June 2- Detroit Tigers

In all the years that I ever worked at Just Sports (@JustSportsPDX) I never really understood why so many people came in and bought this cap. Nothing personal against it, I think it’s an awesome hat. My beef lies more heavily upon the fact that Portland, Oregon never struck me as a Detroit Tigers fan hotbed. But then again, back in my old Just Sports days I was thinking more heavily on the baseball aspect of things, not the style.

Portland has changed quite a bit since I moved to the area from California, and so have I. In the old days I was an ardent hater of anything involving custom style. I have since grown up and looked at things more deeply, rather than just taking the aesthetic elements into consideration. I wish ore people saw the game the way that I do. For starters, it would make in-game conversations way more interesting, as opposed to me just feeling like a school teacher. I suppose that’s one of the things that I love about doing these posts every day. I can let out all the information that I have rolling around in my melon and hopefully trigger or engage other folk who have a story or two on the same subject.

Of all the stories that come to mind immediately about this hat is how and where I bought it. There are other stories, but I’ll get to those in a moment. I was venturing southward on I-5, going from Eugene, Oregon to Portland to go visit my parent for the weekend. Around mile marker 269 I realized I hadn’t been to the outlet mall in Woodburn in quite some time so I took the exit at 271 and parked in the back. For two-and-a-half years I ran the Just Sports at Woodburn and had a lot of success doing it. My biggest accomplishment was taking it from a $300,000 a year in volume store to $500,000 in roughly a year. What can I say? I set my standards pretty high. I waltzed around to the back-right corridor and walked in. The overall merchandising of the store was different, but all the familiar smells and concrete floor were still there. I took to the hat wall, rummaging through to find something I liked. I all ready had a few Oakland Athletics caps, so it was on to something else. It was late May of 2010 and the Tigers had been playing decently, so I figured, “what the hell.” I paid my $35, took the stickers off immediately, jumped back in the car and continued my quest.

I realize that there’s nothing really “special” to that story, but for me it was more nostalgic. In all the time I worked at Just Sports previous to then I never really wore New Era Caps. I owned a few, but I never wore them to work. I think most of what I remember in the moment was how much I love, and truly appreciate every aspect of baseball. During my time as the manager I made it a point to stock my store with as much Major League Baseball gear as possible. I made sure to have at least one team, style of every hat, jersey and shirt. The outlet mall was set up for travelers, and I always made sure to prepare for the time that a random Pittsburgh Pirates fan, or Colorado Rockies fan or Tigers fan came walking into the store and leaving with something they didn’t expect. And if they didn’t buy anything, we both walked away with some solid baseball conversation under our belts. It’s not my goal to work retail for the rest of my life; however, if and when I find myself in that situation, I might as well do it in a place that will make me happy.

This hat has been a number of years in the Majors, and it still stands the test of time as one of the best-selling caps to date. The Tigers started wearing it in 1922; however, it was had a few differences in the overall appearance. The concept of the Old English “D” was there, it’s just that over time the graphic has become sleeker. This particular variation first hit the heads of ball players and in gift shops in 1934 where it was used as the team’s game cap until 1946. From 1947 until 1951 it served as the team’s road cap. It took a backseat until 1958 when the Tigers started using it as their game cap until the end of the 1971 season. In 1972 the Tigers introduced a new road cap, making this their primary home cap, which it still is today. All of great teams and Hall of Famers played under this cap, so I feel it would be a disservice to all of you if I didn’t talk about some great moment or player. After scouring through stat sheets, history books and almanacs I could only think of one moment replaying over and over in my head. Based on the historical value and the events that came to pass, there really isn’t a better choice.

6/2/2010- It was a Wednesday afternoon. I had worked at Max’s Tavern the night before and stayed there late after we had wrapped up another edition of our Max’s Tuesday Knight Trivia. There was an English class that I was enrolled in on 19^th century American literature, and I had to finish reading the book and write a three to four page paper based on any array of topic we wished to write about. The book at that time was Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and I decided to base my paper on the character of Uncle Tom himself. I had been sitting in the library for a solid hour after class reading the last few chapters when I decided I needed a beer. It was about 2:30 PM PST and I hadn’t eaten anything so I stopped for a burrito at Qdoba before making the three block trek to Max’s where I could work and drink cheaply. My favorite table was open, and by favorite I mean the only one not next to a window that was also equipped with a power outlet. I ordered a beer, a frosty glass of Pabst Blue Ribbon, set up my computer and read for the next 45 minutes until that night’s baseball games started up.

