Phil Garner was a player for 16 years never with the Tigers,
but he was a manager in Detroit. Phil
started his major league career as an Oakland Athletic in 1973. By 1976 he was an all star for Oakland but
still was traded to Pittsburgh. It was
with the Pirates that he got his nickname “Scrap Iron” for his tenacity and
gritty play. In spring training his
first year in Pitt in one game committed 3 errors and heard boos every
time. He then hit a triple but no on
responded. At that point Phil walked
over to the crowd and yelled “What’s that problem here?” This got the fans cheering on Phil and the
Pirates. Phil was in Pittsburgh for the
1979 World Championship season. In the
World Series he hit .500 and got 3 walks and a HBP for a .571 OBP. He also drove in 5 runs. In 1981 he was traded to Houston. He stayed there into 1987 when he was traded
to the Dodgers to finish the season. He
was granted free agency at the end of the season and finished his playing
career the Giants in 1988. Phil then
became a coach for the Astros before starting his managing career with the
Milwaukee Brewers in 1992. He led the
Brewers to their best finish in ten years and a second place finish that first
year behind the first place Toronto Blue Jays.
The Brewers were 92-70 in 1992 but in the offseason lost Chris Bosio,
Dan Plesac, Jim Gantner and Paul Molitor.
The Brewers were never the same after that and drifted into mediocrity
for the next seven years under Phil.
They never quite got to .500 after that.
After the 1999 season the Tigers hired Phil as their new manager for a
new stadium replacing Larry Parrish and Tiger Stadium. The first year under Phil the Tiges did
improve from 69-92 to 79-83. But the
Tigers were not competitive in their division.
They were more than 10 games back by the end of May and it never got
better. They finished in third place 16
games behind the White Sox. In 2001 the Tiges woes continued. They were 10 back by May 25 and finished 25
games behind in fourth place. They
avoided a last place finish by winning 1 out 3 against the last place Royals to
finish one game out of last place. The
next year Phil managed 6 games for the Tiges and lost all 6 to the Tampa Bay
Devil Rays and Cleveland Indians before he was replaced by Luis Pujols. Luis got his first win in his 6th
game for a 1-5 record. Clearly the issue
was the team more than the manager. The
Tigers would finish the year as the worst team in the American League at 55-106,
tied with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Phil
signed with the Houston Astros for the 2004 season part way through the season. In 2005, his first full season as the
skipper he took the Astros to the NL pennant before losing the World Series to
the Chicago White Sox in 4 games. Like
Phil’s previous teams the Astros dropped after that year and in 2007, Phil
managed 131 games for the Astros and a 58-73 record before being fired. Phil has not been a manager since.
Chet Laabs started his major league career as a Tiger but is
more known for his time with the St. Louis Browns. In his first year in pro ball, 1935, Chet was
playing with the Fort Wayne Chiefs and then with his home town team, the
Milwaukee Brewers in the minor league American Association. It was there that the Tigers bought his
contract. He was brought up in 1937 and
got in 72 games as a back up center fielder and left fielder. He hit .240 so was not likely to crack the outfield
of Gee Walker and Pete Fox who were both hitting 90 points higher than Chet nor
Jo-Jo White who while had less power than Laabs was a better defensive
outfielder. In 1938 Chet was still a
back up. Gee Walker was gone but Dixie
Walker was with the Tiges and the outfield of Dixie, Pete Fox and also Chet
Morgan were all hitting about 50 points or more higher than Chet. Finally in 1939 Chet got his break. It was in the form of a trade to the St.
Louis Browns. In May, after getting into
on 5 games for the Tigers they sent Chet, Mark Christman, George Gill, Bob
Harris, Vern Kennedy and Roxie Lawson to the Browns for Beau Bell, Red Kress,
Jim Walkup and Bobo Newsom. In St.
Louis Chet became an everyday player and started hitting. He hit .300 his first season with the Browns
and showed some pop with 10 homers. Chet
would continue to hit .270 for the next three years and 10, 15 and 27 homers
for the Browns. In 1944 Chet was
platooned in the outfield and he hit only .234 with only 3 homers going into
the last game of the season. Going into
the last day, Sunday October 1 against the Yankees, the Browns were tied for
first with the Detroit Tigers. The
Browns were down 2-0 to the Yanks when Chet came up and hit a two run homer in
the fourth to tie the game. An inning
later, Chet did the same thing. Another
2 run homer gave the Browns a 4-2 lead.
The final score was 5-2 with Chet accounting for 4 of the 5 runs on two
homers when he had hit only 3 all year.
The win coupled with a Tigers loss gave the Browns the AL pennant for
1944, the only pennant the team would ever win.
In the World Series the Browns faced the St. Louis Cardinals who shared
Sportsman’s Park as their home field.
With both teams being home the fans of St. Louis must have been in
heaven. The Browns would lose the
series 4 games to 2. Chet and many of
the Browns bats went quiet. Chet hit
.200 and the Browns as a team hit only .183.
Chet continued to play for the Browns for the next couple of years but
as a back up. In April of 1947 Chet was
sold to the Philadelphia Athletics. He
got into 15 games for the Athletics before his major league career was over.
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