With Detroit he appeared in nine games and did not record a decision.  At the end of the season he was done in the majors and went out to pitch in the PCL with the Portland Beavers.   Jack died in 1995 and is buried in Holyrood Catholic Cemetery in Seattle.

Eric McNair was shortstop mainly but also played spent about a quarter of his time at second and another quarter at third.  He was the utility infielder for the Philadelphia Athletics on their World Series teams of 1930 and 1931.  He became the starting shortstop in for the Athletics in 1932 and kept the roll until he was sent to the Boston Red Sox after the 1935 season.  He stayed in Boston until the end of the 1938 season when we went to the White Sox.  The Tigers picked him up off waivers after the1940 season.  With Detroit he was a back up infielder and hit a lowly .173.  TheTigers sold Eric back to the Athletics during the 1942 season.  He was released at the end of the season and tried to continue his pro ball career in the minors.  But even after 1943 he was done in the minors.  He dabbled in managing in the minors during the 1940’s but never got above the class A level.

Bill Bailey was a pitcher for the Tigers in 1918 and won one game for the Tigers and lost two.   That was one of his better years.  Unfortunately for Bill, he played on some bad teams.  He was on the St. Louis Browns from 1907 thru 1912.  In 1910 with the Browns going 47-107, Bill won 3 games and lost 18.  He later joined the Baltimore Terrapins of the Federal League who went 47-107 (Maybe it was Bill) in 1915 and Bill went 6-19 before joining the Chicago Whales of the Federal League where he went 3-1 for a combined record of 9-20 for the season.

Lew Post played three games in 1902 with the Tigers in Chicago.  He played the outfield and made four put outs to one error.  At the plate Lew got one hit in 12 at bats.  He struck out three times but did get two RBI’s.  The Tigers had picked up Lew from Flint of the Michigan State League.  A class D league where Lew played the outfield.  Lew was not known to play organized ball at any other time except 1902.  In fact, so little is known about Lew that it is not even known if he batted or threw left or right.

Today we have Kid Elberfeld.  Kid got the first hit for the Tigers as a major league franchise in 1901.  There is a great story about him in Sam Crawford’s chapter of The Glory of Their Times where he and some other ball players are in a restaurant and are not getting served as they are considered a bunch of toughs that the establishment would rather not have on their premises.  The players are wondering how to get the attention of the wait staff and according to Sam Crawford “Darned if he didn’t take one of the plates and sail it way up in the air, and when it came down on that tile floor it smashed into a million pieces. … Sure enough, we had four or five waiters around there in no time.”

April 11 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Sean Bergman pitched for the Tigers from 1993 until 1995.  He was one of our young prospects under the Randy Smith regime that never quite panned out.  As part of the Randy Smith regime, he was traded to the Padres in spring of 1996 with Cade Gaspar and Todd Steverson for Raul Casanova, Richie Lewis and Melvin Nieves.  Two years later the Padres helped Randy try to meet his goal of having every player on the Tigers play for the Astros, Padres and Tigers when they sent him to Houston.  I am sure Randy smiled at the trade.  In Sean’s three years with Detroit he went 10-15 with a 5.28 ERA.  For his career Sean was 39 and 47 with a solid 5.28 ERA.

John Martin is a Michigan native who was drafted by the Tigers out of Eastern Michigan Univ in 1978.  He toiled in the Tigers farm system for two years before he was traded to the Cardinals in 1980.  In four seasons with the Cardinals he went a combined 17-14 with a 3.77 ERA.  In 1983 he was bought by the Tigers from the Cardinals.  He played 15 games with the Tigers in 1983.  His last major league appearance helped close out the 1983 season for the Tigers as they lost to the Brewers 4-7. 

Sid Monge had been pitching in the majors for almost ten years when he joined the Tigers.  He was purchased by Detroit form the Padres, of all teams, in June of 1984.  Sid appeared in 19 games for the Tigers that year.  He won a total on one game with the Tigers.  In July he came in the game in relief against the Rangers and pitched 4 innings.  Sid left the game in the 7^th with the Tigers on top 7-5.  The Tigers held on to win 7-6 and that was Sid’s lone win as a Tiger.

