April 7 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Ben Petrick played 43 games for Detroit in 2003 in the outfield, behind the plate and at first.  For his career he spent most of his time behind the plate as the back up catcher for the Rockies from 1999 through July 13, 2003 when he was traded to the Tigers for Adam Bernero.   He hit .257 for his career but only .225 for the Tigers.  In 2004 the Tigers signed Pudge as their catcher and Ben became expendable and was let go.   Ben never played in the majors again.

Ed Lafitte pitched for three seasons with the Tigers, 1909, 1911 and 1912.  He best with Detroit was 1911 when he posted an 11-8 record and had an ERA of 3.92.  In 1912 he pitched in one game for Detroit but spent most of the season with the Providence Grays and posted a 15-17 record.  In 1913 he went 15-15 with the Grays.  1914 found Ed having his best professional season when he went 18-15 with the Brooklyn Tip-Tops of the Federal League.   The Federal League was a short lived major League of two seasons 1914 and 1915.  Ed was the number two starter for the Tip-Tops in 1914 but slipped in 1915 to the back of the pack of 6 starters.  He finished 1915 with a 6-9 record and was done in the majors.

April 5 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Ted Scheffler started his major league career as a Detroit Wolverine.  By the time he died he had seen a lot of history.  He was born in 1864, during the Civil War, in New York City.  He first appeared in organized ball in Toronto in 1885.  He has a sketchy record on baseball-reference.com where he is not listed as having played with the New York Mets in 1887 of the American Association.  He did not enjoy his time in the American Association as he played in only one exhibition game while showing up on the roster for months on end.  Because of this, when the Worcester Grays were trying to make a go of it they tried to sell Ted to Kansas City of the American Association.  But Ted made it clear he wanted no part of the AA.  So Worcester sold him to Detroit.  He got in 27 games with the Wolverines in 1888 and hit .202 while drawing enough walks and got hit by a pitch to bring is OBP to .286 while playing mainly back up out field for the Wolverines.   He was known for being speedy and having a good OBP.  But that was not felt to be important at the time in baseball.  That was the extent of his major league career with the exception of a season with the Rochester Broncos in 1890 where he was one of the starting outfielder and hit .245.  But he never made it back to the majors again.  He went to the minors and was there until 1904, a year after the Wright Brothers learned to fly.  He died in 1946, a year after World War II ended.

April 4 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Cameron Maybin played 24 games for the Tigers in 2007.  The outfielder hit .143 but his tree walks brought his average up to .208.  His issue has always been his penchant to strike out.  2007 was no different as he struck out 21 times in 49 at bats.  His career stats have him striking out 175 times to 48 walks and a career .248 batting average.  In case you can’t recall what happened to Cameron, he was sent to Florida with Andrew Miller, Mike Rabelo, Eulogio de la Cruz, Burke Badenhop and Dallas Trahorn for  Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera.  This year finds Cameron with the Padres.  He was sent there in the blockbuster trade for Edward Mujica and Rayn Webb.

