Tom Haller finished his major league career as a back up
catcher on the 1972 Tigers who won the AL East.
He previously played for the unlikely pair of teams, the Giants and the
Dodgers. He was starting catcher for the
Giants from 1962 until 1967 or close to it.
One year he only started 79 of the games. He was traded to Dodgers to take over for
Johnny Roseboro who had been traded to the Twins. When Jim Price retired after the 1971 season,
we picked him up from the Dodgers for cash and a minor leaguer after the
Dodgers realized they had another catcher in Duke Sims. For Detroit in 1972 Tom hit .267 with 35
RBI’s and 5 homers. Like any good
catcher Tom did not steal a base for the Tigers in 1972. In the 72 playoffs he had one at bat and
grounded out to first unassisted. His
major league career was over.
Bubba Floyd is the stereotypical World War II baseball
player as a Tiger. He was born Leslie
Roe Floyd in Dallas TX. He started his
pro career in 1936 as a 19 year old shortstop with Kilgore of the East Texas
League. He played there and was going to
Southern Methodist University. The
Kilgore Braves (Not the Trout’s.) played close to Bubba’s home town of
Dallas. He hit .274 for class C Kilgore
in 137 games. He was up at Oklahoma City
of the Texas League before the end of the season. This was a big jump going from C ball to A1
ball. The next year, 1937, Bubba was
again at Oklahoma City and hit only .127 in 24 games before he went to the
Davenport Blue Sox of the Western League where he hit .242. He would bounce around between levels in the
minors and do very well in class C but as he moved up his average always
dropped. Finally in 1944 he was playing
for the Tigers AA ball club, the Buffalo Bisons. In Detroit the Tigers had Joe Hoover playing
short. Joe was never vying for a batting
title but in May of 1944 he went on a slide for the last of May where he got 6
hits in 57 at bats. The Tigers needed to
find a shortstop if they were going to complete for the pennant. So Joe was out as shortstop and the Tiges
tried others at the spot. One of the
others the Tiges intended to try was Bubba who was called up from Buffalo. In a game at Briggs Stadium, ten days after
the Normandy landings, the third place Tiges faced the first place Browns. Hoover started the game at short but was 0-2
with a K. So Tiger skipper Steve O’Neil
pulled Hoover for Bubba. Bubba went 2-2. The next day Hoover led off the game with an
out. He was pulled again and Bubba went
2-3. The next day Bubba started the game
at short and batting leadoff. He went
0-4 but scored a run on a walk. The next
day O’Neil used Joe Orengo at short. Bubba’s major league career was over. For his career he went 4-9 with a walk. That is a career on base percentage of
.500. Bubba also has the distinction of
being the first player in the majors called “Bubba”.
Aaron Robinson was the starting catcher for the Tigers in
1949 and 1950. He also played part of
the 1951 season with the Tigers before being traded to the Red Sox. Aaron had been the starting catcher for the
Yankees until they started using Gus Niarhos and Yogi Berra. Aaron spent some time with the White Sox,
which is where we picked him up for Billy Pierce and cash. Aaron hit .244 for Detroit with 102 RBI’s and 22 homers.
Aaron Robinson is still known today because his autograph is a tough
one. He died young at the age of 50 in
1966.
Al Clauss pitched
five games for the Tigers in 1913. He
started one game and came in from the pen the other four. He pitched a total of 13.1 innings and gave
up an ERA of 4.73. With his 11 hits and
12 walks his WHIP was 1.725. A tad
high. The Tigers had picked him up from
the Jackson Saginaw team of the Southern Michigan League. After his time in Detroit he went out to
Lincoln of the Western League. After
1914, Al was done with pro ball.
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