Omir Santos was briefly up as a Tiger. He started his major league career at the age
of 27 as a back up catcher for the Baltimore Orioles in 2008. He got it 11 games and had one hit in ten
plate appearances. for a .100 average.
The O’s let him go after the season and he signed with the New York Mets
for 2009. He had his career year in 2009
where he was the starting catcher for the Mets and hit .260 with 7 homers and
40 RBI’s. But 2010 was a bust for
Omir. The native of Puerto Rico was
assigned to AAA and soon was on the DL and even down to AA on June 4. The good news was that did not last
long. The bad news is that it was
because he missed the rest of the season after June 23 with a broken
finger. At the end of the season the
Mets let him go. The Tiges then signed
him as a free agent for the 2011 season.
In 2011 he spent most of the time in Toledo but did get some time in
with the Tiges. In 49 games as a Mud Hen
he hit .245. In 11 games as a Tiger he his
.227. He made the post season and got in one game in the post season against
the Yankees but did not get a plate appearance.
He was back with the Tiges to
open the 2012 season and was hitting .310 at the end of May so the Tiges called
him up to see if he had serious big league ability or not at the age of 30. On June 1 he went 0-3 with a passed ball and
grounded into a double play. On June 2
he went 1 for 2 with an intentional walk but the Yankees stole 5 bases on
him. On June 3 he went 0 for 3 and he was done as
a Tiger. 5 Days later the Tigers
released him. The Rockies signed him but
he never made the majors. For 2013 he was
with the Indians and went 0 for 1 with the Tribe spending the rest of the season
at AAA Columbus. 2014 was Omir’s last year
in pro ball with the Pirates AAA team at Indianapolis where hit .200 in 11
games before his pro career ended.
Mickey McDermott is the story of an alcoholic as a
Tiger. He had started his major league
career as a highly touted lefty pitcher for the Red Sox in 1948. He showed great promise and his fastball was
labeled “The Fenway Rifle”. But he
never quite followed through with his promise.
He was renowned and was the inspiration for Norman Rockwell’s painting
“The Rookie” although he is not the actual model. The actual model was a person from his
hometown of Pittsfield, MA as were most of his models. Mickey’s best season was 1953 when he went
18-10. But he had worn out his welcome
in Boston. He soon wore out his welcome
in Washington and New York and Kansas City before the Tigers picked him up in a
large trade of Mickey’s drinking buddy Billy Martin, Tom Morgan, Lou Skizas,
Tim Thompson and Gus Zernial for Kent Hadley, Frank House, Duke Maas, Jim
Small, John Tsitouris, Bill Tuttle and Jim McManus. Mickey described himself as someone who did
not take baseball very seriously. It was
just something he did to the best of his ability from February to September. As a Tiger Mickey got into two games and
pitched 2 innings while giving up 4 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks. He got in a fight with his drinking buddy
Billy Martin and beat him up to the point the Billy had to sit out few
games. Mickey was 29 and in May he
looked in the mirror and decided to go home.
He skipped the Tigers and left for home.
He would not be given another chance to play until 1962 when he spent
some time with the Cardinals and the Kansas City Athletics before he wore out
his welcome in the majors as a player.
His wife left him over his drinking but oddly enough, his buddy Billy
Martin stayed with him and as late as the 1980’s Mickey was a coach for Billy
at Oakland. But Mickey continued to
drink. He tried to get into being a
baseball agent but his drinking lost that gig for him. Eventually he married a second time, (his first
wife left him over his drinking) and in 1991 he gave up drinking due to a car
accident and 60 days in jail for various DWI’s.
That was the same year he and his wife won $7M in the Arizona Lottery. But his wife died five years later of breast
cancer. Mickey wrote a book where he was
brutally honest about his drinking called “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to
Cooperstown”. It was published in April
2003. Mickey died five months later in
August 2003 from congestive heart failure and colon cancer.
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