Mike Kilkenny had his best year in the majors his very first year in the majors.  That was 1969 with the Tigers when he went 8-6 with a 3.37 ERA.  Those eight wins were a third of his career total of 23 as were the 6 losses a third of his 18.  In 1969 and 1970 Mike was one of the two young arms coming up in the Tigers farm system along with Tom Timmermann.   By 1972 some of Mikes promise had worn off to the Tigers liking and Mike was sent to Oakland of all teams.  The Tigers would end up playing the A’s in the AL Championship series, losing in 5 games.  However, unlike Sid Monge, Mike did not stay with the A’s.   His tenure in Oakland lasted about a week and then he was traded to San Diego.  His tenure at San Diego lasted a little longer.  It was about a month before the Padres traded Mike to the Indians where he pitched his last game as a professional ballplayer in May of 1973.

Barney McCosky started his career in the majors in Detroit in 1939 as the starting center fielder as a 22 year old rookie.  He had come to the Tigers attention playing high school ball at Southwestern Detroit High School.  Barney helped teach Hank Greenberg how to play the outfield in 1940 for the great switch where Hank moved from his normal position at first , to left field so Rudy York could move to first as we was not a great catcher.  As payment Hank took Barney down to his tailor and bought him a new suit.  As Barney put it “I had never had a tailor made suit before.  I always bought my stuff off the rack.”  In 1940 Barney led the league in hits and triples and helped the Tigers to the World Series against the Reds.  He hit .304 in the series and drove in one run.  Barney would miss 1943-1945 to the war.  He returned in 1946 only to be traded about a month into the season to the Philadelphia Athletics for George Kell.  Barney played five years with the Athletics before joining the Reds and later the Indians.  He finished his career in 1953 having hit a career .312 in over 1000 games.  He died in 1996 and is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield, MI.

April 10 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Eric King

Frank Lary got his nickname “The Yankee Killer” while a Tiger.  He grew up in Alabama and was one of five boys who went to the University of Alabama to play football and or baseball for the Crimson Tide.  In 1950 he was being recruited by the Cubs, Tigers and Yankees before the Tigers won the bid for Frank.  It would be one of many future loses by the Yanks.  He sat out the 1951 and 1952 seasons with the US Army during the Korean War but he never left the US.  He was a late season call up in 1954 and made his major league debut against the Yankees as a sacrificial lamb in a game with the Tigers already down 11-0 in the 9th.  He did not allow a run in the one inning pitched.  In 1955 he was part of the Tigers rotation.  He was a hard throwing fastballer who was too wild until Tiger pitching coach Schoolboy Rowe had him take a little off his throws to gain some more control.  From that point on, Frank was a major leaguer to stay.  He also could throw a good knuckle ball to give him 4 solid pitches, fastball, curve ball, slider and knuckler.  He was 14-15 in 1955 with a solid 3.10 ERA.  The next year, 1956 he led the league in wins with 21 and games started in 38 and innings pitched with 294.  He would lead the league in innings pitched three times in his career.  He also led the league in hit batters with 12.  It was a position he would hold for 4 of the next five seasons.  Needless to say, a fastballer who is a little wild will keep the batters a little off their game.  Frank was in the starting rotation for the Tiges from 1955 through 1961.  Twice he won 20 games during that period.  But his greatest notoriety came at the expense of the Yankees.  The all-star righty was a career 28-13 against the Yankees.  All his other games he was an average pitcher at 95-95 for his career.  When Red Wilson was his catcher he was 19-3 against the Bronx Bombers.  This was at the time when the Yanks were the tops of the baseball world and the Tigers constantly finished in the second division.  He could never explain why he was so hard on the Yanks.   But it did not go unnoticed by the Yankees.  Casey Stengal took to calling him “Bulldog” and New York Times writer John Drebinger called him “The Yankees’ arch tormentor these past six years”.  In 1961 he had probably his best all around season going 23-9 with a league leading 22 complete games (the third year in a row he led that stat), a 3.24 ERA, a Gold Glove to his name, batting .231 and hit one of his 6 career homers for a pitcher,  He also was third in Cy Young voting.  But that was effectively the end of his career.  In 1962 he was hurting during spring training.  He had had a sore arm since 1959 and with some other injuries and finally tearing a muscle rounding first on opening day he was no longer the all-star he had been.  Frank went from a 23-9 record in 1961 to a 2-6 record in 1962.  He would still pitch for three more seasons but he would never win more than 4 games in a season after 1961.  He was sold to the Mets in 1964 and also saw a little bit of time with the Milwaukee Braves, the Mets again and finally the Chicago White Sox in 1965.       

