Jose Alvarez
Phil Clark was a highly touted rookie for the Tigers. He hit .332 in Rookie ball for the Tigers in
1986 but was just under .300 until he hit AAA Toledo in 1990. At that time his average dropped to
.227. He brought it back up to .280 in
1992 showing that he was ready for the majors.
He actually split time in 1992 with 23 games with the Tiges in 1992
hitting .407 as an outfielder. But the
Tigers waived him in the spring of 1993 and he was claimed by the San Diego
Padres. He was a utility player for the
Padres playing the outfield, first, catching and some third. It was his best year as he got in 102 games
and hit .313. But in 1994 he was only in
61 games and hit almost 100 points less at .215. Followed by a similar .216 in 75 games in
1995 the Padres released him and he signed with the Boston Red Sox where he got
in three games without a hit. He played
in Japan before calling his playing career over and turning to coaching. In 2015 he is back in the Tigers organization
coaching for the West Michigan White Caps.
Tom Bolton was a lefty used incorrectly as I remember him as
a Tiger. Tom started his major league
career as a member of the Boston Red Sox in 1987. He was in the bull pen for the Sox until 1989
when he became a starter and in 4 games was 0-4. I was living in Massachusetts’s at the time
and had a season package to the Sox at Fenway in 1990 when Tom went 10-5 as a
starter with a 3.38 ERA. He was not
flashy with a curve ball and a change up and a sinking fastball. He slipped a bit in 1991 when the Sox went to
the playoffs when he was 8 and 9 with a larger 5.24 ERA. I gave up my season tickets in 1992 and Tom
was put in the bull pen for the Sox but did not finish the year even with a
3.41 ERA. The Sox sent him to the
Cincinnati Reds for Billy Hatcher. The
Reds put him back as a starter and Tom was 3-3 with a 5.24 ERA. At the end of the season the Reds let Tom go
as a free agent. The Tiges signed him
for $475,000. The Tiges went with a four
man rotation in 1993 under Sparky Anderson with Mike Moore at 13-9, David Wells
at 11-9, John Doherty at 14-11 and Bill Gullickson at 13-9. Tom was 5-2 as a starter and 1-4 as a
reliever. Sparky could not make up his
mind on what to do with Tom. He started
in pen, then went to the rotation, back to the pen and back to the
rotation. This yo-yo gave him a 6-6
record with a 4.47 ERA which was better than Gullickson or Moore and only 0.03
points behind Doherty. After seeing him
at Boston I thought he should have been in the Tigers rotation. But the Tigers felt differently and at the
end of the season granted Tom free agency and he signed with the Baltimore
Orioles who put him back in the pen where he ended his major league career with
a 1-2 record and a 5.40 ERA in 1994. He
stuck around the minors through 1998 when he was playing with the Nashville
Sounds before his baseball career was over.
Today he still lives in Nashville with his wife who is an avid marathon
runner and has run over 100 marathons including one in each of the 50 states.
Dick Wakefield was a highly touted future star for the
Tigers. In 1941 he played a year at the
University of Michigan. He left college
and signed a huge bonus of $55,000 to sign with the Tiges in 1941. He was he son of former major leaguer Howard
Wakefield who played catcher for the Cleveland Naps and Washington Senators
early in the 1900’s. He made his major
league debut at Philadelphia’s Shibe Park as a pinch hitter and got out. He got in seven games that season as pinch
hitter and got one hit in seven appearances.
1942 found him in the minors at Beaumont of the Texas League where he
hit .345 and was the league MVP. 1943
found him in Detroit where he hit .316 as the starting left fielder for the
Tiges and he made the All-Star game as the starting left fielder. He enrolled as a Navy flight student also in
1943 and while he got in 78 game in 1944 and hit .355 he was also property of
the US Navy officially as of November 1944.
He would not see the Tigers again until 1946 missing the 1945 World
Series Championship team. He would take
over the spot as the Tigers starting left fielder for the next 3 years as a
.270-.280 hitter with about 50 RBI’s and about 10+ homers. In 1949 the Tiges added my Mom’s favorite
Tiger, Johnny Groth to the outfield.
Johnny took over center field and moved Hoot Evers over to left and thus
Dick was no longer a starter. The lefty
hitter dropped to 59 games hit only .206.
At the end of the season the Tigers traded Dick to the Yankees for Dick
Kryhoski. Dick had been getting booed by
the Tiger faithful who viewed him as lazy and flaunting his money. Dick only got in 3 games as a Yankee in 1950
before going to the minors and finally being released by the Yanks before the
1952 season. He signed with the New York
Giants and got in another 3 games before his major league career was over in
May of 1952 when the Giants released him.
Dick tried a run for congress but lost.
He died in 1985.
Al Wingo set a major league record that stands today as a
Tiger. Absalom Holbrook Wingo was born
in Norcross, Georgia in 1898. He went to
college for one year in 1918 at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta and also
played ball for Atlanta of the Southern Association in 1918. He left college and pursued a full time
career in baseball. He was a late season
addition to the Philadelphia Athletics under Connie Mack in 1919 and thus
became the second Wingo in the majors. His
older brother Ivey, was a catcher for Cincinnati and the St. Louis
Cardinals. Al’s major league debut was
at Shibe Park in Philly against the Tigers.
He got the start in place of the Athletics normal left fielder, Tillie
Walker, and Al went 1 for 3 with a walk off Tiger starter Dutch Leonard. Al got in 14 more games for Mr. Mack’s A’s
and hit .305 as back up for Tillie Walker.
But 1920 found Al back in the minors in Atlanta. He was very successful in the minors with
Atlanta and later Toronto over the next four seasons. He even pitched a few games He set a record at
the time for the International League while with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1922
when he hit 34 home runs. Finally in
1924 Al got a call back to the majors with the Detroit Tigers who had purchased
his contract for the then large sum of $50,000.
He was a back up outfielder in 1924 as the Tigers had a Hall of Fame
outfield of Harry Heilmann in right, Ty Cobb in center and Heinie Manush in
left. Behind those three future Hall of
Famer’s was Bob “Fatty” Fothergill. So
Al was the fifth outfielder in 1924. But
this changed in 1925. That year Al was
the starting left fielder and hit .370.
That was good enough to finish fifth in the American League. However, it was last in the Tiger
outfield. Harry Heilmann led the league
at .393 and Ty Cobb was fourth in the league at .378. 1926 found the Tiger outfield changing as Heinie
Manush replaced Ty Cobb and Fatty Fothergill replaced Al. This was because Harry hit .367 as did
Fothergill and Heinie led the outfield with a .378 average. Al had slipped to .282. In 1927 Al slipped further to .234 and in
1928 he played his last season in the majors as a 30 year old back up getting
in 87 games and hitting .285. While he
raised his average he could not keep pace with Fatty and at the end of the
season the Tigers sent him to San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League
with cash for Roy Johnson. Ironically,
Roy’s brother Bob also played in the majors.
This marked the end of Al’s career in the majors and led to the record
that Al has which is the highest batting average for a single season starter in
the majors at .370. Al continued to play
the next couple of years in the PCL and moved back east to the New York Penn
League in 1932 and back to the Toronto Maple Leafs for his final season in
professional baseball in 1934. After he
retired he moved back to the Detroit area, Allen Park, and died in a car
accident in 1964. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.
No comments:
Post a Comment