Charlie Sullivan spent his entire major league career as a
Tiger. He started his career in
professional baseball in 1926 with the Marshall Snappers of the East Texas
League. He was 11-5 with the Snappers
and started moving up the ranks of the minors.
In another year he made it to the majors and Detroit. In his first game with the Tiges he faced the
St. Louis Browns. He lasted 7 innings
and gave up 4 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks.
His opponent, future Tiger, General Crowder, gave up only 2 runs on 4
hits and Charlie got the loss in his debut in the majors. About a month later he got another start in
New York against the Yankees. He faced
Hall of Famers Earle Combs, Babe Ruth, Lou Gerhig and Tony Lazzeri along with
Bob Meusel and Mark Koenig. He gave up 4
runs on two hits and only got one out in the first inning before he was pulled
for Elam Vangilder. He got in one other
game in the year but did not record a decision.
In three games he was 0-2 for the season. He was back in the minors in 1929 but returned
to the Tigers for the 1930 season. On
the traditional Fourth of July double header Charlie was called in to relieve
in the 9th inning with the game tied 3-3 with one out. Charlie got out of the inning but gave up a
run in the 10 to put the Indians up 4-3.
But luckily for Charlie he was pulled in the 10th for pinch
hitter George Uhle who got a single.
Billy Rogell came in to pinch run and scored the tieing run on Roy
Johnson’s double. Then Liz Funk brought
in Roy on a single and while Charlie was out of the game he was still the
pitcher of record and got the win, his first in the majors. Charlie would not get another win in 1930 and
would end the season 1-5 with 5 saves in 40 games. He returned to the Tiges in 1931 and would go
3-2 in 31 games. One of his wins was a
complete game victory over the Cleveland Indians 4-2 on 7 hits. He would get one more complete game victory
over the Red Sox giving up 3 runs on 10 hits but his Tiges batters hit 12 hits
and scored 7 runs to give Charlie the win.
It was the last of his career. In
the three seasons he appeared as a Tiger he was 4-9 with 5 saves and a 5.78
ERA. He continued to play In the minors
through 1934 but in 1935 he died five days after his birthday at the age of
32.
Frosty Thomas spent his time in the majors only with the
Tigers. Frosty was born Forrest Thomas
and was a pitcher for the Minneapolis Millers in 1903 and 1904 when he was
21-25 for the Millers. The Tiges bought
his contract in August but left him in Minneapolis. He was brought to Detroit in May of
1905. He got into two games, both
against the St. Louis Browns. The first
game was a 6-0 defeat and the second was a 9-4 defeat. I am unsure which game he was credited with
the loss. But those were the only two
games he played in during his time in the majors. After his playing days Frosty went to coach
and later manage the University of Minnesota baseball team and went on to study
medicine and became a doctor.
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