April 3 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Doug Baker

Gary Pettis had two stints as a Tiger.  He started his career as a speedy back up outfielder for the California Angels in 1982.  He became their starting center fielder in 1984 when the Angels moved Fred Lynn to right with Brian Downing in left.  Gary hit weakly in terms of both power and average.   But his speed was always a threat. He was the Angels starting center fielder for 4 years as a .240 hitter who twice hit only one homer for the season, yet stole 50 bases in a season.  He also won a couple of Gold Glove awards in those years.  After the 1987 season the Tigers traded pitcher Dan Petry for Gary.  Kirk Gibson had signed with the Dodgers as a free agent so the Tigers picked up Gary to put in center and moved Chet Lemon to right to replace Gibson and kept Pat Sheridan in left.  Gary led the team in stolen bases with 44 while only getting caught 10 times.  Only Jim Walewander joined him with double digit steals at 11 that season.  Not even close to Gary.  Unfortunately Gary only hit .210.  But he did win another Gold Glove now as a Tiger.   1989 found Fred Lynn re-joining Gary in the outfield but in Tiger Stadium as Fred took over left from Pat Sheridan.  Another 1989 highlite for Gary was that he had the coolest baseball card that year.  A new company called “Upper Deck” came out with a great baseball card set and the Pettis card was the coolest.  The card set was the first to have color pictures of the player on both the front and the back.  What was unique about Gary’s was that the picture on the front showed Gary holding his own card that was in the picture!  Actually, the photo showed Gary holding the card and you saw the back of the card you were holding in your hand.  But it made you do a double take and was cool, none the less.  Gary had a better season in 1989 thanks to hitting coach Vada Pinson.  Vada taught him to take some more pitches so his walks went up and he found he was hitting .257 and still getting 43 steals (second on the team was Tram at 10).   He also won another Gold Glove award.  But after the season he was a free agent and signed with the Rangers.  Gary was in Texas for two seasons. His steals started to drop and with his K’s and his low on base percentage it became too much for the Rangers and before the 1992 season started the Rangers released Gary.  He signed with the Padres but hit only .200 so the Padres released him in June.  The Tigers then signed him for the remainder of the season.  That would prove to be Gary’s last season in the majors.  He hit .202 for the Tiges but in only 48 games he still led the team in steals with 13.  For his three year Tiger career Gary was a   .229 hitter with 158 walks to 225 K’s but 100 stolen bases in 129 attempts for a 78% success rate and two Gold Gloves. 

Alex Grammas This Side of Cooperstwon

Dick Conger started his major league career as a Tiger.  In the beginning of 1940 then Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis gutted the Tigers farm system.  Landis was never a fan of the farm system that was created by Branch Rickey.  In his mind it meant the top players were not in the major leagues.  In 1938 he had decimated the Cardinals farm system for no apparent reason and did the same to the Tigers in January of 1940.  He said the contracts were not appropriate and granted free agency to 75% of the Tiger farm hands and several of the members of the 1939 Tiger squad.  So the Tiges went out and had to start over creating a farm system.  They signed 18 year old Dick who had played only one season at UCLA.  Dick was on the roster at the beginning of the year and made his major league and professional debut in the 5^th game of the season.  He came in from the bull pen in the 8^th with the Tigers trailing the Chicago White Sox 5-4 in Chicago’s Comiskey Park.   Dick pitched one inning of near perfect ball allowing only one walk while striking out one.  The Tigers came back in the top of the ninth to score two and win the game and give Dick a win in professional debut by a score of 6-5.  Less than a week later the Tigers were playing the Cleveland Indians at Detroit’s Briggs Stadium.  The Tiers trailed 8-2 in the seventh when Dick got the call from the pen.  Dick came in and gave up 1 run on 2 hits and 2 walks.  But the Tigers scored one run in both the 7^th and 8^th and then scored 6 more in the 9^th to make the score 9-9.  But the Tiges brought in Bud Thomas to pitch the 10^th.  The tribe got two runs off of Bud and won the game 11-9.  The Tigers would get the last laugh on the Indians winning the pennant that year despite losing their farm system and taking the flag in a wild affair in Cleveland to end the season.  However, Dick was not there.  After his second game as Tiger Dick was sent down to the new Tiger minors.  He was 8-10 with Beaumont of the Texas League but was left unprotected at the end of the season and was taken by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Rule 5 draft after the season.  Dick never won a game in 2 seasons and 4 games as a Pirate and was with the Phillies in 1943 where he was 2-7.  He never played in the majors again after 1943 and appears to have been in the military for 1945.  He was done in baseball in 1950.  He scouted a bit for the Dodgers and worked for his home town paper the Los Angeles Times until he died 20 years after his baseball career ended at the age of 48.