I think I’m going on year six of having MLB.tv. Then, and now, it’s been my saving grace anytime I just need to tune out and relax once in a while. On this day, relaxing went right out the window. For some incredibly stupid reason Eugene falls within the Bay Area territory; therefore, I am not allowed to watch Athletics or San Francisco Giants games through MLB.tv. If I were to go 13 miles north to Brownsville, I’d be in the clear. But no, despite being 540 miles away all of the games I want to watch (only A’s games really) are blacked out. As a result of this gaffe I had to find a new team to follow, if only for the sake of developing a relationship with the play-by-play guys. After a solid month of searching I found that Mario Impemba and Rod Allen of Fox Sports Detroit were my go-to guys.

Finally, 4:07 PM PST, Armando Galarraga takes the hill for the Tigers. Prior to that game Galarraga was 1-1 on the season with a 4.50 ERA having started two and reliving one. Prior to the start of the season Galarraga had gone 19-17 with a 5.20 ERA in 54 games started and eight additional appearances. In fact, Galarraga had gone 13-7 with a 3.73 ERA in 2008, which gave him a fourth place finish for the American League Rookie of the Year award. Even Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays won it that year. Today; however, Galarraga was facing a rough-starting Cleveland Indians team at Comerica Park in Detroit. Call it fate, call it pure luck, call it whatever you want, but for some reason I felt compelled to wear my home Tigers cap that day.

If you get the chance, take a look at the boxscore and play-by-play sheet I highly recommend it. It’s interesting to see a game only on paper and then try to recreate it in your head. Galarraga made short work of the first three batters (Trevor Crowe, Shin-Soo Choo and Austin Kearns) while Indians’ pitcher Roberto Hernandez gave up a single against Detroit’s first batter Austin Jackson. Hernandez, otherwise know as Fausto Carmona at the time, then forced a double play and a ground out to end the inning. In the second, Galarraga took down all three (Travis Hafner, Jhonny Peralta, and Russell Branyan) with ease. In the bottom half Miguel Cabrera blasted a line drive over the bullpen in left field to give the Tigers the early 1-0 lead. To be honest, I had my headphones plugged in and the game on screen, but I was too busy finishing reading the book to really notice anything that was going on. When I heard the ball go off of Cabrera’s bat for the home run I definitely looked up. There is definitely a distinctive sound that rattles off the bat when Cabrera makes contact. I knew it was gone before I even looked up.

In the third inning Galarraga got Mark Grudzielanek to fly out, Mike Redmond to ground out and Jason Donald to do the same. This is the way things would go; over and over and over again through the top of the eighth inning. Galarraga had only struck out three batters (Kearns, Grudzielanek and Peralta) through the first 24 batters. Hernandez, on the other hand, had really only made the one mistake of giving Miggy a hanger to park over the left field wall. Until the bottom of the eighth he had been hanging in there pretty well. Alex Avila and Ramon Santiago were easy first two out, but then Jackson went and had himself a little three-hit day with his third single on the night. Next up, Johnny Damon, who singled weakly to the second baseman. With two runners on Magglio Ordonez blooped a ball into right field which gave Jackson more than enough time to score from second. Damon moved to third on a throwing error which gave Galarraga some insurance runs and two on for Cabrera… who struck out. But either way, insurance runs are good.

Around the sixth inning I started to take a more vested interest in the game. I could tell from what I was hearing that Galarraga was dealing and moving very quickly through the lineup. Anytime a no-hitter is in progress I generally don’t give much thought to it unless I’m actually watching the game. This was one of those games. There was a gentleman in the bar who had noticed my cap when he came in but he didn’t come over to talk to me until he had a beer in his hand. He could tell I was busy so he mostly wanted some small talk about the Tigers since he was originally from Michigan. I told him I was watching the game, he smiled, and he told me to let him “know if anything interesting happens.” Well… this is that interesting thing.

