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 9th 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.
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