Cliff Bolton

Rudy Kneisch

Art Loudell was spent his entire cup of coffee with the Tigers.  He was born in Missouri in 1882 Arthur Laudel but switched it to Loudell.  He went south to Texas to start his professional baseball career in the Texas League in 1907.  He was 4-1 that first season but showed a huge improvement the next season when he was 18-11.  In 1909 he had a bit of a drop to 11-11 with both Dallas a Waco.  In 1910 at the age of 28 he was 9-10 in Waco.  The Tigers called for him and he made his debut as Tiger in August.  Art was called out of the pen that day and the Tigers, behind starter Sailor Stroud, lost to the Senators.  Sailor was the number 4 or 5 starter for the Tigers.  On August 19 Sailor was the starter against the Red Sox and the Tiges lost again.  On August 27 Sailor started against the Senators and again the Tigers lost.  On September 5, Sailor was due to start again.  But Hughie Jennings put Art on the mound for his first major league start against the St. Louis Browns at Detroit’s Bennett Park.  The Tigers won.  On September 13, another of Sailor’s planned starts, Art was put on the mound to start the game.  The Tiges lost this time to the Indians.  On September 24, Art was called in from the pen against the Red Sox.  That would be Art’s last game in the majors.  I can not tell you which of the two games Art started he won, if either.  But I do know Art was in 5 games for the Tiges, and was 1-1 with a 3.38 ERA.  He made just those two starts and one was a complete game.  However, it is possible that he still lost the complete game, whichever start it was.  At the plate Art was 1 for 7 with a walk, 1 RBI and a sacrifice.   In 1911 he was back in the minors for Minneapolis and was done in baseball the next year after pitching for Fort Wayne.

April 9 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Hal Morris

Mike Brumley

Nate Colbert was a stop gap measure for the Tigers.  He started his career in the majors in 1966 with the Houston Astros but was drafted by expansion Padres for 1969.  He had been an all star first baseman for the San Diego Padres since their beginnings in 1969 and into the early 1970’s.  He had shown very good power by hitting 163 career homers for the Padres which is still a franchise record today.  He hit 5 in one day in a double header while driving in 13 runs in a double header in 1973.  In 1974 Nate had some back problems and his production dropped off considerably.  He went from a .270 hitter with 22 homers and 80 RBI’s to a .207 hitter with 14 homers and 54 RBI’s.  For the Tigers 1974 saw the end of Norm Cash as their first baseman.  Bill Freehan was playing most at first while Jerry Moses replaced Freehan behind the plate.  But Jerry hit .237 so the Tiges wanted to put Freehan back behind the plate and get a new outfielder.  So the Tiges traded 32 year old shortstop Eddie Brinkman who had hit only .221 and reserve outfielder Dick Sharon who hit .217 and pitcher Bob Strampe who had not played in the majors since his cup of coffee in 1972 for Nate and the hope that his back would be better.  Nate got in 45 games for the Tigers in the first half of 1972 and his back was not better.  He hit .147 with only 4 h omers and 18 RBI’s.  The Tiges continued to struggle at first and everywhere else in 1975.  They were an abysmal 57-102 for the season.  First base was by committee with Jack Pierce, Dan Meyer and Nate all playing about the same number of games.  Jack hit .235, Dan hit .236 and Nate was hitting .147 when on June 2, he was sold to the Montreal Expos.  He would never again be a starter and never again hit above .200.  He hit only 6 more homers in his career and was out of baseball after a brief stint with the Oakland Athletics in 1976. 

Guy Cantrell

Vic Sorrell