November 18 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Phil Stidham pitched for the Tigers after coming out of the University of Arkansas.  He signed as a draftee on June 4, 1991.  Three years to the day he made his major league debut as a Tiger against the Twins at Tiger Stadium.  The Twins were already ahead 7-0 when with a runner on first when Phil was brought in to pitch with one out in the second.  Phil ended the inning on one pitch getting Dave McCarty to ground into a double play.  Phil came in to pitcht the third and gave up two singles before getting the next two batters out on a fly ball and a strike out.   But then back to back singles followed by back to back homers scored six runs on six hits against Phil before he got the last out of the inning as a strike out.  A few days later he came in in the eighth with the Tigers already trailing 4-1 to face the Red Sox and gave up a lead off homer to Ron Tinsley and a single to Otis Nixon before getting the side out.  The next day it was the same story.  Tigers trailing 14-3 and Phil pitched the 8^th.  He gave up one run on two hits.  A few days later with the Tigers trailing 6-2 to the Angels Phil got the nod and got Rod Correia to pop up to Tigers catcher John Flaherty to end the inning.  Phil was done for the day.  Phil was called in one more time a few days later against the Brewers.  Yes, the Tigers were trailing.  Phil gave up three walks and a pair of doubles but did get Jody Reed out on a sac fly.  That was the end of Phils major league career.  He was 0-0 with a 24.92 ERA having never pitched with a lead.  Phil was done in the Tiger organization but continued to play pro ball in the Mets, Twins, Rockies and Reds organizations until 1998. 

Gary Sheffield played two of his 22 major league seasons as a Tiger.  He started his career with the Brewers in 1988.  He continued on with the Padres, Marlins, Dodgers, Braves and Yankees before the Tigers made a deal to bring him to Detroit for Anthony Claggett, Humberto Sanchez and Kevin Whelan after the 2006 season.  I heard all kinds of rave reviews of him as a great club house guy just before coming to the Tigers.  I hope it was true as he hit only .247 as a Tiger with 44 homers and 132 RBI’s over the two years as a DH.  His last season he hit only .225.  He made $10.9M his first year with the Tigers and $13.3 his second year.  Before the 2009 season started the Tigers released Gary.  Gary signed a $14M contract with the Mets and hit homers 500-509 of his career and he was done in baseball.   His last year in Detroit the Tigers were 74-88.  The next year the Tigers were 86-77.

Charlie Fuchs made his major league debut as a Tiger during the war year of 1942.  He had been playing in the minors since 1937 and was 49-50 before joining the Tigers at the start of the 1942 season.  He debuted against the Browns and pitched 1.1 innings and gave up two hits and a walk but no runs.  He ended up getting into 9 games for the Tigers before being sent to Beaumont.  He pitched a complete game four hit shut out of the Browns and beat the Browns once more pitching 7 innings before Hal Newhouser relieved him.  Charlie also beat the Athletics going 8.2 innings and giving up 4 runs on 9 hits before Newhouser came in again and recorded the final out.  He also lost to the Red Sox giving up five runs in three innings and the Indians, giving up 4 runs in 1.1 innings.  His final loss was to the White Sox when he gave up 7 runs in 2.1 innings.  The Athletics claimed Charlie off waivers before the 1943 season started.  His final record with Detroit was 3-3 with a 6.63 ERA.  For his career he was 6-10 with a 4.89 ERA with the Tigers, Athletics, Browns and Dodgers with his final year being 1944.

