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.