May 18 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Don Lund ended his playing career as Tiger.  He went to the University of Michigan and earned 9 letters and was drafted by the Chicago Bears.  But he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945.  He spent most of 1945 in the minors but was up and played 4 games with the Dodgers that season.  He did not get a hit.  He was up and down with the Dodgers and never a starter until finally he was picked up of waivers by the St. Louis Browns half way through the 1948 season.  He was a back up outfielder for the Browns hitting .248.  At the end of the season the Tigers bought Don for $15,000.  He spent all but 2 games in the minors in Toledo through 1951.  In the two games up with Detroit he was 0 for 2.  He played 8 games in Detroit in 1952 and was 7 for 23.  Finally in 1953 he was a Tiger starter for a platooned outfield.  He played mainly right and hit .257 with 9 homers and 47 RBI’s.  It would be Don’s only season as a regular.  In 1954 the Tigers started using a young kid named Al Kaline in right field and Don would be a back up for all three outfield positions but needless to say, not so much in right.  Don was done as a player after 1954.  For his career he was a .244 hitter with 9 homers and 51 RBI’s for the Tiges in 500 at bats.  After his playing days Don stuck with the Tigers in various capacities, coaching in the majors and minors as well as scouting director, farm director and director of player development.  He also took a few years off from the Tiges to head coach his alma mater and lead them to the 1962 College World Series.   A couple years ago he had his biography published titled “Playing Ball With Legends”.

Rufe Gentry pitched his entire major league career as a Tiger.  The fastball throwing right hander, James Ruffus Gentry, started in the minors in 1939 and worked his way up to the Tiges in the war year of 1943.  The Tiges tapped him as a September call up after he was 20-16 with 184 K’s and 143 walks with the Tigers minor league team in Buffalo.   In his debut for the Tigers he pitched a complete game against the Cleveland Indians allowing only 1 run on 6 hits and 2 K’s.  The one run was a homer by Hank Edwards, who had 3 all season.  It landed in the front row of the right field overhang.  However, his Tiger teammates did not score a single run and Rufe lost, 1-0.  In his next outing he pitched another complete game and gave up 2 runs on 6 hits against the White Sox.  But this time the Tiges scored 8 and Rufe got his first win in the majors.   Rufe spent the entire 1944 season with the Tiges and was in the shortened rotation for the 1944 pennant race of mainly Hal Newhouser, Dizzy Trout and Rufe.  Rufe had a strong year going 12-14 with a 4.24 ERA on the Tiger team that lost the pennant on the last day of the season.   1945 would prove to be even better for the Tiges.  But Rufe was not a part of it.  He held out for more money.  This was a time when you had single season contracts and the reserve clause was part of them.  The reserve clause held that once you signed a contract you were the property of that club in perpetuity unless they sold you, traded you or released you.  It was a take it or leave it arraignment.  A hold out was someone who refused to sign.  Your only hope was that you were a big enough star to get the team to give in.   Rufe held out for more money.  But Rufe was not a big enough star and the Tigers were just as stubborn.   So Rufe did not play ball in 1945 and the Tigers won the World Series.  This was the worst possible scenario for Rufe.  He did sign in 1946 and played three more seasons with the Tigers.  But with the war over and players returning Rufe only got in 7 more games as a Tiger as a reliever and did not get a decision.  His career was over with a 13-17 record and a 4.37 ERA.

Tom Gillen ended his baseball career as a Detroit Wolverine.  He was born in Philadelphia in 1862.  He started his pro career with the Philadelphia Keystones of the Union Association.  They lasted just the one year of 1884.  He was their starting catcher and hit only .155.  The team was gone before the season ended.  To keep playing he is thought to have caught a few exhibition games and even a regulation game for the Philadelphia Quakers of the NL to end out the 1884 season.  They would become the Philadelphia Phillies in 1890.   The following 1885 season Tom played for Macon of the Southern Association.  He played catcher as well as a game in right and 2 at second base and hit .254.  The following season in 1886 Tom stayed in the Southern Association and played for Savannah.  He hit only .212, but the Detroit Wolverines purchased his contract in September.  He played 2 games for the Detroit Wolverines in 1886 as a catcher at the age of 24.  In those two games he had 10 at bats and got 4 hits for a .400 batting average.  How many teams do you know of that can boast of having a catcher who hit .400?  He also had 4 RBI’s.  He went to spring training in 1887 but injured his wrist and was out for the season.  So he missed being a member of World Champion Wolverines of 1887.  He them ump’ed in various Pennsylvania leagues in 1888 making money and staying in the game.  He was due back in Detroit in 1889 as a catcher.  But in January of 1889 Tom died in Philadelphia at the age of 26 of kidney disease and heart failure