April 10, 1984: Tigers 5 – Rangers 1

Tigers 5 – Rangers 1

W: Dan Petry (2-0) L: Dave Stewart (0-2) | Boxscore

Highlights

The Rangers got off to a fast start in the first, greeting Petry with a couple of singles — one by Buddy Bell and, after a groundout, another by Larry Parrish — and jumping out to a 1-0 lead.

It didn’t last.

In the bottom half, Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell walked, leading to Darrell Evans‘ first Tiger Stadium at bat. Evans blasted Dave Stewart‘s 1-0 pitch deep into the upper deck in right and, I think I can speak for most of us, we could hardly contain ourselves.

Lance Parrish popped out, Kirk Gibson singled, and walks to Larry Herndon and Chet Lemon loaded the bases for Howard Johnson* — and he walked, giving the Tigers a 4-1 lead and ending Stewart’s day at two-thirds of an inning.

Petry threw a four-hit complete game, walking three and striking out seven.

With one out in the third, Herndon doubled and the next man up, Dave Bergman, drove him in for the Tigers’ final run.

Record: 6-0

*Somehow, Howard Johnson did not make it on my Top-5 Tigers list Honorable Mentions. I’m correcting that now. I was not happy when he was traded to the Mets after the ’84 season.

Miscellany

Umpires: HP – Marty Springstead, 1B – Jim McKean, 2B – Durwood Merrill, 3B – Tim McClelland
Time of Game: 2:32
Attendance: 51,238
Start Time Weather: 62° F, Sunny, No Precipitation

Birthdays

Eric King and the late Frank Lary, Cliff Bolton and Rudy Kneisch

See you tomorrow.

April 8, 1984: Tigers 7 – White Sox 3

Tigers 7 – White Sox 3

W: Aurelio López (1-0) – L: Tom Seaver (0-1) | Boxscore

Highlights

Dave Rozema starts and goes four innings. Aurelio Lopez relieves him and he goes four innings.

The Tigers chase Tom Seaver, tagging him for five runs on seven hits in four and a third.

Kirk Gibson hits his first homer of the year, off Seaver.

Bárbaro Garbey, who pinch hits for Dave Bergman in the fifth, still gets three at bats with two doubles and three RBI.

Record: 5-0

Miscellany

Umpires: HP – Tim McClelland, 1B – Marty Springstead, 2B – Jim McKean, 3B – Durwood Merrill
Time of Game: 3:17
Attendance: 20,478

Birthdays

Artie Lewicki, Bobby Wilson, Dane Sardinha, Timo Pérez, John Hiller, Western Michigan University alum Charlie “Paw Paw” Maxwell (97!) and the late Bob Mavis

The Friday Fungo – April 5

Game 2 – April 5, 1984

Tigers 7 – Twins 3

W: Dan Petry (1-0) – L: Frank Viola (0-1) | Boxscore

Alan Trammell: 4 for 5, triple, homer.

Kirk Gibson, batting eighth, with a two-out, three-run homer off Viola in fourth.

Petry: 7 IP, 5 hits, 3 runs (2 earned), 4 walks, 1 strikeout.

Willie Hernandez: Two 1-2-3 innings, two strikeouts.

Rod Allen: 1 for 3, 2 runs scored.

Larry Pashnick with two-and-a -third against his former team.

Record: 2-0

Miscellany

Umpires: HP – Larry McCoy, 1B – Nick Bremigan, 2B – Vic Voltaggio, 3B – Joe Brinkman
Time of Game: 2:33
Attendance: 8,373

3 Things to Know About Larry Pashnick #22

The Lincoln Park native and Michigan State alum made his Tigers debut on April 10, 1982 against the Royals: 1 scoreless inning, 0 hits, 0 K, 1 walk.

He appeared in 40 games for the Tigers across the 1982 and ‘83 seasons, 19 of them starts, finishing with a 5-7 record and a 4.17 ERA.

On Dec. 8, 1983, the Tigers traded him to the Twins for Rusty Kuntz.