By the time the eighth inning had ended we had every TV in the bar with the game on as every sports network was doing a live look-in. I could feel my heart racing. I had never witnessed a no-hitter, let alone a perfect game from start to finish. Merely a few weeks before this game Roy Halladay had thrown a perfect game against the Florida Marlins. I ended up missing it on account of “not giving a f--- about the Marlins and Phillies game.” And then a few weeks before that, on Mother’s Day, Athletics pitcher Dallas Braden had himself a perfect day… which happened at the most imperfect time of me driving from Portland back to Eugene. I was pissed. But now, redemption.

First up, Grudzielanek. Grudzielanek took a cut at the first pitch and sent a shot to centerfield, but definitely not far enough. Jackson got under it and recorded the first out. Next up, Redmond. Galarraga had worked himself a pretty nice count (1-2). On the fourth pitch Redmond poked a slow roller to Santiago at shortstop. Santiago had to move quickly as Redmond had “turned on the jets,” but there were able to get the second out. By this time everyone, and I mean everyone in the bar was glued to the TV. Most people didn’t even know what the hell was going on, but they knew it was something special. Next up, Donald. For a cat who was about to make history, Galarraga looked incredibly calm. His first two pitches went in for a ball and a strike, and on the third… contact. The ball trickled slowly between first and second base, but Cabrera had an easy beat on it. Galarraga took off to first base to cover and receive the relay. Cabrera tossed, Galarraga caught it, made sure his foot was on the bag and everyone in the stadium, including Impemba calling the game rejoiced.

Their joy quickly soured as soon as first base umpire Jim Joyce threw both of his arms up and called Donald safe. At first Cabrera and Galarraga thought it was a joke, but sure enough it wasn’t. Cabrera and Tigers manager Jim Leyland gave Joyce an earful, but he stuck to his guns. The Tigers ended up recording the final out, but nobody was happy about the result. Even Donald couldn’t believe the call was blown as he knew the out was made before he touched the bag.

In the moments to follow the game Joyce had the tape cued up on the play and within a fraction of a second he knew he “kicked the play.” Joyce, filled with guilt, sought Galarraga to admit his mistake. Joyce also spoke to the media after the game to admit his error. The next day Galarraga took out the Tigers’ lineup card to the mound where Joyce was working behind the dish. A remorseful Joyce thanked Galarraga and gave him a pat on the back in front of a sold out Comerica Park crowd who gave Joyce and Galarraga a standing ovation. Only in baseball can a mistake so historical be turned into a positive for everyone. No one was hurt or injured. The only thing that changed is a little mark in a record book. The people who witnessed it know it was a perfect game. The people who watched the highlights know it was a perfect game. Even the Hall of Fame knows it was a perfect game. Perhaps that is all which is truly good enough.

In the midst of everything that had happened all I could do was order another beer and go back to my table in solitude. Nothing felt right for the rest of the day. I can only imagine how awful real Tigers fans felt about it.

I had pretty much gotten over by the next day. It still sucked to think about, but there were clearly worse tragedies in life to dwell on than this. A few days later my friend Tony Feltz came into the bar and we each grabbed a beer and enjoyed some good baseball convo. About 45 seconds into our discussion on blown perfect game he interrupted and said, “Dude! I have a great story for you. A great story.” Tony then went on to tell me about an incident that happened at work which pertained to the perfect game. At the time Tony was a manager of a 7-11 a block from campus, working the morning shift. Two girls came in to buy coffee and whatever else when one of the friends notices the paper. The girl who notices the paper says to the other girl, “Hey, did you hear about this? The umpire that missed that call?” To which the other girl said, “Yah. That’s my father.” The conversation immediately got awkward and ended and the two girls paid ad left. Needless to say, I was blown away.

Time has since moved on since that depressing end of spring day. I went to a ton of University of Oregon football games that fall, in which we almost won the National Championship against Josh Donaldson’s Auburn Tigers.

I did my MLB Fan Cave thing, I went to a ton of baseball games, watched all three perfect games in 2012 on TV and so on. Galarraga on the other hand, is playing in AAA with the Louisville Bats in the Cincinnati Reds organization. His career was never the same after that game.

Tragic.

