Willis Roberts started his major league career as a
Tiger. He signed with Tigers out of high
school in the Dominican Republic in 1992.
He slowly worked his way up through the Tiger farm system until 1999
when he was called up to the Tiges. On
July 2, the two worst teams in the American League Central squared off in
Minnesota when the twinkies who were 21 games back played the Tiges who were 19
games back of the first place Cleveland Indians. The twinkies scored 5 runs in the second off
of Tiger starter Jeff Weaver. By the 6th
it was 7-4 twinkies when Willis got the call from the bull pen with two outs
and a runner on first. Willis faced
pinch hitter Chad Allen. He threw a ball
and then picked off the runner on first to end the inning. In the 7th Allen was back to start
the at bat again. He ripped the first
pitch from Willis for a single up the middle.
Willis hit Marty Cordova with his next pitch. He then gave up a line drive single to Corey
Koskie to score Allen on his next pitch. Brent Gates came up and Willis got a strike on
him before Brent hit a ball to the first base side of the mound. Willis fielded it and then threw wild for an
error and loaded the bases. So far in
the inning he had thrown 5 pitches and allowed one run and loaded the
bases. He worked Doug Mientkiewicz to a
2-2 count before Doug hit a line drive to center to score another run and keep
the bases loaded. Javier Valentin then
hit into a fielders choice for the first out of the inning on his first pitch
to score another run and put runners at the corners. Christian Guzman then hit a sac fly to center
to score another run before Jacque Jones finally ended the inning grounding out
to second to end the inning. Willis did
not return to the mound in the 8th or even ever again as Tiger. His final line was giving up 4 runs on 3
hits, 1 hit batter, 1 error in 1.1 innings pitched for a 13.50 ERA. All this in 25 pitches. Willis was released before the next
season. He did make it back to the
majors for 3 seasons with the Orioles and his final season with the Pirates in
2004. He was 17-15 overall in his major
league career with a 4.64 ERA mainly as a reliever.
Jim Slaton taught everyone what to look for in the era of
free agency when he was a Tiger. He got
his start in the majors in Milwaukee with the Brewers in 1971 as a right handed
starting pitcher. He was 10-8 his first
season and went on to be the Brewers ace of the staff. He won 72 games from 1971 through 1977 when
at the end of the season the Tigers traded Ben Oglive to the Brewers for Jim
Slaton and Rich Folkers as a throw in.
Ben had hit 21 homers and hit .262 his last season in Detroit and only
got better in Milwaukee where he hit .277 over the next 9 seasons as the
Brewers starting left fielder. Jim came
to Detroit and was successful winning a career high 17 games with a 4.12
ERA. Free agency started after the 1976
season. So it was new to baseball
management when the trade was made. What
the Jim Slaton deal taught everyone was that you need to look at how many years
remain on the contract of a player you are trading for. The issue was that Jim only had one year left
of his contract. At the end of the
season 1978 season Jim was free agent and re-signed with his original team, the
Brewers. So Detroit gave up an all star
outfielder so they could “rent” Jim for a year.
The following year Jim won 15 games for the Brewers. He stayed in Milwaukee through 1983. After that he pitched a couple years for the
California Angels and was 151-158 when at the end of June 1986 he was released
by the Angels and signed with the Tigers two weeks later. He did not start a game for the Tigers the
second time around but he did get in 22 games as a reliever. He was 0-0 with 2 saves and a 4.05 ERA on his
second hitch with the Tigers. At the end
of the season he was released. Today he
is the Dodgers interim bull pen coach.
Eddie Cicotte is possibly the most infamous pitcher in
baseball history and he started out as a Tiger.
He was born in Springwells, MI and started his career in pro ball with
the Augusta Tourists of the South Atlantic League. He was 15-9 with the Tourists and this caught
the attention of the Tigers. They
brought Eddie to Detroit in September and he got into 3 games. He relieved in 2 games and also started 1
game where he went the distance. He
posted a 1-1 record with a 3.50 ERA. But
the Tigers did not retain him and in 1906 he was back in the minors where he
would stay for another year before coming back to the majors with the Boston
Red Sox. He immediately started paying
off winning 11 games in 1908. He was the
ace of the staff by 1910 when he was 15-11.
In the Red Sox championship of 1912 Eddie was 1-3 in July so the Sox
sold them to the other Sox in Chicago.
There Eddie would gain his greatest notoriety. He was the White Sox ace in 1917 when they
won the World Series over the New York Giants in 6 games. Eddie was the league leader in wins at 28-12
that season with a league leading 1.53 ERA and 1-1 in the World Series. He won game 1 by a score of 2-1 and lost game
3 when he only allowed 2 runs but his fellow Sox did not score at all. Both games Eddie pitched complete games. In 1919 Eddie won 29 games for the Sox and
was the starting pitcher for game 1 of the series against the Cincinnati
Reds. It was there that Eddie took
$10,000, more than his annual salary from Charles Comiskey, to throw the World
Series. Eddie was 1-2 in the series and
the White Sox became known as the Black Sox.
Eddie played in 1920 with the Sox but that would be his last in the
majors. The scandal broke and he was out
of baseball in 1921. All this is
portrayed in the Elliot Asinoff book and movie “Eight Men Out”. While Comiskey was cheap it should be noted
that the story that Eddie was benched the last couple of weeks of the season so
as to be prevented from earning a bonus for winning 30 games in not true. Eddie continued his starts right up to the
last day of the season when he started against the Tigers and got a no decision
in a Tigers 10-9 win.
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