Lima Time is 36 today.
Perhaps he’s enjoying the free sopapilla he used to recommend as a pitchman for Houston restaurant chain Casa Olé. (As a former Houston resident, I got to see those commercials as often as FSN Detroit viewers see Belle Tire and Cornerstone Schools ads.)
For the record, here’s his, uh, record as a Tiger: 17-32, 7.56 ERA.
Feliz cumpleaños, Jose.
In two-and-a-half years with the Tigers (1991 through mid ’93), Rob Deer, #45 in your scorecard, hit 71 home runs and drove in 167 runs. He also struck out 426 times — that’s 37 percent of his 1,164 at bats.
Still, it was fun to watch him swing the bat with all his might every time up. And, oh, when he made contact…
Let’s wish Rob Deer a Happy 48th Birthday.
He was rising star for the Tigers in the late 1990s and earlier this decade. He nearly lost his life due to ulcerative colitis and shortly after making a few appearances for the 2001 Tigers was out of baseball.
Well, Pettyjohn is back in the bigs with Cincinnati. He made his first appearance with the Reds right here in Phoenix on Sunday: 1 IP, 2 hits, 0 runs, 1 strikeout.
Check out this article by Rany Jazayerli on BaseballProspectus.com.
It’s a feel-good piece to be sure.
I’ll admit that while I remember John Pacella‘s cup of coffee with the Tigers in 1986 (11 innings pitched), I didn’t know much about him. But today I learned a lot about him, including:
Pacella entered the game in the bottom of the seventh, relieving Rick Baldwin, and got the first hitter, Greg Luzinski, to line out to center. Next, Richie Hebner popped out to third. Garry Maddox doubled to right before Bob Boone popped out to Mets catcher John Stearns.
In his two innings of work, Pacella allowed a pair each of hits, walks and unearned runs. The loss went to Mets starter Craig Swan who allowed five walks in one inning of work.
All told, he pitched just four innings in 1977, didn’t pitch for the Mets in ’78, but returned in ’79 for 16 innings. In 1980, Pacella appeared in 32 games, 15 of them starts, and earned a 3-4 record.
Continue reading “Happy Birthday, John Pacella”The wrecking ball at Michigan and Trumbull has caused Tigers fans across the nation to freak out. Or, to be precise, to express a desire to find a pair of Tiger Stadium seats.
How do I know this? Because of a stream of comments, pleas and offers for seats on a post I wrote last October.
If you’re looking for seats, browse the comments here. Of course, I’m doing this as a courtesy to fine Fungo readers everywhere. I have no personal interest in the sale of these seats, nor do I know the people offering them or looking for them.
Caveat emptor.
This is the second and final installment of my conversation with former Tigers outfielder and pinch-hitter extraordinaire, Johnny Grubb. You can find the first installment here.
Mike McClary: Heading into the 1984 season, was it a long off-season? It would seem like you would be chomping at the bit to get back on the field shortly after a little break. Was everyone coming into spring training raring to go?
Johnny Grubb: Yeah, I think so. I remember us getting Dave Bergman and Willie [Hernandez]. So they came over, and they fit right in with the team, too. I mean, we just had a good group of guys that got along, and Dave Bergman is a heck of a guy and so was Willie. So it worked out great.
MMc: Let’s talk about the ’84 season in general. Obviously, you got off to a great start, 9-0, and in the middle of that, Jack Morris throws a no-hitter. As you were getting older and becoming the seasoned veteran, were you really just enjoying about every moment of that season?
JG: Oh, gosh, yeah. It was fun to watch those guys play and every once in a while to jump in and do something myself. But it was a lot of fun watching Gibby and Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker and Darrell [Evans] — and Lance did a great job. And Howard Johnson had the great season for us. I thought he did a great job. And Larry Herndon and all those guys really did well in the pitching.
So really what I remember most about it is that I never really felt like we were out of any ballgame. Any lead a team could get, we felt like we could have a big inning and jump right back in the game. And we had real good pitching, so if we had the lead, we had Willie and [Aurelio] Lopez coming in to shut the door on them. The pitchers did their job, and the hitters did their job. And we just felt like we could win any game.
That 35-5 start really helped a lot, too. But I think that pretty much was an indicator of how strong we were because that’s pretty phenomenal when you think about a 35-5 start in the major leagues. That’s pretty good.
Yesterday was Johnny Grubb‘s 60th birthday. Yes, 60th. I recently had the pleasure of talking with him while doing research for SABR’s book on the 1984 Tigers. (I’ve written the biographies of both Grubb and outfielder Rusty Kuntz.) We spoke about his entire career and focused a lot, of course, on the ’84 team.
In honor of Johnny Grubb’s birthday, here’s the first of two installments of the discussion. Beginning with the trade that brought him to the Tigers from the Rangers for reliever Dave Tobik.
Mike McClary: What was your mindset coming to Detroit in 1983?
Johnny Grubb: Well, [Rangers manager] Doug Rader called me in his office in spring training when I was with Texas and he told me that they had made a trade.
He used to call me Grubsteaks. He said, ‘Grubsteaks, you’re going to like where you’re going.’ I said, ‘where’s that?’ And he said, ‘Detroit.’
And, of course, if you get traded, that would be a good team to go to because we knew they were strong and getting better each year and right on the verge of being a real, real good ball club. So I was happy to go there.
MMc: Did you know anything about the team in terms of who your new teammates were going to be or Sparky’s reputation?
JG: I knew Sparky’s reputation as a manager from playing against him in the National League. And then, of course, they did have a boy on the team, Mike Ivie, that goes back to when I played minor league ball. He was a teammate of mine, and he was a player with Detroit then. So I was going into a ball club there that at least I knew one guy real well.
Todd Jones is no longer the Tigers’ closer. The statement is as true today as it was on this date in 2001. That’s the day the Tigers sent Jones to the Twins for lefty Mark Redman.
In 2002, his only full season with Detroit, Redman went 8-15, 4.21 in 30 starts. The Tigers traded Redman to the Marlins after that season for Nate Robertson, Gary Knotts and Rob Henkel.
After winning the 2003 World Series with Florida, Redman went on the team-a-year plan:
He began this year with the Colorado organization and got some time with the big club:
Redman appeared in 10 games with the Rockies this year, nine of them as a starter, and was 2-5 with a 7.54 ERA. He began the season in the Rockies’ rotation before being sent to Triple-A Colorado Springs on May 11.
The Rockies designated him for assignment 10 days ago and his career might very well be over.
Same could be said for Todd Jones.
The last we saw of Frank Tanana (in this 1987/Frank’s-birthday-mini-mini-series, at least), he pitched brilliantly against the Blue Jays at Exhibition Stadium only to watch the bullpen blow the game and put the Tigers farther behind Toronto in the A.L. East race.
Tanana faced the Jays 10 days later, this time at Tiger Stadium, and with a different landscape atop the East division. On the last day of the season, Tanana and Toronto’s Jimmy Key squared off again. The Tigers came into the game one-up on the Jays. Win and clinch the division; lose and prepare for a one-game playoff the next day.
The righty from Phoenix posted a record of 8-19 for the awful 1974 Tigers. But let’s step back and look at his totals:
The Cardinals purchased his contract from the Tigers on April 2, 1976, which means poor Lerrin didn’t even get to enjoy the Mark Fidrych Era. But, by leaving Detroit when he did, his number 30 became available for Jason Thompson.
Happy 60th, Mr. LaGrow. (Click here to see what he’s up to now.)
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