May 3 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Del Baker played his entire time in the bigs as a Tiger.  He started his career in 1914 as a back up catcher to Oscar Stanage.  He hit .214 that first year which was better than the .193 Oscar hit.  But Oscar was experienced and the Tiger pitching staff was young with the starters Harry Coveleski 28, Hooks Dauss 24 and Jean Debuc 25.  1915 found Oscar still in the lead role and Del still as the back up but hitting .246 to Oscar’s .223.  In 1916 Del’s average dropped to .153 compared to Oscars .237.  1917 found Del in the Pacific Coast League with the San Francisco Seals.  Del would stay in the minors through 1932 as a player.  However starting in 1927 he was doing dual roles as a player manager.  In 1933 Del became a coach for the Tiges.  He would keep that role until 1936.  At that time Del Baker became the skipper for the Tigers following Mickey Cochrane’s departure from the game after being beaned.  He held the Tiges managerial spot through 1942 winning the American League Pennant in 1940.  Del was known for being able to determine what pitch a pitcher was going to throw before he threw it and tip off his players.   He would coach from third base and concentrate on the pitcher looking for the pitcher who could not conceal a ball well or even watching their facial expressions.  It is not a stretch to imagine that Baker encouraged his players to learn the pitches in advance by stealing signs.  In fact it was late in the 1940 season that the Tigers learned that by putting a player in the outfield bleachers with binoculars they could see the catchers signals and telegraph the pitch back to the batter.  The spy (a coach from Buffalo) would hold both hands on the binoculars if a fast ball and one hand if a curve.  Because of this sign stealing Hank Greenberg and Rudy York went on a tear and hit a combined 22 home runs in the last 23 games to win the pennant.  The Tigers dropped the sign stealing in the World Series against the Reds as they were afraid that the Reds might pick it up and beat up the man in the stands!  In fact, during the season the Yankees strongly suspected the Tigers were stealing signs but could not prove it.  However, during the series, the Reds catcher drummed into service, coach Jimmie Wilson, held his hands so low when giving signs that the Tigers still knew what was coming!  Unfortunately this shows just how dominating the Reds pitching was in the series as they beat the Tigers in seven games.  After his term in Detroit as skipper Del continued to coach and manage throughout the majors and minors until his retirement from baseball in 1960.  In fact, it was as a coach that Del had a role in Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series.   Larsen was convinced that Baker, then a Boston Red Sox coach, knew his pitches in advance.  Because of this Larsen ended up changing his pitching motion to a “no wind up” delivery.   A few weeks after Larsen changed his delivery, he threw his no hitter in the World Series.   Yogi Berra and others credit this delivery for helping Don pitch his perfect game. 

The below is the 1914 “blanket” of Del Baker.