Jack Coombs pitched two games as a Tiger in a comeback attempt in 1920.  Jack had played 13 seasons in the majors before his time in Detroit.  With the Athletics in Philadelphia he led the league with 31 wins in 1910 and 28 in 1911.  13 of the wins in 1910 were shut outs.  He also went on to win 3 games in the World Series that year.  He followed that up with a 21 victory season in 1912.   After two dismal seasons in 1913 and 1914 where Jack was 0-1, Jack was released by the Athletics before the 1915 season and signed to pitch for the Brooklyn Robins.  For Brooklyn he was again a double digit winner going 15-10 and then 13-8 for the Robins.  He went back to the city of Philadelphia in 1919 but as a manager for the Phils.  He was 18-44 as a manager.  He then joined the Tigers on a comeback and played in two games.  He pitched the last five innings of a game the Tigers lost to the White Sox.  Jack relieved Ernie Alten, who relieved the starter and Dutch Leonard who gave up 7 runs in 3 innings to the Black Sox squad.  Jack only gave up 2 runs in his 5 innings pitched.   In Jacks last game he faced the Senators in relief and gave up 3 runs in 1.1 innings.  Al Schacht, the original Clown Prince of Baseball, won the game for the Senators 10-3.  Jack went on to coach the Duke University baseball team for 23 years and their field is named after him.  He also became a writer and historian.

Deacon McGuire started his time in Detroit as a member of the 1885 Detroit Wolverines.  He hit .190 as a back up catcher.  He left Detroit and played for the Philadelphia Quakers before coming back to Detroit in 1888 He played three games for the Wolverines but did not get a hit as a catcher again.  Deacon continued to play pro ball with Cleveland Blues, Rochester Broncos, Washington Senators and Brooklyn Superbas before coming back to Detroit with the Tigers in 1902.  He hit .227 as a the starting catcher in 1902 for the Tigers and followed that in 1903 as the starting catcher again but this time hitting .250 at the age of 39.  He was the second oldest player in the league at that time as a catcher!  Deacon continued to play part time and also managed some with the Boston Americans/Red Sox and the Cleveland Naps.  He was done managing in the majors after the 1911 season.  For the 1912 season Deacon returned to Detroit to play for the Tigers one more time.  While a coach for the Tigers, on May 18, 1912, he came back to catch in the Ty Cobb strike game and went 1 for 2 at the age of 48.  That was his last game in the majors as a player.  He continued ot coach for the Tigers through 1917.  His record of 1612 games as a catcher stood until 1925.  He played for 11 different teams.  A record held until Matt Stairs played for his 12^th team in 2010.  He recorded more assists as a catcher than anyone else ever has.  His record is 1860 assists as a catcher.  This record is not likely to be broken as Pudge Rodriguez is closest among active catchers with 1227 followed by Jorge Posada at 696.  His caught steals record of 1459 base runners is also not likely to ever be broken.  Pudge is again closest at 661 among active catchers.   Deacon went on to coach the Albion College team.  He is buried at Riverside Cemetery in Albion.

November 17 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Billy McMillon in the dark days was a Tiger.  Billy played ball in college at Clemson before signing with the Marlins in their inaugural season of 1993.  He almost made the majors in 1995.  That was the year of the lockout/strike.  Billy crossed the line and was willing to play.  But an agreement was reached and he did not make the majors.  Instead he went to the minors and the Portland Seadogs where he hit .313 with 14 homers and 93 RBI’s.  This was rough on the minor league players willing to cross the line like Billy.   When he finally made it to the majors in 1996 for the Marlins as a back up outfielder he faced a hostile locker room.  He was there for a year and a half before going to the Phillies to end 1997.  He was in the Phillies farm system before they granted him free agency in 1999.  The Tigers signed him and he played DH and outfield in 2000 for the Tiges.    He hit .301 and probably had the game of his career in New York against the Yankees that season.  He got the start as DH against Roger Clemons and with the Tigers trailing 5-3 in the 5^th he hit a grand slam to give the Tigers the lead.  The lefty was back with the Tiges in 2001 but was hitting .088 in 20 games.  He was waived and the Oakland Athletics claimed him.  He ended his major league career in 2004 with Oakland having never been a starter.  However, the MLB Players Association did allow him to join the union.  After his major league days he went into coaching.  He became a minor league manager in 2010 and in 2014 he was named manager of the year of the Eastern League for the same Portland Seadogs that he played for in 1995. 

