Chris Shelton will always be remembered for a great start of
a great 2006 season for the Tigers.
Chris had been signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2001 but taken by the
Tigers in the December 2003 Rule 5 draft.
He was with the team in April of 2004 and got his first major league hit
off of the Twins Carlos Silva for a double in the Metrodome. He
made it into 16 games before getting injured.
He played 11 more games later in the season for .196 average (9 hits in
46 at bats) and had one homer and 3 RBI’s.
He came back stronger in 2005 when he hit .299 as the Tigers starting
first baseman. But he showed he had a
penchant for K’ing. He K’d 87 times with
only 34 walks in 388 at bats. In 2006 Chris
set the stage for the Tigers season. He
had two homers on opening day and took off from there. He had three hits in each of his first three
games and three days after opening day he hit two homers again off of the Texas
Rangers giving him 5 homers in the first 4 games. He set an American League record of 7 homers
in his team’s first 9 games of the season and 8 in the first 12 games. He tied the club record set by Cecil Fielder
of 10 homers in the month of April and was Tiger player of the month with a
.326 average, 6 doubles, 2 triples, the 10 homers and 20 RBI’s in 25
games. This gave him the nicknames of
“Big Red” and “Orange Crush” due to his bright red hair. In May his power dropped off to a more
realistic 4 doubles and 1 homers and his average was .286 for the month of
May. But in June it fell apart for
Chris. He hit 4 homers but his average
plummeted to .205. The Tiges were in a
surprising pennant race in 2006 and wasted no time in shoring up first base and
on July 31 they traded for first baseman Sean Casey and optioned Chris to
Toledo. Chris would continue to produce
in Toledo and hit .266 but it was not the same Chris of April. He got another call up in September when the
roster expanded but was left off the post season roster as Sean Casey filled
the bill and led the team in the Tiges first World Series appearance since 1984
with a .529 World Series batting average and 5 RBI’s and 2 homers. Chris would never play in a Tiger uniform
again. He spent 2007 in Toledo where he
hit .269 and 14 homers. Chris was
traded after the 2007 season to the Texas Rangers. He got in 41 games for the Rangers in 2008
and then played 9 more games for the Seattle Mariners in 2009. He was last in pro ball in Houston Astros
farm system in 2010.
Mike Myers I thought was sold short and used as a LOOGY for
most of his time as a Tiger. No, that
does not have anything to do with throwing spit ball. A LOOGY is a modern term in this time of
specialization to describe a “Left-handed One Out Guy” type of pitcher. Mike came to the Tigers in his first big
league season in August the Tiges made a deal with the Florida Marlins of Buddy
Groom for Mike Myers. He was down in
Toledo briefly before getting the call up to Detroit. He got his first major league win as a Tiger
when on Sept ember 19, he was brought in in the fifth inning to relieve Sean
Bergman who was getting hit a around a bit.
Sean had given up 3 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks and was facing 3 straight
lefties and a switch hitter on the Orioles top of the line up of Curtis
Goodwin, Brady Anderson, Rafael Palmeiro and Bobby Bonilla. Mike came in and got the side out allowing
only one hit to Palmeiro. The Tiges were
already ahead and as it was the fifth that Mike pitched, he got credit for the
win. Mike would only get one more win as
a Tiger in 1996. That was the year he
led the majors in games for a pitcher with 83, but only pitched 64.2
innings. In 1997 he led the league in appearances with
88 games but pitched even fewer innings at 53.2. His strike out to walk ratio was better vs
lefties at 4.00 to 1.21 for righties and his batting average against was better
at .233 for lefties vs. .305 for righties in 1996. But in 1997 he evened out a bit more at 2.69
K/BB vs lefties against 1.25 vs righties and the batting average against was
less than a .050 difference. Mike did
not have a stellar ERA for the Tiges with a 5.56 ERA during his stint. But the biggest thing I recall was that the
Tigers of the mid-late 1990’s stunk. I
don’t think they could have done much worse leaving Mike in a bit longer. All the Tigers gave up about a run more than
they should have at that time as the Tigers could not play defense behind the
pitchers. After the 1997 season the
Tigers traded Mike away with Rick Greene and Santiago Perez for Bryce
Florie. Mike would pitch for another 10 years and his
career ERA dropped to 4.29 upon leaving the Tigers. But Mike’s role in baseball never
changed. For his career he pitched in a
whopping 883 games but only pitched 541.2 innings and had a record of 25-24.
