Avisail Garcia has been made out to be a big impact as a
Tiger. Avisail is from Venezuela. He made his major league debut as a late
season call up in 2012 in a game against the White Sox. He was a defensive replacement for Brennan
Boesch in top of the 8th in right field. He did not get an at bat nor did he make a
play in the field. However, he did get
in 22 more games for the Tigers and hit .319.
He was thought of as a mini Miggy.
He made the Post Season roster and did not have a good ALDS against
Oakland going 1 for 7 with an RBI. But
in the ALCS he showed promise going 5 for 11 with 3 RBI’s and a stolen
base. He then dropped off in the 2012
World Series as did the rest of the Tigers going 0 for 5 as the Tiges were
swept by the Giants. In 2013 Avisail was
injured early and did not get into his first game until May 14. He then got in a total of 30 games for the
Tiges and hit .241 with 2 homers and 10 RBI’s.
This is also when it is rumored he made his greatest impact as a
Tiger. Some have rumored he was sleeping
with Prince Fielder’s wife. Thus on July
30, 2013 he was part of a three way trade.
He was sent to the the team he made his MLB debut against, the Chicago
White Sox, and Brayan Villareal was sent to the Boston Red Sox. In return the Tiges got current shortstop
Jose Iglesias. Now, the second rumor I
have heard is that the person sleeping with Prince’s wife was Brayan. I don’t know.
I was not there. I might as well
have been a thousand miles away. All I
know is Jose is hitting .329 at a critical position and is a joy to watch at
short. Avisail is hitting .297 and is
the White Sox starting right fielder and Brayan has not played in the majors
since 2013. As for Prince, after a
dismal 2014 he is hitting a league leading .349 with the Texas Rangers in
2015.
Scott Aldred pitched twice for the Tigers. Scott was born in Flint and went to high
school in Montrose before signing with the Tigers and working his way up the
farm system. He started his career as a
Tiger lefty starting pitcher as a late season call up in 1990 when he faced the
Milwaukee Brewers in Milwaukee’s County Stadium. He pitched 5 innings and gave up only 4 hits
and 0 runs. In the second inning he got
his first career strike out when he Robin Yount swinging on 4 pitches. His second strike out was Gary Sheffield
swinging. He was pulled for Ed Nunez who
also did not allow a run and Scott got his first win in his major league debut. Scott got in 3 more games for the Tiges and
finished the season 1-2 with a 3.77 ERA.
The next two years he was again in the Tigers farm system for much of
the year but was up enough to be considered a lefty starter in the rotation
after Frank Tanana. But his win totals
only went from 1 to 2 to 3 each year while his ERA climbed from the initial
3.77 to 5.18 and 6.78. At the end of the
1992 season the Colorado Rockies drafted Scott to go along with their later
Tiger draft pick of Kevin Ritz. But Scott did not have the same success as
Kevin and was waived in April and claimed by the Montreal Expos. He was released by the Expos in September
after going 1-0. He had a sore arm that
year and it turned out he needed Tommy John surgery. Because of that he was out of baseball entirely
in 1994. In the spring of 1995 he was
signed as a free agent by the Tiges for his second stint. He spent 1995 in the minors and was 5-2 but spent
all of 1996 in the majors. He played 11
games as a Tiger starter and was 0-4 with a 9.35 ERA. The Tigers waived him in May and he was
picked up by the Minnesota Twins. The
Twins kept him for two years as a starter and where he was 8-15 with a 6.10
ERA. At the end of 1997 he was granted
free agency and signed with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He was moved to the bullpen and set a major
league record with the Devil Rays when he appeared in 48 games without a
decision, meaning no wins, losses or saves.
Scott spent part of 1999 with Tampa before heading to the Phillies where
he ended his career in 2000 at the age of 32.
Matty McIntyre was the left fielder in the hey days when
Cobb and Crawford played for the Tigers.
He started his career in the majors in 1901 with the fledgling American
League in Philadelphia with Connie Mack’s Athletics. He hit .276 but Mack felt he was not fast
enough for the majors and sent him to the minors. He was traded from Newark where Mack had sent
him to Buffalo and was hitting over .400 in mid season of 1903 and the Tigers
picked him up in September for the 1904 season.
In his first year in Detroit he hit second in the line up and he and his
fellow outfielders of Sam Crawford and Jimmy Barrett led the team in hitting
with Matty hitting .253 to Sam’s .254 and Jimmy’s .268. In 1905 Matty worked hard and became a solid
lefty hitting, lefty throwing, left fielder.
Also later in August a new rookie joined the Tigers and quickly was at
odds with Matty. In one game Ty roamed
into Matty’s territory in the outfield and caused Matty to drop the ball. Soon after Matty was hazing the rookie and
the two would never get along. In 1906
Matty fell out of favor with his manager, Bill Armour and after a dispute Matty refused to go back into the
outfield which led to him being suspended by the Tigers. Matty threatened to jump to an outlaw league but did not carry
out the plan. Instead he practiced every
day with the team. But he Tigers would
not play him until he formally “reported” and asked to play. He hit .260 and stole 29 bases that season, 6
more than Ty stole. In 1907 several
teams wanted Matty but the Tigers kept him.
However, he lasted only 20 games when he broke his ankle sliding into
first base. He was back in the Tigers
starting line up as the left fielder with Hall of Famers Sam Crawford in center
and Ty Cobb in right. The three led the
team in average with Matty third with a .295 average but with his 83 walks had
a team leading .392 OBP as the Tiges leadoff hitter and led the league in runs
with 105. He missed much of 1909 with
appendicitis and managed to hit only .244.
In 1910 he lost more playing time to the point that Davy Jones took over
Matty’s role as left fielder. At the end
of the season the Tigers sold Matty to the Chicago White Sox for between $2,000
and $3,000. He was reborn in Chicago and
hit career highs of .323 batting and a .397 OBP. He also scored 102 runs. But his rebirth lasted only the one
season. In 1912 he was hitting only .167
and was sold to the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. Matty played and managed in the minors
through 1917 after which he returned to Detroit. In 1920 he died of Bright’s disease at the
age of 39.
Here is a Matty McIntyre Colgan's Chips card from my collection.
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