Birthdays

Beau Brieske

Today’s Grid

⚾️ Immaculate Grid 369 8/9 – Rarity: 131

I was thwarted by thinking former Tiger Mike Moore had won 20 games while pitching for the A’s. Alas, he topped out at 19 wins for 1989 World Series champs.

Have a great weekend. See you tomorrow.

The Thursday Fungo – April 4

April 4, 1984: Off Day in Minneapolis

The Tigers and Twins had an off day between Opening Day and the final two games of the series.

It makes as little sense now as it did back then — why a day off when the Twins played indoors?

Today’s Random Game: Aug. 16, 1981

Tigers 5 – Yankees 4

W: Aurelio Lopez – L: Ron Davis | Boxscore

Highlights

Aurelio Lopez went four innings of relief.

In the bottom of the ninth, after walks by Lance Parrish and Rick Leach, Bill Fahey lined a single to score Parrish and cut the Yankees lead to 4-2.

Then with one out in the bottom of the ninth …

Miscellany

Umpires: HP – Ken Kaiser, 1B – Mark Johnson, 2B – Bill Haller, 3B – Dan Morrison
Time of Game: 2:54
Attendance: 21,077
Start Time Weather: 68° F, Cloudy, No Precipitation

Birthdays

Cameron Maybin and Louis Coleman

Today’s Grid

⚾️ Immaculate Grid 368 9/9 – Rarity: 15

See you tomorrow.

The Saturday Fungo

My Top-5 Tigers

Lately I’ve been giving a lot of thought to who my all-time favorite Tigers are and who would make a tidy list.

Putting together my top 10 would be easy. Narrowing it to just five would be tough but I wanted to give it a shot.

What’s the criteria for this list?

I decided that this was my purely subjective list based on players I enjoyed watching play for the Tigers.

For example, Mark Fidrych doesn’t make the list simply because I never saw him play live — and I decided ESPN Classic and MLB Network reruns don’t count.

The legend of The Bird and his place in Tigers lore is secure for me.

Here’s my list* — not in order of favorite-ness, but in order of how they came to mind — which has been revised right up to the moment I clicked “Publish” on this post.

Kirk Gibson

Jack Morris

Jason Thompson

Aurelio Rodriguez

Glenn Wilson

Honorable Mentions

Alan Trammell

Mickey Tettleton

Carlos Guillen

Jeff Robinson

Lance Parrish

Tony Phillips

Dave Bergman

Richie Hebner

*Always subject to revision.

Birthdays

None!

Today’s Grid

⚾️ Immaculate Grid 356 9/9 – Rarity: 11

See you tomorrow.

The Thursday Fungo

Chuck Scrivener – #9

If ever there were a time to break into major leagues, the forlorn Tigers of the mid-1970s presented a golden opportunity … unless you happened to play middle infield.

That was the scenario facing Chuck Scrivener who, it appeared, had the talent to be a big leaguer. I mean, he was drafted four times over three years:

Twins in the 17th round of the 1966 MLB June Amateur Draft
Braves in the 4th round of the 1967 MLB January Draft-Secondary Phase
Giants in the 8th round of the 1967 MLB June Draft-Secondary Phase
Tigers in the 2nd round of the 1968 MLB January Draft-Secondary Phase

Here’s a snapshot of Scrivener’s career:

Played nine seasons in the Tigers minor-league system before making his major-league debut on Sept. 18, 1975 against the Indians. He started at shortstop, batting leadoff, and struck out looking against Jim Bibby. Scrivener finished the night 0 for 4.

He hit two career home runs:
- The first on Aug. 8, 1976, off Cleveland’s Tom Buskey in the bottom of a seven-run Tigers fifth, a solo shot to left. He went 3 for 4, part of the Tigers’ 15-hit attack in a 15-5 win.
- The second came on Sept. 25, off the Yankees’ Dick Tidrow, a sixth-inning, three-run homer that cut New York’s 10-3 lead to 10-6.

His final four appearances came as a defensive replacement, capped by his last Sept. 29, 1977, against his hometown Orioles, subbing in for rookie Alan Trammell.

Scrivener’s final plate appearances came on Sept. 22, 1977, against Boston’s Don Aase — a strike out and flyout — before being lifted for pinch-hitter Tim Corcoran.

