Michael Hollimon
Mike Laga was a power hitting first baseman for the 1984
Tigers. He was drafted by the Tiges in
1980 and led the Lakeland Tigers in triples, homers, RBI’s and game winning
RBI’s. He followed that up with a
Southern League all-star selection in 1981 and led all Tiger minor leaguers in
extra base hits. In 1982 he set the
record for Evansville (AAA) for homers in a season with 34. The Tigers called him up as a late season
call up. He got in 27 games and had 23
hits. 12 of the hits were for extra
bases. He even hit a bomb off of Jim
Palmer off the facing of the third deck at Tiger Stadium. He only got in 12 games for the 1983 Tigers
and hit .190 so was sent back down to Evansville. In 1984 he led the entire Tiger team with a
.545 batting average. He had gone 6 for
11 in 9 games. The 11 at bats were the
fewest of any batter for the 1984 Tigers.
Mike got in 9 games again in 1985 and 15 games in 1986 before he was
traded to the St. Louis Cardinals with Ken Hill for Mike Heath. In the five years as a Tiger Mike got in 72
games and hit .239 with 8 homers and 28 RBI’s.
Mike was on three pennant winners in his career. The 1984 Tigers, 1987 Cardinals, and the 1989 San
Francisco Giants. Yet he never got in the post season.
Bill Fahey
Hal Manders
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