April 2 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Pete Incaviglia

Dick Radatz was a standout basketball and baseball player at Michigan State University at the same as Ron Perranoski before he was a Tiger.  He attended Berkley High School before going to MSU.  He was signed by the Boston Red Sox after his college career and made his debut in 1962.  He was an immediate sensational reliever.  He led the league in appearances, games finished and saves for the Red Sox as he closed out 53 games that season and recorded 24 saves in 62 games.  He had a 2.24 ERA but was third in Rookie of the Year voting behind Tom Tresh and Buck Rodgers.  His salary was $7,500 that year but with how well he did for the Sox they gave him a $5,000 bonus for the year and doubled his salary the following year to $15,000.  He followed up that with a 1963 that was even better.  He had 25 saves, and was 15-6 with a lower ERA at 1.97.  He K’d 162 in 132.1 innings pitched and only walked 51.  In 1964 he again led the league in saves with 29 and K’d 181 in 157 innings.  In 1965 his ERA climbed to 3.91.  In 1966 it appeared maybe his magic was gone and after only 16 games for the Sox and an ERA of 4.74 he was sent to the Cleveland Indians for future 1968 Tiger Don McMahon and Lee Stange.  Hid did not get back to his magic and he was sent to the Cubs in 1967.  The Cubs released him in spring of 1969 and the Tigers signed him as a free agent.  Dick showed his was not totally out of gas and he got in 11 games for the Tiges as a reliever and was 2-2 with a 3.38 ERA.  On April 29, he came in to relieve Fred Lasher in the seventh of a game that the Washington Senators led 3-2.  Dick came in and K’s future Tiger Joe Coleman and Del Unser before getting future Tiger Eddie Brinkman to fly out to center.  He also would K Frank Howard and Ken McMullen that day before the Tigers scored 3 runs to give Dick the win.  On May 30 he replaced starter John Hiller on the mound against the Seattle Pilots (The Pilots would move to Milwaukee before the 1970 season and change their name to the Brewers.) in the 4^th inning with the Pilots ahead after Hiller had just given up a grand slam to Jerry McNertney to make it a 4-2 Pilots lead.  Dick got the next three batters out and Al Kaline drove in two runs followed by Norm Cash driving in Kaline in the next half inning to give the Tiges the 5-4 lead and give Dick his second and final win as a Tiger.  That was Dick’s last win in the majors.  About 2 weeks later he was sold the Montreal Expos.  The Expos released Dick before the season was over and his playing career was over.

Billy Pierce won 211 games in a career that lasted 18 seasons and started as a Detroit Tiger.  Billy never played organized baseball prior to high school in Highland Park, MI.  The lefty became the high schools starting pitcher when their other pitcher left for a team that had better uniforms.  Billy took over and went to the All American Boys Game at the Polo Grounds in New York in 1944 at the age of 17.  He was the star of the game.  He was also signed by the Tigers and went to Spring Training in 1945 and made the roster for opening day.  He was on the opening day roster and stayed in Detroit for 6 weeks without pitching before getting sent down to Buffalo.  He was called back and made his major league debut in Boston at Fenway Park.  The Tigers were down 6-4 in the 5^th with 2 out when Billy got the call from the pen from Tiger skipper Steve O’Neil.  Billy pitched the rest of the game and gave up only 1 hit and 2 walks for his debut at the age of 18.  He got in to 4 more games out of the bull pen and in a total of 10 innings pitched gave up only 2 runs on 6 hits and 10 BB’s but he also K’s 10.  It was enough to make him eligible for the World Series in 1945 and while he did not pitch in the series against the Cubs, he did earn a World Series ring because he was on the Tiger roster for 3/5ths of the season.  My favorite story about Billy with the Tiges comes from the Tiger catcher, Paul Richards.  Richards used to go into the drug store run by Billy’s dad as it was a block from where he lived.  “ I’d go in now and then to buy something, and there was this kid clerking behind the counter. I never paid any attention to him. Then out at the ball park we had this little left-hander who I’d warm up occasionally. One day he walked up to me on the field and said, “You know, you won’t even speak to me when you come into our drugstore.”
 “What are you talking about?” I asked.
“That’s my father’s drugstore,” he said. “You were in there last night.”
I took a good hard look at him and, sure enough, he was the clerk.

