This week I received the missing piece(s) of my hyper-specific Tigers baseball card collection: the 1983 team set. (I’ve never learned if a set’s designation is the last season listed on the back, or the year it came out.)
Anyway, an unexpected bonus was receiving two Jerry Ujdur cards.
Daz Cameron, Armando Galarraga, George Cappuzzello and the late Luis Alvarado, Mike Marshall, Steve Gromek and Grover Lowdermilk.
⚾️ Immaculate Grid 654 9/9 — Rarity: 22
Have a great day.
The other day I saw on Baseball Reference’s In Memoriam section that former Tigers infielder Gary Sutherland died on Dec. 16 at 80.
Sutherland wore number 3 and played in 320 games for the Tigers in 1974, ’75 and part of ’76. He (and Jim Ray) came to Detroit from Houston on Dec. 3, 1973 for Fred Scherman and cash.
In ’74, he played 149 games, with 619 at-bats and a .254 batting average, drew 26 walks, and scored 60 runs.
The next year Sutherland played 129 games and 509 at-bats, posting slightly better numbers with a .258 batting average and scoring 51 runs.
His 1976 season began with Detroit but he struggled, hitting just .205 in 42 games before being traded to Milwaukee on June 10, 1976 for Pedro García. As Sutherland’s successor, García performed even worse, managing only a .198 average.
There are many candidates for this distinction, but I think Mike Moore was the quintessential Dave Duncan reclamation project in the late 1980s.
He went from a so-so starter in Seattle to a 19-game winner in Oakland.
By the time he signed a three-year, $10 million contract with the Tigers in 1993, most of that Duncan magic had vanished … much like the benefit of the spacious foul territory in the Oakland-Alameda County Stadium.
But we wouldn’t find out right away. Soon, but not right away.
As it seems to often happen in baseball, if not all sports, Moore made his Tigers debut on Opening Day 1993, April 5, against his former team in Oakland. It was a start to forget and a sign of things to come — again, we didn’t know it yet! — 42/3 innings, six hits, three walks and four earned runs. The Tigers lost 9-4.
Four days later, he started against the Angels in Anaheim and got only four outs. In 11/3 innings, he gave up six hits and five runs.
To recap: In his first two Tigers starts, he pitched six innings and allowed nine runs on 12 hits.
Although Moore’s ERA dipped below five once all year — 4.99, after his two-hit shutout of the White Sox on Sept. 10 — he did have a couple of incredible starts:
Moore was certainly durable* in his first season in Detroit: 36 starts and 223 innings. His final line: 13-9, 5.91 ERA, with three shutouts.
*In nine of his 14 seasons, he finished with more than 200 innings pitched — and in 1990 he threw 1991/3.
Well, 1994 and 1995 went about as well for Moore as it did for his Tigers teams. Still, the man did take the ball every fifth day (maybe fourth day back then?), pitching 25 starts both years.
In 1994, he could’ve reached 30+ starts again if not for the player’s strike, but anyway …
The third and final year of his Tigers contract, 1995, was a disaster: 25 starts, 5-15 and a 7.53 ERA.
Looking back 30 years, it wasn’t fair to expect Mike Moore, at 33, to be a top-of-the-rotation starter. After the mirage of 1993, the Tigers were not good in 1994 and ’95, so it wasn’t going to make a difference whether Moore was the staff’s ace, the fifth starter or a long reliever.
Oh and just looping back to the benefits of pitching home games in Oakland versus Detroit: Tiger Stadium’s cozy dimensions not only hurt him in the no-foul-territory fashion but also in surrendering the long ball: He made 86 starts and gave up 86 homers. Not all of them at The Corner, of course, but enough of them.
Here’s a snapshot of Mike Moore’s Tigers career:
| Year | Age | W | L | ERA | HR | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | 33 | 13 | 9 | 5.22 | 35 | 89 | 89 |
| 1994 | 34 | 11 | 10 | 5.42 | 27 | 89 | 62 |
| 1995 | 35 | 5 | 15 | 7.53 | 24 | 68 | 64 |
| DET | 29 | 34 | 5.90 | 86 | 246 | 215 |
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 11/8/2024.
Shane Halter and the late Mike Roarke and Bucky Harris.
Have a great weekend!
Duane Singleton, who the Tigers acquired on Jan. 23, 1996 in a trade with the Brewers for minor-leaguer Henry Santos.
