June 3 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Ed Glynn started his major league career as a lefty pitcher in 1975 as a Tiger. 

Johnny Bassler had a fairy tale start to his career before he was a Tiger.  He was 17 when he left the Mennonite community in which he was raised and moved to California.  He was working as an usher at a movie theatre.  The manager of the Cleveland Indians came into the theatre after an exhibition game in which his catcher was injured.  Johnny asked the manager about it and told him he was a catcher.  The manager told him to come on out to the park.  Johnny was actually only in one game that season as a Cleveland Nap (The team was nicknamed for their star second baseman, Nap Lajoie.)  and he went 0-2 and committed an error.  He was back with Cleveland in 1914 and got in 43 games but hit only .182.  He then went out to the Pacific Coast League until 1921 when he became the Tigers starting catcher replacing Oscar Stanage.  He played 119 games and fit well in the Tigers high powered offense of the early 1920’s.  He hit .307 that first full year in the majors and drove in 56 runs.  This was the beginning of a 7 year stint with the Tigers for Johnny where he became the top catcher the Tigers had ever had up to that point.  Over those seven seasons he hit .308 with an average 45 RBI’s and three times he finished in the top 7 in MVP balloting.  He had an eye at the plate that is considered one of the all time greatest.  He struck out a total of 81 times in his career while walking 437 times.  This gave him a career ..416 OBP which is second all time for catchers in MLB history.  Compare that to Pudge Rodriguez who in 2006 struck out 86 times in just that one season.  Pudge averaged 94 K’s per season.  PUdge has a career OBP of .334.  Johnny also was an above average fielding catcher and was known for a great throwing arm.  For his career he threw out 46.7% of the base runners.  In 1923 he threw out an unbelievable 59.9 %.  Pudge has a career average of 45.7%.   What Johnny lacked was power.  In his entire career in the majors he hit a total of 1 homer.   But Johnny was done in the majors after 1927 when he went back to the Pacific Coast League at the age of 33.  He then had another great career out there where he played for the Hollywood Stars for 8 years and another 2 with the Seattle Rainers.  He was elected to the PCL Hall of Fame with a career .321 average.  While he was done playing after 1937 at the age of 42 he was not done with baseball and continued to coach

Bill McTigue ended his major league career as a Tiger.  He was pitching for New Bedford in the minors in New England League by the Boston Doves in 1910.  The Boston Doves were the National League team in Beantown.  The Nashville TN born lefty pitcher did not play for the Doves in 1910.  In 1911 he played for the Boston Rustlers as they changed their name for the new season hoping the new name might change their fortune as they had finished 6^th 7^th and 8^th, twice, while they carried the name of the Doves.  In fact, in 1910 they finished 50.5 games out of first.  1911 brought the new name and Bill into the majors.  But Bill nor the Rustler name helped Boston change their fortune in the standings.   Bill was 20 years old and got in 14 games with 8 starts but posted a 0-5 record with a 7.05 ERA.  The Rustlers finished 44-107 and changed their name again to the Boston Braves for 1912.  (After a stop in Milwaukee, you know this team today as the Atlanta Braves.)  Bill was again pitching in Boston and was 2-0 in 10 games and had dropped his ERA to 5.45.  But it was not enough and was sent to the minors in Buffalo and Montreal where he was 11-12 in 32 games.   1913 found Bill with Boston.   He did not pitch but was used apparently as a pinch runner in one game.   Then he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles which was a minor league team in the International League for Bris Lord.  (Today’s Baltimore Orioles come from the St. Louis Browns who moves to Baltimore in 1954.)  He was 8-5 for Baltimore and then dropped out of baseball in 1914.  1915 found him in Toronto with the Maple Leafs of the International League.  He had his best years in baseball in Toronto.  He was 17-10 and hit the first five homers of his career and hit .287.   The Tigers took notice and brought him to Detroit and he appeared in his first game with the Tiges on April 30.  The Tiges were getting beat up by the Cleveland Indians 6-1 in the second when Bill was brought in.  He pitched 3.2 innings and gave up 3 runs but got a no decision.  Two days later the Tigers were again losing to the Indians in the 9^th with the score again 6-1 when Bill was called on again.  He put the Indians down 1-2-3.  Three days later Bill was called on again with the Tigers trailing in the 9^th 2-1.  Bill James had started the 9^th by walking the first two batters he faced.  Bill McTigue came in and gave up a walk and hit to bring in 3 runs to give the Browns a 5-1 lead.  The Tiges came back in their half of the ninth and scored 3.  But it was not enough.  The loss must have chaffed Tiger manager Hughie Jennings as Bill was gone from Detroit and the majors after that game.  Bill went back to Toronto and was 16-15 with another homer and hit .299.  He played two more years in the minors ending his career in Atlanta in 1918.  In August of 1918 the Toronto World newspaper reported that Bill was dying in Birmingham, Alabama of a lung ailment and had only days to live.  Bill would live until May 6, 1920 when died at the age of 28.