Billy was in the minors after the vets returned from World War II.  He had back problems in 1946 which were diagnosed as being due to him being only a boy in man’s game.  In 1947 Billy was 14-8 with a 3.87 ERA in Buffalo.  In 1948 he was with the Tiges the entire season and was 3-0 in 22 games, most of them out of the bull pen.  At the end of the season Billy was traded.  His story of it was “In November, I went over to my fiancée’s house. We turned on the radio and I learned from a disk jockey that I had been traded to the White Sox. I was traded for Aaron Robinson and 10 grand because the Tigers wanted a left-handed-hitting catcher who could take advantage of the short porch in right field. The Tigers wanted to give the Sox Ted Gray instead of me, but Chicago wouldn’t go for it. . . . It was a bad shock to be traded from Detroit.” Billy went on to play 13 seasons with the White Sox and won 186 games (20 games in a season twice), pitched 183 complete games and was a seven time All-Star all with the Sox.  He was traded to the San Francisco Giants in 1962 just in time to be on their World Series team (as he was with the 1959 Go-Go Sox) and played his last three years as a Giant.  He retired after 1964 and 18 years in the majors.  His total record was 211 wins.  Unfortunately only 3 of those came with the Tigers.

Earl Johnson

Cotton Pippen

Harry Moran

Ed Siever

Below is a 1907 Dietsche postcard of Ed Siever from my collection.

Hughie Jennings

Below is a Colgin's Chip of Jennings from my collection.

April 1 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Will Rhymes started his major league career in 2010 as a Tiger.  I am trying to decide if he is smart or not.  He went to the College of William and Mary which would make me think he is smart.  But how he left the Tigers makes me question that assessment.  He was called up in July of 2010 and made his major league debut with the Tiges as a pinch hitter for Gerald Laird in the bottom of the ninth in a game the Tigers lost to the Jays 5-3.  Will K’d.  Will went on to hit .304 that year in 191 AB’s for Detroit.  He had been a .280 hitter in AAA.  The hope for Will was that he would clear up the second base issue for the Tiges.  But in 2011 he did not clear that up.  He played 29 games but hit only .235.  The playoffs came around and Will was left off the roster.  But will is of a younger, hipper generation.  He was born in 1983.  Not sure when most of you graduated high school, but….  Anyway, Will is one of those who feels everyone needs to know what he is thinking and he tweets.  He was sending tweets during the 2011 playoffs. Some were not very bright. He was upset when he was left off the playoff roster. On one play he disagreed with Leyland's decision to pinch-run Danny Worth for Ramon Santiago. He tweeted  "I turned the game off when Danny ran for Santi. They are the same speed, at best. Very confused. I'll check the box tomorrow."  As a recommendation, if your team is in the playoffs you should try to remember these guys are still your teammates.  Not bothering to watch and publicly questioning the skipper is not what I would consider a bright move.  Shortly after this incident the Tiges let him go.  He was with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2012 and was a reserve infielder playing both second and third.  He gave everyone a bit of a scare when he was hit by a pitch on the arm and ran down to first where he fainted.  It was blamed on an adrenaline rush from the hit and the running to first.  In 2013 and 2014 Will was with the Washington Nationals AAA team where he hit .274 and .255 playing mainly second and third.  Here is hoping the 32 year old has a smarter season this year.  By the way, if you tweet you can follow him at @willrymes.

Frank Castillo pitched in the majors for 13 seasons.  One of those was for Detroit, 1998 when he went 3-9, with a 6.83 ERA.  He led the league in losses 1996 with 16.  I think he may have set some kind  of record by being released 10 times including the Red Sox twice.  He had a career record of 82-104 in those 13 seasons and an ERA of 4.56.  Yet he earned over $10M in his career.  I figure it to be $133,414.63 per win.

