Brian
Maxcy spent his entire time in the majors with the Tigers. He was drafted out of the University of
Mississippi in 1992 and rapidly moved up the Tigers farm system. In 1994 he was in AA at Trenton and pitched
10.2 innings with out giving up and earned run.
He was moved up to AAA Toledo and was 2-3 but with a 1.62 ERA in 44.1
innings pitched. The Tiges brought him
up in 1995 and he made his first appearance in the majors as a reliever in a
game against the White Sox at Tiger Stadium.
The Sox had just taken the lead, 7-6, on a Tim Raines homer off of Buddy
Groom. With one out in the 8th
Brian came in. In what may have been an
understandable case of nerves, Brian hit the first batter he faced, Frank
Thomas. He then got John Kruk to line
out to center and Robin Ventura to ground out to second. The inning was over. The Tiges went 1-2-3 in their half of the 8th. Brian came back out in the ninth and got Mike
Devereaux to pop up to first but Juan Samuel made an error and Devereaux was
safe. The Sox tried to rattle Brian and
send Devereaux to second on a steal however, Devereaux was gunned down by John
Flaherty. Ray Durham singled but then
was erased on a Ron Karkovice double play ball started by Brian for a 1-6-3
double play. In the Tigers half of the 9th
Kirk Gibson hit a two run homer with 2 outs to win the game and give Brian a
win in his first major league appearance.
Brian would get in 40 more games with the Tigers in 1995 as a reliever
and posted a 4-5 record with a 6.88 ERA.
He was up with the Tigers in April of 1996 and got into two games as a
reliever. He did not get a decision and
was soon back in Toledo. He was 3-1 in
Toledo in June of 1996 when he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals with Micah
Franklin for Tom Urbani and minor leaguer Miguel Inzunza. Brian would never get back to the
majors. He bounced around in AAA ball
with the Mets, and Astros before he was done in pro ball in 1999.
Rick
Leach was a talented athlete who started his career with the Tigers. He was a U of M quarterback and baseball
player in college as was a fifth round pick by the Denver Broncos and a first
round pick by the Tiges in 1979. He
made his debut as a Tiger after only two years in the minors were in his final
year in AAA Evansville he hit .272. In
1981 he got in 54 games as a Tiger back up first baseman and outfielder but hit
only .193. 1982 found Rick hitting .239
but rumors of his drug use were cropping up.
In 1983 he was again a Tiger and hit .248 still as a back. Before the 1984 season started the rumors
were too much for the Tigers and Rick was released. He signed the Toronto Blue Jays in April and
played five seasons with the Blue Jays before being granted free agency. He was never a starter for the Jays but hit
.283. He signed with the Texas Rangers
for 1989 and hit .272. A free agent
again at the end of the season, Rick signed with the San Francisco Giants. In August of 1990 Rick was suspended 60 days
by Commissioner Fay Vincent for drug use.
His record showed that he had disappeared twice from his teams in the
previous years and the year before the league had ordered him to go to drug
counseling after marijuana was found in his hotel room. Rick never played pro ball again.
Howie
Koplitz spent six years in the minors for the Tigers before making it to the
show with the Tigers. He was 23-3 his
sixth season in AA Birmingham in 1961 when he got a late season call up. He was brought in to a game against the Red
Sox at Tiger Stadium with the Sox ahead 9-2.
Howie faced Carl Yastrzemski for his major league debut and promptly
struck him out. Then Frank Malzone hit a
double. Jackie Jensen flew out to second
baseman Jake Wood for the second out. He
then walked Pete Runnels and Pumpsie Green to load the bases before getting
Jack Pagliaroni out on strikes. That was
the extent of Howie’s first game and the Tiges lost 9-2. A couple weeks later Howie was in Los
Angeles, Wrigley Field facing the expansion Angels. Howie came in in the bottom of the 9th
with the score tied 5-5. He got the
Angels out with only a two out double.
In the Tigers top of the 10th Jake Wood reached on an error
that also scored Norm Cash and Steve Boros to put the Tiges up 7-5. Howie came in the bottom of the 10th
and gave up a lead off single before getting the next three Angels out for his
first major league win. About a week
later Howie started a game against the Minnesota Twins and Jim Kaat. Howie went 5 innings in a game called due to
rain. The 5 innings were the extent of
the game and the 6-4 score stood for Howie’s second win for the Tiges. The season was over the next day. In 1962 Howie was again a Tiger for a time
being. He got in 10 games and was 3-0
with a 5.26 ERA. He was in the minors in
1963 with the Tigers AAA team the Syracuse Chiefs and was 7-8 with a 3.90
ERA. At the end of the season the
Washington Senators picked him in the rule 5 draft. Howie would spend three more seasons with
part of the time in the majors with Washington from 1964 through 1966. He only recorded decisions in 1965 when he
was 4-7 with a 4.05 ERA in 33 games.