The left-handed hitting outfielder appeared in 18 games for 1996 Tigers: 56 at bats and a .126 average.
Also the late:
Cruising through Baseball-Reference’s All-Star section I was able to find a list of every Tigers player named to the American League squad.
Here are a few of the more interesting (i.e., surprising or forgotten) players on the list:
Brad Ausmus, 1999. He batted .275 that year.
Tony Clark, 2001. A solid year for Tony in ’01.
Robert Fick, 2002. Good lord, those were some dark days.
Prince Fielder, 2012, ’13. Seems about right.
Edwin Jackson, 2009. Other than his loss to the White Sox in Game 161, I have almost no recollection of Jackson’s time in Detroit.
Todd Jones, 2000. I guess.
Ron LeFlore, 1976. I’m surprised to see that LeFlore was named to only one All-Star team.
Matt Nokes, 1987. I’d forgotten Nokes was an All-Star but he certainly earned it with a great first half. He almost made us forget Lance Parrish. Almost.
Don Wert, 1968. This one I don’t get, for two reasons: The first is that Wert finished the season batting .200, so I don’t know what he was producing in July. The second is I don’t have any context for All-Star roster construction back then. I was born within three weeks of the game.
Discuss.
In the nightcap of a doubleheader in Cleveland, the Tigers’ Cesar Gutierrez goes 7 for 7 with six singles and a double to tie a record set in 1892, in a 12-inning, 9-8 win.
Mickey Stanley‘s home run wins it for the Tigers. Gutierrez came into the game hitting .218, and was hitless in his previous 18 at bats. He will collect just seven hits in all of 1971, and 128 hits for his career.
I’ll admit it: I wasn’t the biggest Magglio Ordonez fan in 2006. After an injury-riddled debut season with the Tigers in 2005, I was ready to see the Ordonez that seemed to crush Detroit at every opportunity while with the White Sox.
But he just didn’t seem to deliver as often as I expected him to, and I don’t remember if it was based on gut feeling or cold-hard stats.
Whatever. When he stepped to the plate in the ninth inning of the 2006 ALCS, I didn’t expect him to come through. And from that point on I shut my mouth about Magglio Ordonez.
Here’s my Magglio Top Five list:
That’s my list. What’s yours?
For a broader look at Magglio’s career, checkout this excellent piece by Chris Jaffe in The Hardball Times.
And this evening I gleefully eat crow.
Justin Verlander or no, I didn’t expect the Tigers to win Game 5. After Wednesday night’s deflating extra-inning loss, my typically optimistic self thought the Tigers had run out of gas and that the Rangers were just too hot to lose.
Texas was making the most of their opportunities — lord knows they (and the Tigers with much less success) have had plenty this series — and how long could Detroit’s worn out pitching staff keep Michael Young and Adrian Beltre, the only Rangers not scorching the ball these days, in check? Not long, at least in the case of the former.
When Young doubled in the first inning, that queasy feeling of doom washed over me. Then I got angry: No way Verlander wilts in this situation. He didn’t.
Despite what some wrote, Verlander was terrific. Untouchable? No. But he had enough stuff, grit and determination to get the outs he needed at just the right time.
These same observers are saying the Tigers were lucky to win this game. Well, yeah — and it’s about time a bounce went Detroit’s way. And an ice-cold hitter hit a home run. And a starter went deep into the game. And someone other than Joaquin Benoit and Jose Valverde got the final outs. And a packed Comerica Park trembled one more time.
If the Tigers go on to win this series, imagine how we’ll remember a beaten down Alex Avila at last delivering a key hit with an opposite field home run, or how iconic Miguel Cabrera‘s sixth-inning double off the third-base bag will become in Detroit sports lore. Or Victor Martinez‘s triple when the man can hardly walk. Or Delmon Young‘s two rockets to left-center that put him in elite company in the Tigers’ postseason record book.
With Max Scherzer going in Game 6 — the first time the Tigers have been in a postseason Game 6 since 1968 — you have to feel good, don’t you? My guess is that he feels he has some unfinished business after Game 2 and will be on a mission Saturday night.
For now though, I’m going to savor this win and the crow I was forced to eat after not so much doubting the Tigers’ grit, but recognizing the offensive buzz saw that’s the Texas Rangers right now.
And you know what? Jim Leyland seems to be having the time of his life in this series. Perhaps it’s time I stop fretting every pitch and just enjoy the ride too.
Who’s with me?
dailyfungoarchive.com 