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.