Ken Williams played during two
seasons with the Tigers in 1989 and 1990. Like many in the front office
and manager roles in baseball, he is the epitome of “those who can’t do,
teach”. He was a career .218 hitter and even worse with the Tigers.
With Detroit he hit .188! Bob Ueker and Sparky Anderson both hit
better than that. The Tigers acquired Ken from the White Sox for Eric
King. Ken left the Tigers in June of
1990 when he was picked up off the waiver line by the Blue Jays. In 1992 Ken went back to Chicago as a scout
for the White Sox. He moved up the Sox
ladder quickly. In 2000 Ken was named GM
for the White Sox. He did something Bill
Veeck could not do. He brought a World
Series title to the Southsiders.
Phil Regan started his major league career as a Tiger in
1960. He went 0-4. He was a good number three or number four
starter. 1963 was his best year with
Detroit when he went 15-9 for the Tigers.
In six years with the Tigers he went a combined 42-44 with a 4.50
ERA. At the end of the 1965 season Phil
was traded to the Dodgers for Dick Tracewski.
That next season he was moved to the closer role for the Dodgers and
ended up leading the league in saves as the Dodgers won the NL flag. He finished 7th in voting for the
MVP that season. He continued as the
closer for the Dodgers before until 1968 when he was traded to the Cubs. Phil finished his career in 1972 with the
White Sox.
Mickey Cochrane was so loved for guiding Detroit to their first
World Series championship in 1935 that Detroit named one of the streets around
Tiger Stadium after him. Mickey came from New England where he attended Boston
University as a football and baseball star.
He went on to become the star catcher for Connie Mack’s A’s in the
1920’s where he won the MVP in 1928. He
was known for his terrible temper after a loss and was referred to as Black
Mike by his teammates. After the 1933
season he was sent to Detroit to Johnny Pasek and the incredible sum of
$100,000. In Detroit he was the catcher
and manager. The players loved him as he
supported them as he was one himself.
His first year with the Tigers he took them to the World Series where
they lost one of the all time great World Series to the Cardinals Gas House Gang
in seven games. The next year the Tigers
returned to the World Series but this time they won, beating the Cubs in six
games. Mickey’s competitive drive led the Tigers all the way. One great story from Tiger pitcher Schoolboy
Rowe was how Mickey gave him the knockdown signal. Rowe shook him off twice. Mickey came out to the mound and asked
“Whatsa matter?’ Rowe replied “I can’t
hit this guy. He’s a friend of mine.” Mickey replied, “Schoolie My boy, I don’t
care if he’s our twin brother. If he
doesn’t go down on the next pitch and bounce when he hits the ground you’re
fined $250.” The following year instead
of taking the Tigers back to the World Series, he was in the hospital with a
nervous breakdown due to the strains of his inability to accept losses. The next year would also see Mickey in the
hospital. This time he lost sight of a
pitch from the Yankees pitcher Bump Hadley that beaned him. The ball hit him so hard on the head that it
bounced half way back to the mound.
Eldon Auker said he heard it hit him in the dugout and saw him collapse
on the spot. Mickey was in the hospital
for seven days. He returned to the
Tigers as the manager in 1937 but did not have the same drive as before. In 1938 he was done even behind the
bench. During the war he managed the
Great Lakes Navel Training Center team in Chicago. They often beat the major league teams they
would face in exhibition games. In
February 1945, Mickey’s only son was killed in the war in action in Europe. As it would be for any parent, the loss of
his son was devastating to Mickey. He
went to Montana and ran a dude ranch before coming back to baseball for a short
stint as coach and GM for the Philadelphia Athletics. One of my favorite pieces of bull that I like
to tell people how rotten Al Stump was in his “biography” of Ty Cobb was the
story of how the only player to show up for Ty’s funeral was Mickey because Ty
had bought Mickey a suit for him as he was down on his luck. The only problem, as pointed out by Mickey’s
surviving daughter, was that Mickey was living in Grosse Pointe at the time. Hmmm.
Not really down on your luck if you ask me.
No comments:
Post a Comment