With Trammell and Lou Whitaker establishing themselves, there was no path for Scrivener in Detroit. After spending 1978 in Evansville, hitting .262, the Tigers released him on Dec. 4. A month later, he signed with the Blue Jays, but didn’t appear in a game, in Toronto or in the minors.

Chuck Scrivener: By the Numbers

Birthdays

Blaine Hardy and the late Mike Strahler, Marty McManus and Hub Pernoll

Today’s Grid

⚾️ Immaculate Grid 347 9/9 — Rarity: 26

See you tomorrow.

The Monday Fungo

Dennis Kinney

The Tigers picked up southpaw Dennis Kinney from the Padres on Dec. 12, 1980 for Dave Stegman.

After spending most of the ’81 campaign in Triple-A Evansville, Kinney appeared in six late-season games for the Tigers, debuting against the Red Sox in Detroit on Sept. 9, a 6-5 loss.

His final appearance came at County Stadium on Oct. 2 against the Brewers, entering with two out in the fifth in relief of Dan Petry. The Tigers lost, 8-2.

His Tigers career by the numbers:

3.2 innings pitched
4 walks
3 hits
4 runs, all earned
9.82 ERA.

Kinney was released almost a year to the day he was acquired: Dec. 14, 1981. On Feb. 7, 1982, he signed with the A’s.

His final big-league appearance came on May 20, 1982 at Tiger Stadium in a 11-3 Tigers win. Kinney’s line: 3.0 IP, 7 H, 0 SO, 1 BB, 3 ER.

Random Game: May 9, 1981

Angels 15 – Tigers 1

The Tigers scored first on a Kirk Gibson RBI single to plate Al Cowens. And that was it.

Dan Schatzeder started and went just two and a third, giving up four earned runs.
Dave Tobik was up next and he gave up six in three and a third.
Howard Bailey pitched the final two, and allowed five earned.
The Angels hit four homers: Bobby Clark, off Schatzeder, and Brian Downing, Don Baylor and Bobby Grich off Tobik.
Gibby and Cowens had two hits apiece for the Tigers.

Here’s your boxscore.

Details

Saturday, May 9, 1981
Attendance: 32,040
Venue: Anaheim Stadium
Game Duration: 2:42
Night Game, on grass

Birthdays

Dennis Kinney, Don Lee and the late Rip Collins

Today’s Grid

Screenshot 2024-02-26 — One former Tiger today.

See you tomorrow.

The Friday Fungo

Tigers 23s

On this 23rd of February, let’s look back at the players who wore #23 for the Tigers during the period of 1977 through 1994:

Willie Horton – 1964-1977, number retired.
Kirk Gibson – 1979-87, 1993-95
Torey Lovullo – 1988-89
Mark Leiter – 1991-1992
Dan Petry – 1990. When Peaches returned to the Tigers after his time with the Angels, his original number 46 was being worn by Mike Schwabe. Presumably, he went with 23 because it is half of 46. In 1991, Petry was back in his original 46 for the 17 games he appeared in before being dealt to the Braves for Víctor Rosario.

If you’re wondering, the last players to wear 23 before it was retired were Gabe Kapler (1999) and Hideo Nomo (2000).

Birthdays

Rondell White, John Shelby and the late Roy Johnson.

Today’s Grid

⚾️ Immaculate Grid 327 9/9 — Rarity: 44

See you tomorrow.

The Monday Fungo: Feb. 19

On Vinyl! “The Year of the Tiger ’68”

Last week I posted the Channel 4 review of the 1968 season, but this is the original as far as I’m concerned. My Dad bought this 33 rpm record for me in 1978 — we had to send away for it, as we said then — and I just about wore it out. I’m so thankful this stuff lives on in the depths of the Internet.

Start your week with the sounds of a young(er) Ernie Harwell.

Random Game: Aug. 10, 1981

Milt Wilcox versus Jim Clancy in the Tigers’ first game after the players strike. Tigers win 4-3 on a walkoff, bases-loaded single to left by Alan Trammell to score Kirk Gibson.