After 1966 Howie was done in baseball.
John
Tsitouris started his 11 year major league career as a Tiger. John spent three and half years in the Tigers
farm system when he got a call up to the show with the Tiges. In the top of the fifth of a 0-0 game against
the Orioles in Detroit John was called in.
With two outs and runners on first and second John walked the first
batter he faced in Al Pilarcik. He then got
Gus Triandos to ground out to first baseman Ray Boone who tossed the ball to
John for the final out of the inning.
The Tigers did not score in their half of the fifth and John go the O’s
out in the 6th without a run.
In the Tigers half of the 6th Charlie Maxwell hit a rare
Thursday home run and Jay Porter later drove in Al Kaline on a double to right
to put the Tiges up 2-0. John came back
to start the 7th and got the first batter out before giving up a
walk and a double to put runners on second and third. At that point manager Jack Tighe pulled John
for Lou Sleater. Lou allowed on of Johns
runners to score but held the O’s the rest of the game for a 2-1 win for the
Tiges and for John. About a week later
the Tigers were playing the Yankees in Yankee Stadium. Yogi Berra had just hit a homer off of Lou
Sleater in the 7th scoring Mickey Mantle and Moose Skowron to make
the score 8-1 Yanks. John came in and
gave up two singles to Hank Bauer and Andy Carey before getting Tom Sturdivant
to hit into a double play to end the inning.
In the 8th John came back in and gave up a leadoff single to
Bobby Richardson, struck out Gil McDougald, a single to Mickey Mantle and
struck out Tony Kubek before Moose Skowron hit a double to score Richardson and
Mantle. The score was 10-1 Yanks. He then got Yogi Berra to fly out to end the
inning. That would also be the end of
John’s time in Detroit. He was back in the
minors for the rest of the season before being sent to the Kansas City
Athletics as part of a large trade of Kent Hadley, Frank House, Duke Maas, Jim
Small and Bill Tuttle to KC for Billy Martin, Mickey McDermott, Tom Morgan, Lou
Skizas, Tim Thompson and Gus Zernial.
John played three seasons with KC before being sent to the Reds with
John Briggs for Joe Nuxhall. John
pitched the next 7 season with the Reds.
His best record was 12-8 in 1963 with a 3.16 ERA. He almost made history in 1964 when he replaced
Jim Maloney after 6 in a duel against Sandy Koufax and the Dodgers. Jim had not allowed a hit. John took the game into the 9th
without a hit and retired Willie Davis and Tommy Davis. Then, after a walk to Ron Fairly, he gave up
a single to Frank Howard to end the no hit bid.
He struck out Johnny Roseboro to end the game as a 3-0 Reds win. John was out of baseball after 1968. His 11 seasons in the bigs gave him a 34-38
record and a career 4.13 ERA.
Charlie
Hickman played less than a year of his 12 year major league career with the
Tigers as a back up first baseman outfielder.
He started his career in the majors with the Boston Beaneaters of the
National League in 1897. He got in only
two games with them that season and in three at bats hit a home run. A rare feat in those days. He was also a part time pitcher for the
Champion Beaneaters. The Beaneaters
traveled to Cuba to entertain the troops fighting in the Spanish American War
and became life long friends with Teddy Roosevelt. He was a power hitter and played three
seasons in Boston before heading to New York and the Giants. In all his years Charlie was known as not a
very good defensive player and struggled to find a position. He lasted two years there before jumping to
the rival American League Boston Americans.
He was sent to Cleveland part way through the 1902 season and began a
feud with manager Bill Armour. Part way
through the 1904 season Armour sent Charlie to the Tigers for Charlie
Carr. Charlie hit .243 for the Tiges and
had 2 homers in 1904. In 1905 Bill
Armour became the Tigers manager. The
feud started up again and half way through 1905 Charlie was sold to the Washington
Senators. He played with Washington into
1907 when he was sent to the White Sox.
He finished his major league career in 1908 with the Cleveland Naps. In his career Charlie hit 59 homers with a
.295 average. The career leader at the
time of his retirement was Roger Conner with 138. Three times in his career Charlie was second
in the league in homers with totals of 11, 12 and 9.
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