Rusty Staub was known as Le Grande Orange before he was a Tiger.  The lefty started his major league career in 1963 with the Houston Colt .45’s as a 19 year old starting first baseman and the fifth youngest player in baseball.  He was an all star for the Colt’s who changed their name to the Astros in 1965.  He was a .273 hitter with some power.  In 1969 he was part of a strange trade with the Montreal Expos.  The Expos sent Jesus Alou and Donn Clendenon for Rusty.  But Donn announced that he had retired from baseball to be an executive with the Scripto Pen company.  So the Expos sent Jack Billingham (a future Tiger) and Skip Guinn with $100,000 and Jesus to Houston for Rusty.  Donn was talked out of retiring by the Expos and was then traded to the Mets and in 1969 was the World Series MVP for the Mets.  Rusty became a fan favorite for the Expos and was given the moniker Le Grande Orange for his bright red hair.  The same reason he has the nickname Rusty.  He continued to be an all star for the Expos when in spring training in 1972 he met Mets manager Gil Hodges one day at church.  Rusty thought nothing of it as Gil talked to him about how he was doing and such.  Later that day Gil died on the golf course.  Three days later it was announced that the Mets had traded for Rusty.  The chance meeting was really Gil and his coaches getting a read on Rusty.  He was with the Mets for three seasons before he was traded with Bill Laxton to the Tigers for Mickey Lolich and Billy Baldwin.  Rusty was again an all star for the Tigers and was a .277 hitter for the Tiges.  Rusty would stay with the Tigers for 3 and a half years.  In his first season with the Tiges, 1976, he was the Tigers regular right fielder.  He hit .299 and led the team with 96 RBI’s and was second on the team with 15 homers.  However, there after due to his fleetness of foot or lack there of, he was DH for the rest of his years as a Tiger.  His slow base running is evident by the fact that he led the league twice in grounding into double plays and finished second once while a Tiger.  Yet he still would use his “base running gloves” once he got on base.  However, I am not sure what they were for as he only stole 8 bases in the three and half years in Detroit.  In July of 1979 the Tigers thought Rusty was done.  He was hitting a career low .236 as a DH as his days as a fielder were certainly over.  So he was sent back to Montreal for minor leaguer Randy Schafer and some cash.  He finished the season hitting .267 for the Expos and showed his career was not over as he played first for the Expos.  He played one more year for the Ranges and then 5 more years back with the Mets until he called in quits in 1985 at the age of 41 as the fourth oldest player in baseball.  For his career he was a .279 hitter with 47 stolen bases in 23 years.  That averages to about 2 a year.  He is also number 10 in career grounding in to double plays with 297.

Ron Perranoski went to Michigan State University from 1956 to 1958. He was signed out of college by the Cubs who traded him to the Dodgers for Don Zimmer.  Ron started one game in his career as a rookie.  He was a reliever for the rest of his career.   He was the Dodgers closer for five years.  After the 1967 season he was traded to the Twins.  He did well for the Twins leading the league in saves in 1969 and again in 1970.  In 1971 his ERA ballooned to 6.75 and the Twins had a new closer in Tom Hall so Ron was waived and the Tigers picked him up.   His ERA dropped back down to 2.50 and he saved a couple of games for the Tigers.  But in 1972 his ERA ballooned again to 7.71 and the Tiges released him a year a day after they had signed him.  Ron was resigned by his old team the Dodgers and finished the season with them before they released him as well.  He played one more season with the Angels and then called it quits for his baseball career.

Moe Franklin went to the University of Illinois from 1935 to 1937.  He as in the Tigers farm system starting in 1937 and survived the 1940 purge of the Tigers farm system by Judge Landis .  He was brought up to the Tiges in 1941 as a shortstop /infielder.  He had 10 at bats and got three this including a double.  In 1942 he again spent some time with the Tigers and hit .260.  After that his major league career was over.