May 25- Detroit Tigers

If there ever come a point where you’re at a hardcore trivia competition, be sure to never forget this little factoid I’m about to bestow upon you. Which was the first Major League ball club to get its name from a military-based unit? Instinctually you might be prompted to say the New York Yankees. Well, you would be dead wrong. Believe it or not, it was the Detroit Tigers. There are various legends about how the Tigers got their nickname. One involves the orange stripes they wore on their black stockings. Tiger’s manager George Stallings took credit for the name; however, the name appeared in newspapers before Stallings was manager. Another legend concerns a sportswriter equating the 1901 team's opening day victory with the ferocity of his alma mater, the Princeton Tigers.

Richard Bak, in his 1998 book, A Place for Summer: A Narrative History of Tiger Stadium, pp. 46–49, explains that the name originated from the Detroit Light Guard military unit, who were known as "The Tigers". They had played significant roles in certain Civil War battles and in the 1898 Spanish–American War. The baseball team was still informally called both "Wolverines" and "Tigers" in the news. The earliest known use of the name "Tigers" in the media was in the Detroit Free Press on April 16, 1895. Upon entry into the majors, the ballclub sought and received formal permission from the Light Guard to use its moniker. From that day on, the team has been officially called the Tigers.

Taking pride and honoring the military has been a long-standing tradition with the Tigers, it has been especially shown with one of their Minor League affiliates the Lakeland Flying Tigers. Players, management and media officials have long gotten involved with or set up their own programs to show their support. Fox Sports Detroit’s Mario Impemba helped establish Military Veteran’s Program (MVP), a program that includes a ticket to the game, transportation to the ball park via the Fox Sports Detroit Fan Express, a t-shirt, food voucher and autographed photo of Mario Impemba. Veterans who participate in the program are selected from local Veterans organizations. MVP is part of the Detroit Tigers year-round support of troops and Veterans. Each year, the Detroit Tigers hold a special game to honor and recognize the sacrifice of the men and women serving in the United States Armed Forces and those that have served before them. Through the Detroit Tigers Armed Forces Game Ball Delivery program, the Detroit Tigers recognize a service member who has recently returned from deployment or home on leave during a tour of duty prior to most home games. The Detroit Tigers also visit Veterans at the Department of Veteran’s Affairs Detroit Medical Center throughout the season. Impemba also created Operation Opening Day to provide fans currently serving in the United States Armed Forces a DVD of the Tigers home opener for the last five years.

One of the more recent traditions the Tigers started a few years ago is a bit of recognition for local veterans by having them take the game ball to the mound which concludes with a round of applause from the crown at every home game. This tradition inspired Justin Verlander to do more for the veterans and has allowed wounded veterans and their families attend games in his personal suite for every home game he pitches. Verlander also attributes the gesture as inspiration from his cousin Christopher, who served a tour in Afghanistan, and his grandfather Richard who fought during World War II. Verlander has also donated more than $100,000 to Veterans Affairs medical centers in and around Detroit on top of his own charity group Verlander's Victory for Veterans Foundation. Say what you want about the guy if you’re a rival fan, you just can’t deny that he’s a total class act.

Since 1971 the Tigers haven’t exactly had the best of luck on Memorial Day, going 19-20 with four days off due to travel. The team they’ve played the most is the Oakland Athletics, splitting the series (as of now) 3-3. As far as any other notable moments; from 2001-2003 they beat the Cleveland Indians three consecutive times and they only played in one Memorial Day doubleheader in 1972 which resulted in two losses to the New York Yankees.

When picking out a few players to pay tribute to there were really only two guys that came to mind without having to do any bit of research. I think you’ll agree.

TC- Tyrus Raymond Cobb, The Georgia Peach, is arguably one of the most revered, feared, yet intriguing figures in modern American history. He was born in Narrows, Georgia in 1886, the first of three children to William Herschel Cobb and Amanda Chitwood Cobb. He played his first years in organized baseball for the Royston Rompers, the semi-pro Royston Reds, and the Augusta Tourists of the South Atlantic League who released him after only two days. He then tried out for the Anniston Steelers of the semipro Tennessee-Alabama League, with his father's stern admonition ringing in his ears: "Don't come home a failure!" After joining the Steelers for a monthly salary of $50, Cobb promoted himself by sending several postcards written about his talents under different aliases to Grantland Rice, the sports editor of the Atlanta Journal. Eventually, Rice wrote a small note in the Journal that a "young fellow named Cobb seems to be showing an unusual lot of talent." After about three months, Ty returned to the Tourists and finished the season hitting .237 in 35 games. In August 1905, the management of the Tourists sold Cobb to the American League's Detroit Tigers for $750 (equivalent to approximately $19,164 in today's funds).