Brad Havens

Orlando Pena

Dick Weik

Davey Claire should not be confused with his brother Danny who was never a Tiger.  Both were born in Ludington.  Davey was older having been born in 1895 while Danny was born in 1897.  Danny was an umpire in the minors.  He died in a fire in 1929 in Battle Creek.  Davey for years had his stats attributed to Danny.  Davey started playing for Ludington of the Central League in 1920.  He hit .284 and that was enough to catch the eye of the Tigers who called him to Detroit in September.  In his debut Davey was called in to replace Donnie Bush at shortstop.  He got a single in his one plate appearance but was still pulled later in the game after making an error.  The next day he got the start at short and went 1 for 4 with a HBP.  The third day he got one more start and was 0-2 with 2 errors.  Hughie Jennings pulled him from the game and Davey never got in another major league game.  Davey went on to play for a few more seasons with Ionia, Grand Rapids and Toledo before his career was over in 1923.

Willie Jensen

George Stallings was the manager when the American League began and we had the Detroit Tigers.  He had a brief career as a player in the majors in the 1890’s.  It consisted of 7 games, 4 games in 1890 with the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, 2 games in 1897 with the Philadelphia Phillies and 1 more game in 1898 with the Phillies.  However, his real talent was as a manager.  He started his managing before his playing days were even barely started.  He was a player manager in 1893 in the minors.  He first came to Detroit in 1896 when the Tiges were part of the Western League which was a minor league.  He was called to manage the Phillies of the National League in 1897 and 1898 where he had his last few games as a player.  But he was back in Detroit before the end of the 1898 season.  George was known as a fastidious dresser and managed in a suit.  He was a bit of a nervous type always sliding up and down the bench so much that he would wear out his pants.  He was still the skipper when the Western League renamed itself the American League and a major league in 1900.  He took them to 4^th place with a 71-67-1 record.  He improved the Tiges to 3^rd and 74-62 in 1901 when everyone else considered the American League a major league.  According to the baseball Pythagorean theory they should have won only 72 games.  But George got into a battle with the American League President, Ban Johnson.  Ban claimed that George was trying to sabotage the league by selling the Tigers to NL parties.  This was when the American and National Leagues were fierce, cut throat, rivals.  However, George pointed out that Ban owned 51% of the Tigers so it was not likely to happen.  But Ban won the argument and George left the league and Detroit and went to manage in the minors for a few years before returning to the league eight years later taking over the helm of the New York Highlanders, soon to be the Yankees.  He managed there for the 1909 season and most of 1910 when Ban Johnson finally convinced the Highlanders owner to fire George and install Hal Chase as the New York player manager.  George had the Highlanders in second place at 78-59 in 1910.  Hal finished the season at 10-4 in the last 14 games of 1910.  But the following season the Highlanders dropped to 6^th place under Chase.  Chase would be found to be one the most notorious baseball players ever to play the game and is a character by himself.  He was adept at throwing games to win bets.  His biography is called “Hal Chase, the Black Prince of Baseball”.  But George had moved on and eventually became the manager of the Boston Braves of the National League.  He took the Braves to the World Series in 1914 where they swept the heavily favored American League’s Philadelphia Athletics.  They are now forever known as “the Miracle Braves” as they came from last place on July 15 to win it all.  George was done managing in the majors after 1920.  He would continue to manage in the minors and was hired to manage the Montreal Royals in 1928.  But it was when he lay dying that he may have made his most lasting moment in baseball.  In 1929 he was struggling with heart problems that would take his life.  While struggling to cling to life his doctor asked him if he knew what was troubling him.  George knew exactly what had always caused him the most pain.  It was the same thing the troubles all managers.  He replied “Bases on balls, you son of a bitch!  Bases on Balls!”  And then he died.

November 16 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Harry Chiti was the only player ever to be traded for himself.

Frank Bolling played with his brother Milt as a Tiger.

Paul Foytack

Ben Guiney was a Wolverine.

Joe Quest was a Wolverine.

Mike McGreary was a Wolverine.

