April 2 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Pete Incaviglia

Dick Radatz was a standout basketball and baseball player at Michigan State University at the same as Ron Perranoski before he was a Tiger.  He attended Berkley High School before going to MSU.  He was signed by the Boston Red Sox after his college career and made his debut in 1962.  He was an immediate sensational reliever.  He led the league in appearances, games finished and saves for the Red Sox as he closed out 53 games that season and recorded 24 saves in 62 games.  He had a 2.24 ERA but was third in Rookie of the Year voting behind Tom Tresh and Buck Rodgers.  His salary was $7,500 that year but with how well he did for the Sox they gave him a $5,000 bonus for the year and doubled his salary the following year to $15,000.  He followed up that with a 1963 that was even better.  He had 25 saves, and was 15-6 with a lower ERA at 1.97.  He K’d 162 in 132.1 innings pitched and only walked 51.  In 1964 he again led the league in saves with 29 and K’d 181 in 157 innings.  In 1965 his ERA climbed to 3.91.  In 1966 it appeared maybe his magic was gone and after only 16 games for the Sox and an ERA of 4.74 he was sent to the Cleveland Indians for future 1968 Tiger Don McMahon and Lee Stange.  Hid did not get back to his magic and he was sent to the Cubs in 1967.  The Cubs released him in spring of 1969 and the Tigers signed him as a free agent.  Dick showed his was not totally out of gas and he got in 11 games for the Tiges as a reliever and was 2-2 with a 3.38 ERA.  On April 29, he came in to relieve Fred Lasher in the seventh of a game that the Washington Senators led 3-2.  Dick came in and K’s future Tiger Joe Coleman and Del Unser before getting future Tiger Eddie Brinkman to fly out to center.  He also would K Frank Howard and Ken McMullen that day before the Tigers scored 3 runs to give Dick the win.  On May 30 he replaced starter John Hiller on the mound against the Seattle Pilots (The Pilots would move to Milwaukee before the 1970 season and change their name to the Brewers.) in the 4^th inning with the Pilots ahead after Hiller had just given up a grand slam to Jerry McNertney to make it a 4-2 Pilots lead.  Dick got the next three batters out and Al Kaline drove in two runs followed by Norm Cash driving in Kaline in the next half inning to give the Tiges the 5-4 lead and give Dick his second and final win as a Tiger.  That was Dick’s last win in the majors.  About 2 weeks later he was sold the Montreal Expos.  The Expos released Dick before the season was over and his playing career was over.

Billy Pierce won 211 games in a career that lasted 18 seasons and started as a Detroit Tiger.  Billy never played organized baseball prior to high school in Highland Park, MI.  The lefty became the high schools starting pitcher when their other pitcher left for a team that had better uniforms.  Billy took over and went to the All American Boys Game at the Polo Grounds in New York in 1944 at the age of 17.  He was the star of the game.  He was also signed by the Tigers and went to Spring Training in 1945 and made the roster for opening day.  He was on the opening day roster and stayed in Detroit for 6 weeks without pitching before getting sent down to Buffalo.  He was called back and made his major league debut in Boston at Fenway Park.  The Tigers were down 6-4 in the 5^th with 2 out when Billy got the call from the pen from Tiger skipper Steve O’Neil.  Billy pitched the rest of the game and gave up only 1 hit and 2 walks for his debut at the age of 18.  He got in to 4 more games out of the bull pen and in a total of 10 innings pitched gave up only 2 runs on 6 hits and 10 BB’s but he also K’s 10.  It was enough to make him eligible for the World Series in 1945 and while he did not pitch in the series against the Cubs, he did earn a World Series ring because he was on the Tiger roster for 3/5ths of the season.  My favorite story about Billy with the Tiges comes from the Tiger catcher, Paul Richards.  Richards used to go into the drug store run by Billy’s dad as it was a block from where he lived.  “ I’d go in now and then to buy something, and there was this kid clerking behind the counter. I never paid any attention to him. Then out at the ball park we had this little left-hander who I’d warm up occasionally. One day he walked up to me on the field and said, “You know, you won’t even speak to me when you come into our drugstore.”
 “What are you talking about?” I asked.
“That’s my father’s drugstore,” he said. “You were in there last night.”
I took a good hard look at him and, sure enough, he was the clerk.

Billy was in the minors after the vets returned from World War II.  He had back problems in 1946 which were diagnosed as being due to him being only a boy in man’s game.  In 1947 Billy was 14-8 with a 3.87 ERA in Buffalo.  In 1948 he was with the Tiges the entire season and was 3-0 in 22 games, most of them out of the bull pen.  At the end of the season Billy was traded.  His story of it was “In November, I went over to my fiancée’s house. We turned on the radio and I learned from a disk jockey that I had been traded to the White Sox. I was traded for Aaron Robinson and 10 grand because the Tigers wanted a left-handed-hitting catcher who could take advantage of the short porch in right field. The Tigers wanted to give the Sox Ted Gray instead of me, but Chicago wouldn’t go for it. . . . It was a bad shock to be traded from Detroit.” Billy went on to play 13 seasons with the White Sox and won 186 games (20 games in a season twice), pitched 183 complete games and was a seven time All-Star all with the Sox.  He was traded to the San Francisco Giants in 1962 just in time to be on their World Series team (as he was with the 1959 Go-Go Sox) and played his last three years as a Giant.  He retired after 1964 and 18 years in the majors.  His total record was 211 wins.  Unfortunately only 3 of those came with the Tigers.

Earl Johnson

Cotton Pippen

Harry Moran

Ed Siever

Below is a 1907 Dietsche postcard of Ed Siever from my collection.

Hughie Jennings

Below is a Colgin's Chip of Jennings from my collection.