Babe Herman could have benefited greatly had the DH been
around when he was a Tiger. As an 18
year old kid in the minors he hit .330 for the class B Edmonton Eskimos in
1921. He followed that up with a .402
season in A and AA ball in 1922. He
continued to show he was no fluke as a hitter and finally made the majors in
1926 for the Brooklyn Robins (This is the same franchise we know as the
Dodgers. However, from 1914 through 1931
they were called the Robins for their manager Wil Robinson. No, he was not in any “danger” but Babe
was.) Babe hit .319 and fell one hit shy
of the National League record with 9 consecutive hits that season. He also led the Robins in hits, doubles,
triples, homers and RBI’s. He stole 8
bases when his team leader stole only 12.
He was a one man wrecking crew at the plate. His danger was that he could not field. He led the league from 1927 thru 1929 in
errors. It has widely been rumored that
he was once hit on the head while circling under a fly ball. (No newspaper game record has been found to
substantiate this claim.) Babe was consistently
a below average fielder for his whole career regardless if he played outfield
or first base. Babe’s 162 game averages
are 10 stolen bases, 11 triples, 19 homers and 104 RBI’s with a career batting
average of .324 and a career slugging of .532.
But his career fielding of .961 in the outfield does not campare well to
a league AVERAGE of .973 while he played.
Clearly he was anchoring the curve!
He also started a long running gag for Brooklyn baseball fans. It was John Lardner (Son of Ring Lardner) who
wrote “Babe Herman did not triple into a triple play, but he did double into a
double play, which is the next best thing.”
With runners on first and second Babe hit a double, but as he rounded
second he kept on going. The runner from
second, Dazzy Vance, had not scored yet and the runner from first was still
rounding third so the coach yelled at Babe to go back. Dazzy Vance heard the yelling and thought it
was for him so he retreated to third. Babe
did not hear the yelling and continued on to third and the runner from first
was caught in the middle. The result was
three runners on third and the ball thrown to the third baseman who tagged all
three as he was not sure who owned the base.
Babe and the sandwiched runner from first were out as the lead runner is
entitled to the base. This led to the
running gag in Brooklyn that when told during the course of the Brooklyn team
had three runners on base they would demand to know which base. Twice he stopped running the bases to watch
home run and was passed on the base paths forcing the homer to be called a
single. Because of his fielding or lack
thereof and his base running exploits Babe was traded from Brooklyn after 6
years, to Cincy where he lasted one season before heading to the Cubs for two
years on to Pittsburgh and back to Cincy all by the end of the 1936
season. In April 1937 the Tigers had
sold aging outfielder Al Simmons to the Washington Senators and thus had room
on the roster for another outfielder.
They purchased Babe from the Reds.
But Babe was short-lived as a Tiger.
The Tigers starting three in the outfield of Jo-Jo White, Gee Walker and
Pete Fox played most games. Gee missed only 3 games and Pete missed only
6. And the Tiges still had Goose Goslin
and young Chet Laabs to be the fourth and fifth outfielders in needed to back
up Jo-Jo. Babe got into only 17 games as
a Tiger with 15 as a pinch hitter or pinch runner and got only 6 hits for a
.300 average with no homers or triples and only 3 RBI’s. In the two games he played the field he had
three chances and made all three put outs.
On June 15th, 11 days before his 34th birthday,
the Tigers released Babe. He went back
the minors played there for years and in 1945, the last year of World War II he
was brought back to the majors with Brooklyn for 37 games at the age of
42. Ironic as it may sound, Babe went in
to coaching baseball after his playing days and also skippered in the minors
and was a scout for 22 years.
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