May 20 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Luis Garcia spent his entire time in the majors as a Tiger.  The Dominican Republic native signed as a free agent with the Tigers in 1993.  He was mainly a shortstop as he worked his way up the Tiger farm system as the stereo typical good fielding weak hitting middle infielder.  His best year in the Tiger farm system was 1997 when he hit .268 at AA Jacksonville.  In 1999 he was on the roster for opening day.  In fact he got in the opening day game in Arlington when he replaced Deivi Cruz at short in the bottom of the 8^th.  He did not get a play in the field and his one time to the plate he hit a pop fly to second base.  This was his story for with about 10 days later he got his closest to home as he would get.  He entered the game as a pinch runner against the Yankees at Tiger Stadium and got to third base before the inning ended.   On April 27 he got his first start as a big leaguer against the Seattle Mariners.  With 2 outs he ripped a line drive double to center in his first at bat.   That would be his only major league hit.  He was sent down to Toledo for the rest of the season where he hit .266.  He was released by the Tigers at the end of the season.  He would make a total of 9 plate appearances in 8 games with the one hit.   In the field he was perfect having 5 balls hit to him, 3 he made the put out and 2 he made the assist.  He was done with baseball after 2002.

David Wells

Tom Morgan

Earl Rapp had a very short career as a Tiger.  He was born in Corunna, MI and signed by the Phillies in 1940.  In transactions that are lost to time he went to the Red Sox and then the Tigers in June of 1941.  He started working his way up the Tigers farm system until World War II.  At that point he entered the military and spent the three full seasons in uniform.    He was a .300 hitter in AAA level ball when he finally got a call to the Tigers in April 1949 at the age of 28.  He was called in to pinch hit in the fifth inning of a 5-5 game between the Tigers and the St. Louis Browns in Detroit.  He faced reliever Bob Malloy and drew a walk.  He did not advance to second.   About a week later the Tigers traded Earl to the Chicago White Sox for Don Kolloway.  His time with the Tigers was just one base on balls.  Earl played 19 games with the Sox before they traded him about month later to Oakland of the Pacific Coast League for former Tiger George Metkovich.  He then went to the New York Giants, St. Louis Browns and the eventually the Washington Senators.  He played a total of 135 games (not a full season of games) over three years for 5 teams.  He was a career .262 hitter in that time and played all his games in the outfield.   After his last year in the majors, 1952, Earl went back to the Pacific Coast League where he had always had good success.  For instance, in 1950 he hit .347 with 145 RBI’s and 24 homers.  In the next four years while he was 32 thru 35 years old he hit .300 to .337 each year.  He drove in over 100 runs each season except 1956 and hit 24, 24, 30 and 9 homers each year.  After his playing career he went into scouting and scouted for the Astros, Royals, and Expos.  He was with the Toronto Blue Jays as a special consultant when he died in 1992.  He was elected to the Pacific Coast League Hall of Fame in 2004.

Hal Newhouser won back to back MVP’s as a Tiger.  Hal came out of Detroit and signed out of high school with the Tigers.  He made his major league debut at 18 in 1939 and lost the game in a shortened 5 innings to the Indians and Al Milnar.  Al gave up 4 hits and a walk and struck out 4.  Hal K’s 4 also and gave up only 3 hits.  But Hal walked 4 and gave up 3 runs to Al’s 0.  This was also at the time when the Tigers and Indians were huge rivals.  Hal was a wartime pitcher.  He did not go to the military but was 4F due to a heart murmur.  During the war Hal became a dominating pitcher throwing high fastballs as well as a good curve.  In 1944 Hal led the league in wins with a 29-9 record and a 2.22 ERA.  He also had a league leading 187 K’s.  This was his first MVP season.  In 1945 he was even better and won the triple crown for pitchers with a 25-9 record, 1.81 ERA and 212 K’s.  Hal also led the Tiges to the World Series title in 1945 when he pitched 3 games and was 2-1 with 2 complete games and a game 7 win.  The World Series had the first 3 games in Detroit and then the last 4 in Chicago’s Wrigley Field due to war time travel restrictions even though the war ended 2 months prior.  He came out for batting practice before game 7 and noticed that all the people in the center field bleachers had taken their jackets off due to the heat of the day so the bleachers was a sea of white shirts.  Hal called over his catcher, Paul Richards and had Paul stand as if he were the batter.  Hal then started throwing his high fastball and instead of coming in at 3 / 4 angle he came in over the top.  Paul agreed that the white shirts made it difficult to pick up the ball.  So Hal did that during the game and set a new mark at the time of 10 K’s in a World Series game and pitched the distance winning 9-3.  At the end of the season Hal was given his second MVP award in two straight years.  Hal was always given the knock that he racked up all these gaudy numbers facing other 4F’s and retreads during the war.  The argument was that had he been facing the stars who were off to war he would not have been dominating.  But in 1946, with the stars back from the war, he again led the league in wins with a 26-9 record and let the league in ERA with 1.94.  He was second in K’s with a career high 275.  But Hal was second in the MVP voting in 1946 to Ted Williams.  Hal had started developing arm problems in the late 1940’s still lead the league in wins in 1948 with 21.  By the mid 1950’s he was a shell of what he had been.  After 15 years as a Tiger he was released mid season of 1953 and signed with the Cleveland Indians.   He was 7-2 for the Tribe in their AL Pennant winning season of 1954 and he posted a 2.51 ERA as a reliever.  But the Tribe released him in 1955 and his career was over.  His totals as a Tiger were 200 wins against 148 losses, a 3.07 ERA, 1770 K’s and 212 complete games.  He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1992 by the Veterans Committee.  His number 16 was retired at Tiger Stadium and a statue of Hal is now up at Comerica Park.

Below is an interesting posed photo of Hal in spring training 1951.  What is interesting is that he is in a pitching pose but his back is to the plate and he has no ball in his hand.

John Murphy