November 15 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Duane Below is one of the more recent Tigers.  He was born and raised in Britton, MI.  He goes to college at Lake Michigan Community College in the off season.   He was drafted by the Tigers in 2006 and in 2007 was the Tigers Minor League Pitcher of the Year.  He has continued to move up in the Tigers farm system and in 2011 was 9-4 with a 3.13 ERA for the Toledo Mud Hens when he was called up to replace Adam Wilk.  Duane made his major league debut as a starter against the Oakland Athletics.  He perfect in the first two innings but then got in trouble in the third.  David DeJesus reached on an error by Carlos Guillen.  Then Landon Powell hit single and Eric Sogard followed with a ground out that scored DeJesus.  Duane gave up another unearned run to get out of the inning with no earned runs but three hits.  Duane gave up only one more hit in the next two innings but was pulled in the 6^th when he gave up Hideki Matsui’s 500^th career home run (Remember, Matsui played 10 years in Japan before coming to the US.)  The tiers would get the los that day but Duane would get a no decision in his major league debut.  Duane got in 13 more games for the Tiges in 2011 with one more start and posted an 0-2 record with a 4.34 ERA.  He was back with the Tiges this past season and at one point led the league in wins.  He won the Tigers second and third games of the season.  He came into the second game of the season wen Doug Fister was pulled in the 4^th inning and Duane came in and became the pitcher of record as the Tiges pounded the Red Sox 10-0.  The next day Duane came in to end the top of the 11 inning.  The Red Sox had just scored 2 runs to take a 12-10 lead in the 11^th.  Things looked bad for the Tiges and Duane was broght in to relive Joaquin Benoit.  Duane faced one batter, Adrian Gonzalez, and got him to K.  But the Tiges came back and scored three runs and won the game 13-12 on a walk off homer by Alex Avilla and Duane had his second win in two days and in only the third game of the season.  He finished the season  2-1 in 27 games with one start and an ERA of 3.88.     

Ryan Jackson

Todd Steverson

Bob Farley

Babe Ellison

Hap Ward played in the Ty Cobb strike game of 1912 when he was 24. In 1912 Ty Cobb was suspended for going into the stands and beating up a fan. He was suspended by the league. But his teammates felt he was justified and so on May 18, the rest of the Tigers refused to take the field in a game in Philadelphia against the Athletics. The Tigers hastily put a squad together of amateurs and sand lotters. Hap was one of those players and joined the Tigers at the age of 26.  Hap had two plate appearances in that game and K’d both times. However, he did reach on a dropped third strike.  But he was erased from the base paths when he was caught stealing.  He played the outfield as a replacement and made two put outs.  The team lost the contest 24-2.  After the game the regular Tigers reported back as Ty had asked them to.   All of the players from the 24-2 game disappeared from professional baseball when the regulars returned.

Will Foley was briefly a Detroit Wolverine. He started playing professional ball at the age of 19 with the Chicago White Stockings of the National Association in 1875. The National Association was the first professional league in 1871. So this was just the fifth year of a professional league in baseball history. Will was from Chicago so it only made sense that he join his home team and make some money. He played in 3 games as a third baseman. He went 3 for 12 and hit a double and drove in a run. In the field he made three errors in three games. Before you think badly of his fielding remember this was a time of no gloves. His fielding percentage was .813 compared to the league average of .764. Not bad for a rookie! At the end of the season the National Association collapsed as several teams jumped to form the National League in 1876. Will left Chicago and joined the Cincinnati Reds. He was the Reds starting third baseman for the next two seasons on teams that were not very good. The Reds were 9-56 that first season for 8^th place in an 8 team league. In 1877 they moved up to 6^th place in the league. But that was because the New York Mutuals and the Philadelphia Athletics dropped from the league. Will was a .209 hitter for Cincy. But the league average was about .265. In 1878 Will went to the Milwaukee Grays where he was their starting third baseman hitting .271 for the Grays before heading back to Cincy in 1879. Will was moved to the outfield in 1879 as the starting third sacker for Cincy was now Hall of Famer King Kelly. Will hit .211 for 1879 and then disappeared for the 1880 season. He was back in the majors in 1881 with the Detroit Wolverines but only briefly. He got in 5 games for the Wolverines and went 2 for 15 as a third baseman. Will dissapeared again from pro ball until 1884 when he was playing with the St. Paul Apostles of the Northwestern League and then joined the Chicago team in the Union Association. The Chicago team moved to Pittsburgh during the season before collapsing with the league following shortly thereafter. That would be the last Will played in the majors. In 1886 Will was playing pro ball still with the Lincoln Tree Planters of the Western League and then the Minneapolis Millers of the Northwestern League to end his pro career. Will died three days short of his 61^st birthday in 1916 in Chicago.

