Milt Wilcox vs. Steve Renko at Tiger Stadium.
Alejandro Sanchez. In 71 games for 1985 Tigers, the alleged power bat hit 6 HR in 133 ABs, 39 Ks, 0 walks.
⚾️ Immaculate Grid 318 7/9: Rarity: 240
One former Tiger.
See you tomorrow.
He pitched for the ’89 Tigers:
I wrote about him shortly after he passed away in January 2009. Check it out.
Ryan Perry and the late Frank Williams, Jim Brideweser, Hack Miller, George Gill, Ben Dyer and Fritz Buelow
⚾️ Immaculate Grid 317 8/9: Rarity: 163
One former Tiger today.
See you tomorrow.
Jack Morris vs. Bob Ojeda — and what a great lineup. Here’s the boxscore.
Gary Knotts, Chet Lemon, Pat Dobson, Andy Harrington, Harry Arndt.
Happy 75th birthday to Ben Oglivie who, after the Tigers inexplicably traded him for Jim Slaton and Rich Folkers, went on to hit 176 home runs for the Brewers over nine years. He retired after the 1986 season with a lifetime average of .273 and 235 career homers.
The late Tom Veryzer was born on Feb. 11, 1953. He played five years in Detroit (1973-77) before being dealt to Cleveland for Charlie Spikes. His last year in the bigs was 1984 when he was a bench rider for the Cubs. Had Leon Durham fielded a grounder more cleanly in the NLCS that year, perhaps Veryzer could’ve ended his career where it started, at Tiger Stadium. His final career numbers: .241 average, 14 homers, 231 RBI, .966 fielding percentage.
⚾️ Immaculate Grid 316 9/9: Rarity: 30
Two former Tigers managers today.
See you tomorrow.
Today is Pat Underwood‘s 67th birthday. He was one of my favorite players during the early years of my Tigers fandom. Here’s a rebroadcast of his major-league debut, against his brother Tom, on May 31, 1979.
Check out this excellent bio of Underwood written by Todd McDorman as part of the SABR Bio Project.
John Young, Vic Wertz, Don Hankins
⚾️ Immaculate Grid 313 9/9: Rarity: 13
I also almost went with Lance Parrish instead of Scott Rolen but I wasn’t 100% confident Lance appeared in a game for the Jays. So, after completing the one below, I started a new grid and swapped out Lance for Rolen — 5% for Rolen v.s. 0.4% for Lance. I put in all the other picks from below and it dropped my Rarity from 13 to 9! Should have gone with my instincts.
Have a great weekend. See you tomorrow.
A nice feature on Gibby (roughly the 10-minute mark) and cameos of once and future Tigers Howard Johnson, Sweet Lou, Tram, Lance Parrish and Terry Harper.
Steve Dillard, Hoot Evers and Don Heffner.
⚾️ Immaculate Grid 312 9/9: Rarity: 10
I’m pretty pleased with myself on this one. A single former Tiger in this grid.
See you tomorrow.
John Hiller makes the start against Nolan Ryan. Here’s the boxscore.
Enjoy Paul Carey’s bottom-of-the-first update from Evansville.
Dave Borkowski, Earl Whitehill
2005: The Tigers signed Magglio Ordóñez for a reported five years, $75 million.
1994: The Tigers signed free agent pitcher Tim Belcher.
⚾️ Immaculate Grid 311 6/9: Rarity: 368
One former Tiger today.
See you tomorrow.
Today I spent some time dodging raindrops at the practice day of the WM Phoenix Open in Scottsdale. I’m not a golf fan by any stretch, but the people watching is legendary. The tournament is always the week of the Super Bowl and about 10 days before spring training begins in Phoenix. Good times.
W: Jim Slaton (7-4) • L: Dick Tidrow (3-5)
Start Time: 8 p.m.
Attendance: 37,681
Venue: Tiger Stadium
Game Duration: 2:01
⚾️ Immaculate Grid 310 8/9: Rarity: 144
Two former Tigers today: one player, one manager.
See you tomorrow.
Jim Campbell, the late Tigers GM and President was born 100 years ago today. Wikipedia has a solid entry about him.
Mike Heath and former top pick Kenny Baugh.
Immaculate Grid 309 9/9: Rarity: 102
No Tigers today, but Ed Whitson sure took a beating from them in Game 2 of the ‘84 World Series: 5 hits and 3 runs in two-thirds of an inning — the first inning. Whitson got pulled and the Padres came back to win their only game of the series, 5-3.
Have a good week, and we’ll see you tomorrow.
Today is Stan Papi‘s 73rd birthday, so let’s take a look back on his brief time in Detroit:
Papi finished the 1980 campaign with a .237 average, three homers and 17 RBI in 46 games. He hung around for 40 games in the strike-shortened 1981 season, hitting just .204.
His last appearance in a big-league game came on Oct. 1, against the Orioles at Tiger Stadium. Sparky inserted him as a pinch hitter for Rick Leach in the seventh; Papi struck out against Tippy Martinez to end the inning.
Doug Fister, Germany Schaefer, Joe Sparma, Rusty Kuntz and Chris Bando.
Immaculate Grid 308: 9/9 — Rarity: 37
Three former Tigers and one Detroit native today.
See you tomorrow.
Happy 89th Birthday to former Tigers infielder and long-time first base coach Dick Tracewski.
He was a player on the 1968 World Series champs, a coach on the ‘84 team and, officially, once an interim Tigers manager: filling in between the fired Les Moss and the hired Sparky Anderson in 1979.
Ten years later Sparky took a short leave of absence due to the abysmal ‘89 team’s losing and Tracewski took over for a few games, but Baseball-Reference only lists the ‘79 games in his official managerial record.
He was also a World Series winner with the 1963 and ’65 Dodgers.
Other birthdays: Fred Lynn, Joe Coleman and the late Wayne Comer.
⚾️ Immaculate Grid 307 8/9 — Rarity: 145
Two former Tigers in today’s grid.
I hope you’re having a great weekend.
See you tomorrow.
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