June 4 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Steve Searcy was a lefty with lots of potential for the Tigers.  He was drafted out of the University of Tennessee in the third round in 1985 by the Tiges.  He was 3-3 in 1985 in rookie A and AA ball with a 2.76 ERA.  In 1986 he improved to 11-6 with a 3.30 ERA at Glens Falls, the Tiges AA team.  In 1987 the Tiges were in a pennant race with the Toronto Blue Jays.  They had much of the core they had from 1984 and the starting pitching was good for the top three with Jack Morris, Walt Terrell and Frank Tanana all winning 15 games or more and posting ERA’s of 4.05 or below.  But then the number four man was a drop to Dan Petry who finished 9-7 with a 5.61 ERA and rookie Jeff Robinson who was 9-6 with a 5.37 ERA.  So the Tigers made a trade on August 12 with the Atlanta Braves for Doyle Alexander.  Doyle went 9-0 for the Tiges with a 1.53 ERA and the Tiges won the pennant by one game.  For Doyle the Tiges almost traded Steve.  Steve was in AAA Toledo in 1987 and was 3-4 with a 4.22 ERA.  So the instead Tiges sent a righty who was 4-10 at AA Glens Falls and had a 5.68 ERA by the name of John Smoltz.  About a year after the trade Steve made his major league debut against the White Sox in Detroit and went 7.2 innings.  He gave up 3 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks while K’ing 5.  But he was tagged with the loss as the Tiges only scored 2.  Five days later Steve got another start against the Brewers in Tiger Stadium.  He gave up a lead of single to Paul Molitor then a homer to Jeff Leonard.  He got Robin Yount out on a grounder to third before walking Rob Deer.  Bill Schroeder then reached on an error by Luis Salazar at short that moved Deer to second.  Joey Meyer then singled to bring in Deer and move Schroeder to third.  Steve was removed from the game and was done for the Tiges for the season.  In 1989 it was more of the same.  This time Steve got in 8 games and did get his first major league win in September when he beat the Twins going 7 innings and only giving up 2 runs.  But in those 8 games he was 1-1 with a 6.04 ERA.  In 1990 Steve was 2-7 with a 4.66 ERA as a starter.  In 1991 Steve was 1-2 for the Tiges with a 8.41 ERA when the Tiges released Steve.  Steve was signed by the Phillies and was 2-1 for the Phils through 1992 when his major league time was over.  His final total was a 6-13 record over 5 years in the majors.  His total for the Tiges was a 4-12 record with a 5.97 ERA.  John Smoltz was 215-155 with 154 saves and a 3.33 ERA in 21 years.