November 14 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Clete Thomas was a Tiger hopeful for a couple of years.  He was named after his Dad’s favorite player, Clete Boyer.  He got his start for the Tiges on opening day 2008.  Curtis Granderson was on the DL and Clete made the roster.  He got a hit in 11^th inning of opening day and was hot for the next couple of games.  He was sent back down to Toledo when Granderson came back to the line up at the end of April 2008.  He was brought back up in July and in 40 games hit .284.  However, he was not a great fielder.  He has a career .973 fielding percentage to a league average .987.  In 2009 he was with the Tiges most of the season but hit .240.  He did have the highlight of his career that year when he came into a game as a pinch runner against the Angels and wound up hitting a grand slam homer in the 8^th.  He was in the minors in 2010 and 2011 hitting .183 and .251 but was brought up briefly in 2012.  However, at 28 years old with a dropping average and not a great glove he was expendable.   He was waived in April and claimed by the Twins.  He spent most of 2012 in the Twins AAA team in Rochester where he hit .232 with a .983 fielding percentage.

Fu-Te Ni

Willie Hernandez

Johnnie Seale spent his entire time in the majors with the Tigers.  The lefty pitcher started in pro ball in 1958 for the Washington Senators and bounced around in the minors for various organizations as a reliever until 1964 when the Tigers called him up as late September call up.  He debuted against the Cleveland Indians and pitched 1.2 innings of perfect ball getting 4 out of his 5 outs to hit fly balls with two not even getting out of the infield.  Two days later he was called in to face the Orioles and relieve Phil Regan who did not record an out to start the game but rather had given up 3 hits and a walk to start the game and put the Tigers down 2-0.  Johnnie came in and pitched the first four innings and allowed only one run.  While he was doing that on the mound, his Tiger teammates came back and scored 4 runs.  Johnnie was taken out of the game after the fourth but recorded his first win as Tiger.  It would also be his only win as a Tiger.  Johnnie would get into 2 more games before the season ended and also got into 4 more games for the Tiges in early 1965 but he did not record another decision.  In total he was 1-0 with a 5.54 ERA in 13 innings pitched in the major leagues. 

Fred Carisch came out of retirement to be Tiger player.  Fred had started his major league career in 1903 with the Pittsburgh Pirates when he got into 5 games for the Pirates and hit .333 as a back up catcher.  He played the next three seasons as a back up before going down to the minors.  He returned to the majors in 1912 at the age of 30 as a back up catcher for the Cleveland Naps for three more years as a .226 hitter.  He then went back to the minors and would get into coaching and even managing before becoming a coach for the Tigers in the early 1920’s.  In 1923 on the Fourth of July at Cleveland, Fred came out of retirement as a player.  In the 10^th inning of a game tied 7-7 the Tiger catcher, Larry Woodall, was called out at second on force out.  Larry argued with the umps, Billy Evans and Pants Rowland and was ejected.  The half inning ended and the Tigers had a problem.  The problem was Larry had replaced starting catcher Johnny Bassler and the Tiges third catcher, Clyde Manion, had been used as pinch hitter earlier in the game.  So the Tigers had no catcher.  Manager Ty Cobb asked to use either Manion or Bassler.  Cleveland skipper, Tris Speaker, refused to allow either to come back in the game.   So Fred was called into action at the age of 41.   The last time he had played catcher was in 1914 with Speaker’s Indians.    Speaker objected stating that Fred was not on the active list and played the rest of the game under protest.  But Glenn Myatt hit a three run homer that ended the game and gave the Indians the win.  Fred never played in the majors again.

