February Leftovers

Sometimes I don’t clear out the cut-and-paste document I have going with scattered goodies and other potential Fungo nonsense.

Case in point, a few items from February 11:

Ben Oglivie

Ben Oglivie was born on Feb. 11, 1949. After the Tigers inexplicably traded him for Jim Slaton and Rich Folkers, he went on to hit 176 home runs for the Brewers over nine years — including 21 he hit against the Tigers in 119 games.

He retired after the 1986 season with a lifetime average of .273 and 235 career homers.

Tom Veryzer

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.

Other Feb. 11 Birthdays

Gregory Soto, Trey Beamon, Willie Smith, George Alusik

On to March …

May 20, 2012: Max Ks 15 Pirates

Max Scherzer strikes out 15 in 7 innings to lead the Tigers to a 4-3 win over the
Pirates
. The strikeouts are one shy of Mickey Lolich‘s club record of 16 until …

P.S. The 2012 club was 20-21 after the win. The same record the Tigers will have if they beat the Rays tonight.

On this date in 2009, The D-Train Notches 1st Tigers Win

Dontrelle Willis wins his first game in 20 months and his first in a Tigers uniform as the Tigers shut out the Rangers, 4-0.

The D-Train allowed only one hit — a double to Michael Young — in six and a third innings, and retired 17 batters in a row at one point and snapped the Rangers’ seven-game winning streak.

Here’s the boxscore, filled with gems like Jeff Larish as the DH and an inning from Joel Zumaya.

April 25, 1901: Tigers’ wild AL debut

1901 – At Bennett Park, the Detroit Tigers make an incredible comeback in their American League debut. Trailing 13 – 4 in the bottom of the 9th inning, the Tigers score 10 runs in their last at-bat to defeat the visiting Milwaukee Brewers, 14 – 13. Frank Dillon drives in the game-winning run with a double, his fourth of the game. Dillon’s four doubles is an opening day record that will be matched by Jim Greengrass in 1954.

No boxscore is available for this game, but here’s something for you: the 14-run game begins a four-game stretch in which the Tigers score 45 runs … and give up 38.

Baseball-Reference.com