Chris Gomez
Fernando Hernandez
Ron LeFlore was most famous for being in prison before
becoming a Tiger. When he was 21 he and
a couple of his buddies had been snorting heroin on Detroit’s east side. His buddies were out of money and they all
wanted to get some more heroin. So Ron
suggested they commit a robbery. They
robbed a bar across the street from Chrysler’s Mack Avenue stamping plant. They were caught and Ron was sentenced to
5-15 years for armed robbery. He played
baseball in Jackson and started sending letters to the Tigers asking for a
tryout. They refused. In March, 1973, Ron went before the parole
board. He would end up getting paroled
later that year. Billy Martin and the
Tigers were making a visit to Jackson in May of 1973. He was talking to Ron when several prisoners
circled them and suggested that Billy give Ron a tryout. Billy figured he was out numbered and told
Ron to come out to Tiger Stadium and he could workout with the Tigers. In June, after his parole, Ron called Billy
at Tiger Stadium. Billy had to cover the
phone and ask “whose Ron LeFlore?” He
was reminded of his trip Jackson and asked him when he would be at Tiger
Stadium. LeFlore answered
“tomorrow”. Willie Horton and Al
Kaline gave him some bats to take batting practice. He missed the very first pitch but connected
on the rest. He was hitting shots into
the upper deck. Frank Howard, and the
rest of the Tigers were impressed.
Kaline even said he felt Ron was better than anyone the Tiges had at
Toledo. So the Tigers signed him. About a year later he was called up to
Detroit and made his debut in the major leagues, less than a year and half
before he had been in Jackson. He led
off playing center field and went 0-4 with 3 K’s. It would be a problem Ron would have at the
plate his entire career. Ron would
become an all-star with the Tigers. He
was known for his speed and stealing bases, leading the league twice and
averaging 67 bases per 162 game season.
He had a .297 batting average for the Tigers over six years and was a
fan favorite. In 1978 he had his story
published in the book “Breakout; From Prison to the Big Leagues”. This was made into a tv movie “One in a
Million” with LeVar Burton playing Ron.
Ron was eventually traded to the Montreal Expos after the 1979 season
for Dan Schatzeder. He was arrested for
possession of a controlled substance (cocaine) while with the Expos and was
also found carrying a hand gun. He ended
his playing career with the Chicago White Sox.
He was never known as a good fielder and in Chicago he had a ball hit
him on the head and turned it into a four base error as the batter scored on
the miscue. After his retirement from
baseball he admitted that he was actually four years older than he had been
telling everyone. He was twice arrested
for failure to pay child support. One of
those arrests was notably before the curtain call at the final game at Tiger
Stadium. In 2011 he lost a leg to
vascular disease caused by smoking cigarettes his whole life.
Jay Kirke
Kid Speer
Jack Rowan
Wish Egan
Marr Phillips played part of one season as a Detroit
Wolverine. He had played in the minors
with several teams over several years starting in 1877 with Erie and leading to
Fort Wayne and the Northwestern League in 1883.
He was sold for $500 to Indianapolis and started his major league career
in 1884 with the Hoosiers of the National League. He was the oldest regular of the Hoosier line
up and was their starting shortstop. He
was the second best hitter on the squad hitting .269. But the Hoosiers were a very bad team ending
up 12th out of 13 teams in the league with a 29-78 record and 46
games out of first. In 1885 he moved his
skills to Detroit and played shortstop with the Wolverines at the beginning of
the season. He had been chastised in the
press for his drinking as he left Indy. He
only played 33 games out of the teams 108 games but it was more than any other
player at short. The Wolverines used 9
players at short and had a better fielding percentage than any of the others
except Charlie Morton who played only 4 games as he was their player manager
preferring to play as a back up third baseman.
But Marr did not end the season with the Wolverines due to his low
batting average. He was hitting below
.200 for most of his time in Detroit and was only at .209 when he was released
in July of 1885. Again, drinking was
said to be part of his problem. He
jumped to the Pittsburgh Alleghenies to end the season and hit .267 in only 4
games. He went back to the minors for a
few years with such teams as the Augusta Browns, Charleston Seagulls, Hamilton
Hams, Rochester Jingoes, Troy Trojans and Troy Washerwomen, Oil City Oilers,
and Hamilton Blackbirds until returning to the majors and the Rochester Broncos
in 1890 of the American Association. He
was 33 years old at the time and became one of the reasons for the infield fly
rule of today. In a game against
Brooklyn he let a pop fly drop with the bases loaded. The runners were unsure whether to stay or
run and instead were all removed on a triple play. He was done in pro ball after 1890 after only
3 years in the majors and a career batting average of .239.
Lon Knight was a member of the first major league team in
Detroit. He was born Alonzo P. Letti in
1853 in Philadelphia, PA. When he was 9
he was sent to Girard College, a school for father less boys after his father
died of typhoid fever. He changed his
name to Lon Knight most likely to avoid discrimination for being a foreigner
(Italian). He learned to play baseball there
before graduating and becoming an apprentice accountant. He continued to play and was hired by the
Philadelphia Athletics of the National Association in 1875 to pitch. In his debut on September 4, he won the game
6-3 against the Boston Red Stockings but went 0-4 at the plate. He stayed with the team for the remainder of
the season and started 13 games in the time remaining with a 6-5 record with 12
of the 13 games being complete games.
The following year the National Association died and the National League
began. Lon was again a pitcher for
Philadelphia but in the new NL. In fact,
Lon threw the first pitch in NL history in a game against the same Red
Stockings he had faced in his debut.
However, this time the Boston nine won.
It would be the first of many loses for Lon who went 10-22 for a
Philadelphia team that was 14-45 for the season and finish 7th out
of 8 teams. Lon disappeared from the
majors for a few years playing in Massachusetts for Lowell before making it
back to Worcester in the NL in 1880. He
was no longer pitching but was playing the outfield. He played on year with Worcester before
joining the inaugural Detroit Wolverines for the 1881 NL season. He was the starting right fielder hitting
.271 and playing next to Hall of Fame center fielder Ned Hanlon, while Charlie
Bennett (of Bennet Park fame) played catcher.
That first season the Wolverines finished 4th in the league
at 41-43. He was 6th in the
league in runs scored and 7th in RBI’s and led the league in double
plays as an outfielder with 6. Just
before the end of the season in Chicago a record was set when the Chicago Cubs
beat the Troy Trojans before a record crowd of 12. During the season the President of the United
States, James Garfield, was assassinated and Chester Arthur succeeded him,
Sitting Bull surrendered to Federal troops and Billy the Kid was killed. At the end of the season came the gunfight at
the OK corral. Lon returned to the Wolverines for 1882 and
again played right field next to Ned Hanlon and Charlie Bennett still
caught. But Lon only hit .207. He went back to Philadelphia and in 1883 and
was player manager leading the Athletics to the NL title. He played 3 years for the Philadelphia
Athletics of the American Association before ending his major league career
with the Providence Grays in 1885 and his pro career in the minors in with a
season with Rochester Maroons and finally the Binghamton Crickets in 1887. He also umpired a few seasons in the NL, AA
and the Players League. After baseball
he became a drummer. He died in 1932
when line to the gas heater in his house broke.
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