November 13 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Gerald Laird

Vic Darensbourg

Dan Petry

Steve Bilko  Cult baseball players

Jim Delsing was the center fielder when Al Kaline became a Tiger.  Jim came to the Tiges from the St. Louis Browns in 1952 and became our centerfielder.  He was always known as being fleet of foot and a mediocre bat.  He moved over to left for the Tigers in 1954 for Bill Tuttle.  In five seasons with the Tiges he was a .260 hitter who hit 30 homers and 175 RBI’s in 417 games.  But Jim’s SABR bio by Jim Sargent has some great sections on the life of a baseball wife in the 1950’s.  Here is a direct lift from Sargent’s bio from an interview with Jim’s wife Roseanne.  “"I didn't go to all of Jim's games, once we had the children. Before we had kids I would go every night. But Jim would leave for the ballpark about 3:00 or 3:30 for a night game. If we had another player living near, then the guys would ride together, and the wives would get together and come later. In those days, nobody had two cars. Given my druthers of being a baseball wife then or now, I loved the way it was in the 1950s. I think there are just so many memories that we both have of baseball, of rough times and good times. But those memories are very, very important to us, and we still cherish them. Would I do it again? Oh, absolutely. Patty Boone and I were real good friends in Detroit. Louise Kaline and I would throw our kids in the car and go to the park and spend a day. There was one time in Detroit when it was Patty Boone, Jeanette Gromek, four or five of us wives. The guys were going to be gone for three weeks -- the road trips, you know, were longer then. So we rented a place up on Saginaw Bay, and took all of our kids up there, and spent a couple of weeks on Lake Huron. It was just great! The camaraderie at that time was just unbelievable.

"A couple of years ago we went to a Tiger Alumni get-together. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to see more of the people. We did see the Gromeks. We didn't see the Houttemans or the Grays. Jim did get to see a lot of the guys, but maybe some of the wives just didn't come. Yes, I would do it over again. I don't know if they have the camaraderie today that we did. But who knows? Times have changed. Everything is different now, life is different, and you don't want it to stay the way it used to be. But, for example, when [pro golfer son] Jay was playing in the Bob Hope Tournament in Palm Springs in February of this year, someone came up to him and introduced himself. And it was Jim McDaniel, a pitcher that Jim had played with in the Dominican Republic, forty-some years ago. He wanted to know how our oldest daughter Kim had injured her leg down there. She broke a femur and had a lot of problems. Jim McDaniel told Jay to tell us hi, and to ask how Kimmie's leg was. Well, ‘Kimmie' is 42 now! Later that day, when Jay went to Mass, Jim and Mary Bunning came up to Jay and introduced themselves, and said to be sure and tell us hi. There are just so many good memories that go back 30 and 40 years ago, and I hope the modern-day players will be able to have the same recall, and the same good memories, and the good friends, and the pleasure in hearing from them."

Roseanne said they always liked Detroit: "I enjoyed knowing Van Patrick, the broadcaster, who used to have parties and invite us over after the games. "One of the main reasons I liked being in Detroit was that [Tigers executive] Spike Briggs was such a neat person. It was always funny, because he and his wife had four boys. While we were in Detroit, our second daughter was born. Spike would catch me, and say, ‘Let's make a trade, I'll give you four boys for one girl!' They never had any daughters, and they really wanted a little girl. But the day games were so nice. Jim would leave home at 10:00 or so, and be home at 5:30 or 6:00. That was fun. It was different, after a full diet of night games and doubleheaders on Sunday. People don't remember that they played a lot of Sunday doubleheaders. But we were always the happiest in Detroit. I loved Michigan at that time. It was just wonderful."

