Al Levine pitched for seven teams over 10 years and one was
the Tigers. He started with the White
Sox in 1996 after working his way through the Chisox farm system for five
years. He pitched two years as a
reliever before heading to Texas, Anaheim, Tampa Bay and Kansas City. In this time he won 21 games over 8 years and
saved 10 others. At the end of the 2003
he signed with his fourth team of the year when he signed with the Tigers. He got into a career high 65 games for the
Tigers in 2004 and posted a 4.58 ERA. He
was 3-4 and pitched more innings as a reliever than any other Tiger reliever
except Esteban Yan. But after the season he was a free agent and
signed with the San Francisco Giants. He
played his last season with the Giants in 2005 before his major league career
ended.
Jose Mesa played 19 years in the majors including a brief
stint with the Tigers. He started back
in 1987 with Baltimore as a starter. He
spent some time in the minors along the way but moved on Cleveland where he
became a reliever before heading to San Francisco, Seattle, Philadelphia,
Pittsburgh and finally Colorado in 2006.
At the end of the 2006 season Jose had pitched 18 years in the majors
and was a career 78-106 with 321 saves and an ERA just above 4. The Tiges signed the tehn 41 year old Jose
for $2,500,000. He pitched in 16 games
for the Tiges in 2007 and was 1-1 in 11.2 innings and a 12.34 ERA. At that time he had appeared in 982 games
when the Tiges released him. He signed
with the Phillies 6 days later and would appear in 40 games for the Phils and
cut his ERA by more than half down to a 5.54 ERA. Those 40 games put Jose in more than 1,000
games. He was the 11th major
league to achieve this feat. Jose has
been out of baseball since the end of that 2007 season.
Al Simmons was a hall of famer who played briefly with the
Tiges as a seasoned vet. Aloys Szymanski
changed his name before he started in the majors in 1924 with the Philadelphia
Athletics. He had spent 12 seasons with
the Athletics. From his very first year
he hit 100 plus RBI’s every season for Connie Mack’s team and earned the
nickname “Bucketfoot Al” due to hitting with his lead foot way to the outside
of the batters box. He was sold to the
Chicago White Sox with Jimmy Dykes and Mule Haas for $100,000 after the 1932
season. He played 3 years for the Sox
and his last year his RBI total dropped below 100 for the first time in his
career. The outfielder then was sold to
Detroit for $75,000 for the 1936 season.
For Detroit he replaced Jo-Jo White in center field and finished third
on the team in RBI’s behind Goose Goslin and Charlie Gerhinger. He likely would have been forth except Hank
Greenberg was injured after 12 games into the season. In April of 1937 the Tiges had Hank Greenberg
back and so Al was sold to the Washington Senators for $15,000. In 1937 Hank Greenberg would hit 183 RBI’s
and Al hit 84. Jo-Jo White was back in
center while Al started with his new team.
He would stay in Washington one more year and then was sold for $3,000
to the Boston Bee’s (Braves) after the 1938 season. He finished his career going to the Reds
before going back to the Athletics for a couple seasons before joining the Red
Sox for a season and lastly ending his career with the Athletics for 4 games in
1944.
Al Shaw was born in England and was on the very first
American League Tiger team. He had been
in the minors for four years before joining the Detroit Tigers or 1899 in the
Western League which was a minor league.
He stayed with the Tigers in 1900 when they joined the American League
and was the starting catcher hitting .259.
He was still there in 1901 when the American League was finally
considered a major league. He was a back
up catcher for the Tigers in 1901 behind Fritz Buelow and hit what would be his
career high of .269 with 1 homer and 23 RBI’s.
Fritz hit .225 but was better defensively than Al. Al dropped into the minors by the end of the
season and would stay there for the next 5 seasons. Finally in 1907 he joined the ranks of the
majors again with the Boston Americans (Red Sox) where he played one season as
a back up again. This time he only hit
.192. This was actually better than the
starters average. Lou Criger hit only
.181 but was thought to be the better catcher defensively. 1908 found Al with the Chicago White Sox
where at the age of 35 he was again a back up and again his average
dropped. This time he hit only .082 in
32 games. 1909 found Al in back in Boston
but with the National League team the Doves where as a back up catcher he hit
.098 in 18 games. Al would stick around
in pro ball into 1914 when at the age of 41 he was catcher for the Des Moines
Boosters of the Western League.
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