On August 8, 1905 Ty's mother fatally shot his father, who had suspected her of infidelity and was sneaking past his own bedroom window to catch her in the act; she saw the silhouette of what she presumed to be an intruder and, acting in self-defense, shot and killed her husband. Mrs. Cobb was charged with murder and then released on a $7,000 recognizance bond. She was acquitted on March 31, 1906. Cobb later attributed his ferocious play to his late father, saying, "I did it for my father. He never got to see me play ... but I knew he was watching me, and I never let him down."

Cobb played for the Tigers for 22 years (1905-1926), his last six with the team as a player/manager, and the final two years of his career (1927-1928) he spent with the Philadelphia Athletics. Cobb played every game as if it were his last, with reckless abandon. He showed this in the way he dug his cleats into whomever was standing on base, he showed it when he purposely never hit home runs for the sake that legging it out on the base paths was more honorable, and he physically took it out on the fans who cursed his name no matter their age, size or color. In today’s day-in-age Cobb probably would have been incarcerated before the end of his rookie season, but things were a little bit different in the old days; especially in Detroit.

I’m not going to go too deep into his stats, I’m actually saving that for a post in the future, but what I can tell you is the man is one of the greatest hitter the game has ever seen. He hit .366 lifetime with 4,189 career hits in which 117 of them were still home runs. Not bad for a guy who never tried to crush.

In 1918, Cobb was in his 14th season in big league baseball, but he was still at the top of his game. That season he won his 11th batting title, hitting .382 to pace the American League easily. But he didn’t collect 200 hits or put up any other gaudy numbers, largely because the season was shortened due to the Great War. Baseball had decided to end the schedule on Labor Day due to the hostilities between the Allies and the Axis Powers in Europe. Unlike the Second World War, where the U.S. entered the conflict in the off-season and players voluntarily entered the service, America did not begin to call up citizens for duty until a few months after declaring war in 1917. Major League Baseball players, for the most part, did not enter military service during the 1917 season. Therefore, outside of the military drilling, the 1917 regular season was barely affected by the overseas conflict. Cobb also applied to the Augusta, Georgia Draft Board, making himself eligible for military service. Cobb was placed in a special class. The military would draft younger men before turning to Cobb’s group.

The War in Europe dominated headlines in 1918. On a road trip to Washington to face the Senators, Cobb visited the War Department, where he took his mandatory army physical and applied for the Chemical Warfare Service. Spurred by patriotism and the memory of his grandfather’s service in the Civil War hero, Cobb felt compelled to get into the fight. A few days later, while Detroit was in New York to play the Yankees, Cobb received word that he had been accepted into the Chemical Warfare Service. He was to report in October.

The Chemical Warfare Service had been organized by General John J. Pershing in response to several deadly poison gas attacks on American troops by the Germans. The attacks had generated considerable outrage, and the creation of the CWS was front-page news. The CWS was created to perfect methods to withstand poison-gas attacks, but more importantly (and controversially), it was charged with developing poisonous gas weapons to be used against the Germans in Europe. Other baseball figures who would also serve in the CWS included Christy Mathewson, Branch Rickey, and George Sisler.

Following the end of the 1918 season and a few weeks at his home in Georgia, Ty arrived in New York and reported for duty on October 1. He was commissioned as a captain in the U.S. Army, and after a relatively short time in accelerated training, he and his unit sailed for France. The Army hoped that Cobb and the other sports figures in the CWS would be effective in training enlisted men in the area of chemical and biological warfare. But according to Cobb, he ended up training “the darnedest bunch of culls the World War I Army ever grouped in one outfit.”
The training exercises in France, though they took place far behind the front lines, were extremely dangerous. Cobb would march his troops into an airtight chamber, where they were to quickly assemble their gas masks when they received a signal that the poison was about to filter into the room. However, on one occasion something went terribly wrong.

