Don Demeter was mainly a centerfielder as a Tiger. He made his debut in the majors with the
Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956. He had only 3
plate appearances. In his first
appearance he was a pinch hitter and struck out without ever taking a
swing. The next night he was again a
pinch hitter and on the first swing he took he hit a home run. The next time Don was in the majors the
Dodgers where in Los Angeles. He was a
back up outfielder who hit .189. But his
next season he became the starting center fielder for the Dodgers as they won
the World Series over the Chicago White Sox.
He fractured his wrist in July of 1960 and that ended his season. In 1961 he was only with the Dodgers for a
short time. Several teams were
interested in him such as the Tigers and Phillies but the Phillies got him in a
trade. He was on the Phils and played
all three outfield positions as well as some firs base his first year. His second year he became the starting third
baseman and had his best season ever. He hit career highs of .307 with 29 homers and
107 RBI’s. But in 1963 he was back to
his average of .258 with 22 homers. He
was again part are trade rumors in again with Detroit. This time it came through. He came to Detroit with Jack Hamilton for Gus
Triandos and Jim Bunning. Charlie
Dressen, theTigers manger wanted a top outfielder and the only two they
considered were Felipe Alou and Don. But
Don never quite caught on. He was a
utility player in 1964 hitting .256 but with a strong 80 RBI’s. Don always said he did not care or pay
attention to his batting average. All he
cared about was driving in runs. 80 was
tied for second on the 64 Tiges. In 1965
his playing time was dropping to 122 games.
He hit .278 and drove in 58 runs.
The big news in 1965 was the end of his consecutive games without an
error in the outfield. It happened in
Kansas City where Charlie Finley owned the Athletics. Always one for gimmicks he used dogs to run
out and carry the bases to the grounds crew to change the bases. As Don said “"I
have a line drive hit to me and I scooped it up and I guess the ground crew
thought it was the last out and sent the dog on the field. I scooped the ball
up and threw it to Dick McAuliffe at shortstop. The dog just shot out there and
the ball went through his legs at the same time the dog went through
there." The runner advanced a base, and the scorer couldn't charge the dog
with the error so it was assigned to Demeter.
He started 1966 with the Tigers as the 4th outfielder and
after 32 games where he was hitting .212 he was sent to the Red Sox with Julio
Navarro for Earl Wilson and Joe Christopher.
Don would be traded one more time the following season, 1967, to the
Cleveland Indians where he ended the season and his career in the majors.
Alex Garbowski had not even a cup of coffee with the
Tigers. He had 6 years in the minors
mainly as a shortstop starting right after the war in 1946 at the age of
24. His first few years held lots of
promise. He hit .390 his first year in
class D and then .396 in Class C. In
1948 he his .301 in class A ball and never hit .300 again. In 1952 the Tigers picked him up in the rule
5 draft and he made his major league debut in a game in Detroit where the
Tigers trailed the St. Louis Browns 5-3 in the 9th. With two out Matt Batts hit a fielder choice
and was safe at first. Alex came in as a
pinch runner. The nest batter was Jerry
Priddy who hit a fly left and the game ended without Alex moving off
first. Less than month later the White
Sox were in Detroit in a tie game that was 4-4 in the 13th. Johnny Groth hit a single to start of the 13th. Matt Batts then hit bunt and reached first on
an error. Alex came in again to replace
Matt. Jerry Priddy then grounded out and
moved Johnny to third and Alex to second.
Joe Ginsberg came up and hit a fly ball to right and Johnny and Alex did
not advance. Johnny Lipon then came up
and hit a foul ball that first baseman Eddie Robinson caught to end the inning
and Alex’s time in the majors. He did
not get an at bat. He pinch ran twice
and only made one extra base. The Tigers
would lose the second game just like they lost the first game he appeared
in. Alex would go back to the minors and
would be done in baseball after 1954.
Johnny Pasek was a bumped from the squad by a manager for
the Tigers. He started his time in pro
ball in 1927 as a catcher for the Pensacola Pilots. He hit .277 that year which was not far
formhis career average in the minors of .278.
He bounced around the minors until 1932 when he was picked up by the
Tigers and assigned to Beaumont. He hit
.260 for the Explorers in 1932 and was hitting .292 in 1933 when he was called
up to the Tiges. He would get in 28
games that year for the Tigers and hit .246 with 4 RBI’s. He was great defensively gunning done over
half of the attempted base stealers. But
at the end of the season the Tigers were looking for a new manager. They wanted Babe Ruth but the Babe went on
vacation thinking the Tiges would wait for him.
But they did not. While the Babe
was in Hawaii, Connie Mack, owner of the Philadelphia Athletics, had one of his
fire sales. He made Mickey Cochrane
available and the Tigers jumped at it.
The Tigers sent Johnny to the Athletics and $100,000 for Mickey to
become their starting catcher and manager.
Johnny never made it to Philly.
He was traded that very day to the Chicago White Sox with George
Earnshaw for Charlie Berry and $20,000.
Johnny got in only 4 games for the Sox going 3 for 9 with a walk and in
May was done in the majors. Johnny would
go on to play in the minors though 1942 when at the age of 37 his career as a
ball player was over.
John Deering pitched almost exactly half his time in the
majors with the Tigers. He started his
time in pro ball in 1899 with the Schenectady Electricians of the New York
State League. He was 1-12. He moved on and in 1900 was 4-13 with 2
teams. He did not show a record in
baseball again until he appeared for the Tigers in 1903. He was appeared in 10 games for the Tiges and
started 8 of them and pitched 5 of them as complete games. He was 3-4 with a 3.86 ERA. In July the Tigers traded him to the New York
Highlanders (Eventually they would become the Yankees.) for Paddy Greene. Paddy was a 28 year old third baseman who
would get in one game for the Tigers and go 0 for 3. John would pitch in 9 games for the
Highlanders and have his only winning season in pro ball. He was 4-3 with the highlanders and a 3.75
ERA. After the 1903 season John was done
in the majors. He played in Toledo with
the Mud Hens in 1904 and went 5-20. He
was done in baseball after the 1906 season.
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