Bobby Seay may have ended his career as a Tiger. Bobby was drafted by the Chicago White Sox
but was released at the age of 19 in 1996.
He then signed with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and worked his way up the
Devil Rays farm system until in 2001when he debuted with the Devil Rays. It was in Yankee Stadium and he gave up a
single to Tino Martinez who then was erased by a Jorge Posada double play
ball. He then got David Justice to fly out
before he was done. Bobby was 1-1 that
season but bounced back and forth between eh majors and minors for the Devil
Rays until 2005 when they traded him to the Colorado Rockies. After the 2005 season the Rockies granted
Bobby free agency and he signed with the Tigers. In 2006 Bobby got into 14 games for the Tiges
and did not record a decision. His ERA
was 6.46 but in 2007 things looked good for Bobby. The lefty came out of the bull pen 58 times
and posted a 2.33 ERA and won 3 games.
He followed that with a 1-2 record and a 4.47 ERA in 2008. In 2009 Bobby was looking stronger with a 6-3
record and a 4.25 ERA but he tore his rotator cuff and ended the season on the
DL. He sat out 2010 hoping it would heal
without surgery. But at the end 2010 he
finally got the surgery but was also granted free agency by the Tiges and did
not sign with any team.
Paul Bako started his career as a back up catcher with the
Tigers. He was in the Cincinnati Reds
fram system when he was traded to the Tiges at the end of 1997 with Donne Wall
for Melvin Nieves. He was the starter for
the Tiges in 1998 as a 26 year old rookie.
He was a decent fielding catcher but only average for throwing out
runners. He hit .272 for the Tiges with
a .319 OBP. I don’t ever recall being
amazed by how slow somebody could be until I saw Paul run to first base. I swear I could have beat him down to first as
a fan! Somehow he did manage to steal a
base for the Tigers. I suspect a fellow
catcher was caught off guard or was laughing too hard to make the play. Before the 1999 season, Paul was traded by Randy
Smith to…..wait for it……the Astros. The
deal also involved another catcher. Paul
and sent to Houston with Dean Crow, Brian Powell and two minor leaguers for
catcher Brad Ausmus and CJ Nitkowski. Paul
went on to make a 12 year career as a back up catcher. He played with the Florida Marlins, Atlanta
Braves, Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, Kansas City
Royals, Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds and finally the Philadelphia
Phillies in 2009. He was a career .230
hitter. My guess is he could have hit 20
points higher if he could have run a bit faster.
Charlie “Bugs” Grover spent his
entire time in the majors with the Tigers. He was first in professional
baseball in 1911 with the Maysville Rivermen of Maysville, KY in the Bluegrass
League. He was 1-2 as a right-handed pitcher. He was there again in 1912 but no
records of his pitching stats exist. It is also not known where he was to start
the 1913 season. But it is known that on September 9, 1913 he made his major
league debut as a Tiger pitcher. The Tigers were in sixth place and facing the
Boston Red Sox in Boston who were in fourth place. It is not clear if Charlie
got he start or not. But he did not figure in the decision which was a 3-2 Red
Sox victory. Three days later Charlie was in the game again facing the same Red
Sox still in Boston. Again, Charlie did not figure in the decision but this
time the Sox won 18-5. What is known is that Charlie pitched 10.2 innings and
started one of the two games and that he only gave up 4 of the 21 Red Sox runs
on 9 hits and 7 walks. He also K’d 2. At the plate Charlie made 5 plate
appearances and went 0-3 with a walk and a sac hit. It is also known that
Charlie never played in the majors again. Providence bought him about a week
after his last game against the Red Sox.
He
returned to the minors and bounced around winning 20 games twice in his career,
once with Topeka and the other with Sioux City of the Western League. He was
done in baseball after 1924.
Jim Delahanty was the only Delehanty brother who played for
the Tigers. There were 5 Delahanty in
the majors in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.
There was Jim, Frank, Joe, and Hall of Famer Ed who was the oldest
brother. Ed died in a rather mysteries
way when he supposedly fell of a train while passing over the Niagara River. Jim, the fourth brother, started his major
league career in 1901 with the Chicago Cubs but did not fare well. He only was in 17 games and hit just
.190. The next year he was given another
shot at the majors with the New York Giants.
But after hitting only .231 in 7 games and breaking a knee cap and
catching malaria he was let go. In 1904
he finally stuck with the Boston Beanaters (later to become the Boston Braves)
of the National League. He led the Boston
team with a .285 average while playing third.
He stayed in Boston 2 seasons before heading to Cincinnati in 1906 in a
trade for Al Bridwell. At the end of the
season the Reds sold him to the St. Louis Browns who kept him only in to June
1907 before selling him to the Washington Senators for $2,000. He stayed in Washington until the Tigers
traded Germany Schaefer and Red Killefer for Jim in August of 1909. Jim became the starting second baseman and
hit .253 for the Tiges. The Tiges won
the AL flag that year, their third in a row, and faced the Pittsburgh Pirates
in the World Series. Jim led the Tigers
with a .346 average and a .538 slugging percentage. Only Tommy Leach of the Pirates hit for a
higher average and Jim led both teams with 5 doubles. But despite Jim’s play, the Tigers lost in 7
games. Jim stuck around into the 1912
before being released by the Tigers.
The rumor was that the Tigers front office was not happy with Jim being
one of the leaders of the players strike when Ty Cobb was suspended for going
into the stands after the fan in New York.
In the 4 years he was in Detroit he hit .306 with 200 RBI’s. He later played in the Federal League with
the Brooklyn Tip-Tops in 1914 and 1915.
Below is a Mecca Triple Folder of Delhanty from my collection. He is the portrait on the left as well as the batter in the middle photo. The catcher is Ira Thomas of the Philadelphia Athletics.
Win Mercer pitched his last season with the Tigers. He had started his time in the majors with
the Washington Senators of the National League where at the age of 20 he was
the youngest pitcher and the ace of the staff going 17-23 for a team that won
only 45 games in the season finished 11th in the 12 team National
League. He stayed with Washington
through 1899 when Washington finished 11th again. It would be Washington’s last year in the
National League. In 1900 they would
leave the league for the American Association.
His best year had been 1896 when he won 25 games for the Senators who
only won 58 all year. Win had always been
a fan favorite of the ladies and was often started on Tuesday’s and Fridays
which were known as “Ladies Days”. On
one Ladies Day game he was ejected which started a riot. The “ladies” charged the field and attacked
the umpire. In 1900 he was purchased by
the New York Giants and went 13-17. But
at the end of the season he jumped and resigned with the Washington Senators
who stayed in the American Association when they became the American
League. 1901 would be his last season in
Washington. Since 1897 Win was also used
as a utility infielder and outfielder when he wasn’t pitching and hit a career
.285. After the 1901 season the Senators
sold Win to Detroit. Win was 15-18 as a
pitcher and at the end of the 1902 season Win was named the Tigers player
manager for 1903. But while out in San
Francisco barnstorming in January, he committed suicide by gas in a hotel
room. The reason was never clear. There were two versions, one was it was a
woman who refused him that drove him to it, another was that he had gambled
away money meant for the other players and had no way to pay it back. Neither story has every been corroborated.
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