November 12 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Gary Thurman made a career out of being a pinch runner and an outfielder and spent one year as a Tiger.  He first made it to the majors in 1987 with the Kansas City Royals at the age of 22.  He had his best year of hitting by having a .296 batting average in 27 games.  He also stole 7 bases.  His problem was he had a penchant for K’s.  In 81 at bats that season he K’s 20 times.  Over the next five years with the Royals, Gary had similar years except his batting average normally was lower.  After six years with the Royals Gary had a .243 batting average and 65 stolen bases.  He also had 154 K’s in 678 at bats.  Or rather he struck out about every 4 at bats.  He also started about 2 out of every three games he played.  So the rest where normally where he came in as a pinch runner.  In March of 1993 the Royals waived Gary and the Tigers claimed him.  He had a very similar year with the Tigers.  He started only 25 out of 75 games he appeared in.  In those 75 games he only had 102 plate appearances.    He K’d 30 times in those 102 plate appearances and stole 7 bases.  At the end of the season the Tigers granted him free agency.  He would get to the majors only two more seasons in1995 with Seattle Mariners and in 1997 with the New York Mets.  Since his playing days Gary has stayed in the game as a coach and manager in the minors and majors.  In 2012 he was the first base coach for the Miami Marlins.

Herm Merritt played his entire career as a Tiger.  He made his professional debut in August of 1921 as shortstop but was 0 for 1 at the plate and taken out of the game after that one plate appearance.  Herm got in 19 more games for the Tiges that season and hit .370 with a double and triple.  But his fielding was below average.  He made 6 errors and had a .882 fielding percentage compared to league average of .941.  At the end of the season the Tiges sent him to Augusta in the minors.  On the way there he was involved in a car accident and was paralyzed.  He died a few years later in 1927 at the age of 26.

Red McDermott spent his entire time in the majors as a Tiger.  Red was born Frank A. McDermott in 1888 in Philadelphia, PA.  He started his career in pro ball in 1908 as a 19 year old with Fort Wayne of the class B Central League.  He played 3 years there before moving to Providence which was up a level at Class A in the Eastern League.  The next year Providence moved up to AA level and Red moved up as well.   According to the records, on August 6 of that year Red was in the Tigers line up against the New York Highlanders.  The Tiges won the game 6-2.  The next day the Tiges played the Highlanders again and won 7-0.  On August 8 Red played his last game this time against the Red Sox and the Tiges lost 5-0.  However, the records state that Red played in five games.  So there is in error in his career record.  He supposedly played all 5 or 3 games in the outfield without an error and hit .267 with a double and a stolen base.  He played in the minors after his appearance with the Tiges and went on to manage in the minors as well.  His last known time in the pro ball was 1934 when at the age of 45 he was playing for Dayton of the Mid Atlantic League and hit .304 at the Class C level club.  I will let you know what I find on the error in his record.

Moonlight Graham never played for the Tigers.   The movie “Field of Dreams” or rather, the book “Shoeless Joe” by W. P. Kinsella is correct.  He only had played in one game and never had an at bat.  He did later become a doctor.

Ed Killian was the first lefty ace for the Tigers.  He started his time in the majors with the Cleveland Naps (soon to be called the Indians) in 1903.  He was 3-4 for the Naps but before the 1904 season Ed was traded with Jesse Stovall for Billy Lush.  For Detroit Ed went on to win 100 games in 7 seasons.  He was the lefty in the rotation for the Tiges when they dominated the American League winning three pennants in a row in 1907, 1908 and 1909.  He won 48 games in those three seasons but did not record a decision in the three World Series.  In 1909 he pitched both games in a double header in taking a no hitter into the 8^th and won the game 5-0.  He then went back to the mound for the second half of the double header and won that game 8-3 and thus the Tiges won the pennant.  But the over use of his arm stopped him from pitching in the World Series.  In fact he was out of the rotation in 1910 and out of baseball in 1911.  In the 7 seasons he played in Detroit he started 205 games and completed 142 of them.  His record was 100 and 74 with a 2.38 ERA for the Tigers.  He retired to Detroit and worked for Ford Motor Company as a mechanic and died in 1928 at that age of 51 of cancer and is buried in Detroit’s Woodlawn Cemetery.

Below is a T-206 card of Killian from my collection.