During one exercise, Cobb and his troops either missed or were slow to react to the signal and many of them stumbled from the chamber having inhaled the poison into their lungs. For weeks Cobb suffered with a hacking cough while a “colorless discharge” drained from his chest. Others were not so lucky – they died after the exposure. Christy Mathewson, the great National League hurler who also served in the CWS, inhaled so much of the gas while in France that he later developed tuberculosis. He died from the disease seven years later, in 1925.

Cobb had been in France less than a month when the war ended suddenly on November 11. The Allies, bolstered by the influx of American troops, had deflected the last German offensives and hurtled the aggressors back into the Rhine. When the Hindenberg Line was breached by the Allies, the Germans collapsed in disarray. Within a few weeks, Cobb was onboard the largest ship in the world – the U.S.S. Leviathan – one of the first transport ships back to the United States. Cornered by newsmen in New York upon his arrival, Cobb spoke modestly of his brief foray as a soldier.

“I hardly had time to get used to the idea [of being in the Army]. I’m proud to have been in uniform in some small way and to see our great nation dispel the enemy in such miraculous speed.” –Dan Holmes, Ty Cobb: A Biography

#5- If there was ever a player who was pretty much the exact opposite of Ty Cobb, at least from a personality perspective, I doubt you’d have to look further than Hank Greenberg. He was born and raised in New York City, New York, lacked coordination as a youngster and flat feet prevented him from running fast. But he worked diligently to overcome his inadequacies, which also included acne and a stutter. He attended James Monroe High School in the Bronx, where he was an outstanding all-around athlete and was bestowed with the long-standing nickname of "Bruggy" by his basketball coach. His preferred sport was baseball, and his preferred position was first base. However, Greenberg became a basketball standout in high school, helping Monroe win the city championship.

In 1929, the 18-year-old Greenberg was recruited by the New York Yankees, who already had a capable first baseman named Lou Gehrig. Greenberg turned them down and instead attended New York University for a year, after which he signed with the Tigers for $9,000 ($124,000 today). He mad his debut on September 14, 1930, getting only one plate appearance before the season ended. It would be three more years before he stepped onto a Major League field again.

From 1933-1941 Greenberg was one of the most dominant power hitter in the game. He missed a majority of two seasons (1936 and 1941) due to injury; however, he more than made up for it in the others years. In that nine year span he only hit below .301 once (.269 in 19 games in 1941). He led the league three times in home runs and RBI three times, but not all in the same year. His 183 RBI in 1937 is still the third-most in MLB history, and yet he only hit 40 home runs that season. I realize that 40 is still a lot, but compare that to today’s numbers and he would have easily cleared 200 RBI. He won two AL MVPs during this stretch. The first came in 1935 when he went .328/36/170, he led the league in both home runs and RBI that season. The second came in 1940 when he hit .340 with 41 home runs and 150 RBI, which both led the league again, but he also hit a league-leading 50 doubles.

On October 16, 1940, Greenberg registered along with fellow Americans between the ages of 21 and 35 for the first peacetime draft in the nation’s history. At his first draft physical in Lakeland, Florida, during spring training in 1941, it was found that he had flat feet. Doctors recommended he be considered for limited duty. But a second examination on April 18 in Detroit determined him fit for full military service.

On May 7, 1941, the day after hitting two home runs in his farewell appearance, Greenberg was inducted in the Army and reported to Fort Custer at Battle Creek, Michigan, where many troops of the Fifth Division turned out at the train station to welcome the slugging star. “If there’s any last message to be given to the public,” he told The Sporting News. “Let it be that I’m going to be a good soldier.” Greenberg was assigned as an anti-tank gunner and went on maneuvers in Tennessee. In November 1941, having risen to the rank of sergeant, he rode a gun carrier at a Detroit Armistice Day parade in front of thousands of cheering onlookers.

But on December 5, 1941, he was honorably discharged after Congress released men aged 28 years and older from service. On February 1, 1942, Sergeant Greenberg re-enlisted, was inducted at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and volunteered for service in the United States Army Air Corps. “We are in trouble,” he told The Sporting News, “and there is only one thing for me to do – return to the service. This doubtless means I am finished with baseball and it would be silly for me to say I do not leave it without a pang. But all of us are confronted with a terrible task – the defense of our country and the fight for our lives.”