Jake Wade started his career in the majors as a Tiger.  His brother Winfield “Wink” Wade was playing in the Texas League and knew Jack Zeller, the famed Tiger scout of the day and told him of his younger brother Jake.  Jack signed Jake and his pro career started.  Jake had one of his best years in the Texas League himself when in 1934 he was 14-11 at Beaumont, the Tigers farm team, and had a 2.70 ERA.  The next year,  he was 17-15 in Portland of the Pacific Coast League.  Jake possessed a solid fast ball and was nicknamed “Whistlin’ Jake”.  But that was for his ability to do bird calls.  It was once said of Jake that he whistles like a mocking bird but pitches like a kangaroo.  This was because Jake was wild.  For his career he had 440 walks to 291 K’s in 668.1 innings pitched.  In 1936 Jake made his debut in the majors with the Tigers.  He came in to pitch the 8^th inning of a game the St. Louis Browns were already winning 8-4.  Jake pitched the full inning and gave up 4 runs on 5 hits.  For the year he was 4-5 with a 5.29 ERA.  But his fastball was enticing enough that the Tigers brought him back in 1937.  He was 6-10 when on the last day of the season he faced the Cleveland Indians and Johnny Allen who was going for his major league record tieing 16^th consecutive win.  Jake gave up only 1 hit for the game and blanked the Indians for his 7^th win of the season.   He was still with the Tigers in 1938 but at this point he was 3-2 with a 6.56 ER at the age of 26.  The Tigers sent him to the Red Sox in Boston with Eldon Auker and Chet Morgan for Pinky Higgins and Archie McKain.  Jake would pitch into 1946 in the majors with the St. Louis Browns, Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees and Washington Senators.  He ended his career with a 27-40 record over all and a 14-17 record as a Tiger.  

March 31 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Tracy Jones played with the Tigers for part of two seasons in 1989 and 1990 as an outfielder.  He was acquired from the Giants in the trade that sent Pat Sheridan to San Fran.  He hit .246 for the Tiges with a .308 OBP in 96 games.  On June 18 on 1990 he was sent to Seattle for Darnell Coles.  It was one year and two days to the day he joined the Tigers. 

Bill Denehy played 31 games in 1971 for the Tigers when he went 0-3.  Yet he is the catalyst for the 1969 Mets.   Bill Joined the Tigers with Dean Chance in the deal that sent Jerry Robertson to the Mets.  The Mets originally had Bill back in 1965 when they dinged him as a free agent.  The Mets had picked him up in December of 1969, after the season from the Indians.  He never played a game for Tribe nor did he play for the Mets after they acquired him after the 1969 season.  The Indians had acquired Bill from the Senators in a trade for Lee Maye.  And that is how Bill Denehy was the catalyst for the 1969 Mets.  Washington sent the Mets Gil Hodges, the new manager who turned around the Mets in two seasons from chumps to champs for Bill Denehy. 

Marv Grissom was a Tiger in 1949 when he went 2-4 in 27 games.  The Tigers picked him up from Sacramento of the Pacific Coast League.  In 1948.  He had been sent there by the New York Giants in 1948.  He originally signed with the Giants in 1941 but did not make it to the majors until after the war in 1946 when he was 0-2 with the Giants. Before the 1951 season Detroit sent Marv back to the PCL but this time to Seattle.  Marv would go on to play for the White Sox, Red Sox but eventually rejoin the Giants and play a total of 7 seasons for the Giants in New York and San Fran.  In that time he would become their closer and save a total of 58 games for them through 1958.  He was also known as a tough autograph.

Johnny Couch started his major league career in 1917 with the Tigers.  He appeared in three games and did not record a decision.  After his three games with Detroit he dropped out of baseball until after WWI.  I can only guess he was in the service as he was not in the minors.  In 1919 he went back to pro ball and played in the minors until 1922 when he was pitching in the majors again for the Cincy Reds and he had his best year in the majors going 16-9 as the number two starter behind Hall of Famer Eppa Rixey.  Johnny played in the bigs through 1925 but never had a year like he did in 1922. In fact he won a total of only 13 more games and lost 23 in the rest of his major league career.