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.