On August 26, 1943, he was involved in a war bonds game that raised $800 million dollars in war bond pledges. Held at the Polo Grounds in front of 38,000 fans, the three New York teams combined as the War Bond All-Stars against an Army all-star line-up that featured Slaughter, Hank Greenberg and Sid Hudson. The War Bond All-Stars won 5 to 2.

He graduated from Officer Candidate School at Miami Beach, Florida, and was commissioned as a first lieutenant and was assigned to the Army Air Force physical education program. Asked in February 1943, what he thought was in store for baseball in the coming season, Greenberg replied: “Physical training for air corps men is my business now and I don’t have time to follow baseball close enough to make any predictions. I haven’t even seen a sports page for a week.”

   

By February 1944, Captain Hank Greenberg was a student at the Army's school for special services at Washington and Lee University. He requested an overseas transfer later in the year and was assigned to the first group of Boing B-29 Superfortresses to go overseas. He spent six months in India before being ferried over Burma to China where he served in an administrative capacity.

"I'll never forget the first mission our B-29s made from our base to Japan," Greenberg told Arthur Daley, writing in the February 14, 1945 New York Times. "I drove out to the field in a jeep with General Blondie Saunders who led the strike, and took my place in the control tower. Those monsters went off, one after the other, with clock-work precision.

"Then we spotted one fellow in trouble. The pilot saw he wasn't going to clear the runway, tried to throttle down, but the plane went over on its nose at the end of the field. Father Stack, our padre, and myself raced over to the burning plane to see if we could help rescue anyone. As we were running, there was a blast when the gas tanks blew and we were only about 30 yards away when a bomb went off. It knocked us right into a drainage ditch alongside the rice paddies while pieces of metal floated down out of the air."

Greenberg was stunned and couldn't talk or hear for a couple of days, but otherwise he wasn't hurt. "The miraculous part of it all was that the entire crew escaped," Greenberg continued. "Some of them were pretty well banged up but no one was killed. That was an occasion, I can assure you, when I didn't wonder whether or not I'd be able to return to baseball. I was quite satisfied just to be alive."

In the middle of 1944, Greenberg was recalled from China to New York, where his job was to take small groups of returning combat officers to war plants in New England and give morale-boosting talks to the workers. In late 1944, he was based at Richmond, Virginia, and in June 1945, he was placed on the military’s inactive list and returned to the Tigers.

Without the benefit of spring training, Greenberg returned to Detroit’s starting line-up on July 1, 1945, before a crowd of 47,729 and homered against the Athletics in the eighth inning. Greenberg’s return helped the Tigers to a come-from-behind American League pennant, clinching it with a grand-slam home run in the final game of the season. – Baseball in Wartime

Greenberg went on to have two more season in the Majors, one with the Tigers and one with the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1946, his final year with the Tigers, Greenberg hit a career-low .277, but still managed to hit 44 home runs and 127 RBI, the latter stats once again leading the league.

In 1947, Greenberg and the Tigers had a lengthy salary dispute. When Greenberg decided to retire rather than play for less, Detroit sold his contract to the Pirates. To persuade him not to retire, Pittsburgh made Greenberg the first baseball player to earn over $80,000 ($823,000 today) in a season as pure salary (though the exact amount is a matter of some dispute). The Pirates also reduced the size of Forbes Field's cavernous left field, renaming the section "Greenberg Gardens" to accommodate Greenberg's pull-hitting style. Greenberg played first base for the Pirates in 1947 and was one of the few opposing players to publicly welcome Jackie Robinson to the majors. That year he also had a chance to mentor a young future Hall-of-Famer, the 24-year-old Ralph Kiner. Said Greenberg, "Ralph had a natural home run swing. All he needed was somebody to teach him the value of hard work and self-discipline. Early in the morning on off-days, every chance we got, we worked on hitting." Kiner would go on to hit 51 home runs that year to lead the National League.


Greenberg was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1956 in his 10^th round on the ballot. In 1983 the Tigers retired his #5 jersey along with Charlie Gheringer’s #2 on June 12. The two were the first players to ever have their numbers retired by the Tigers.

March 27- Detroit Tigers

I tried working on this post earlier this afternoon, but for some reason every approach I tried to take with it took me down a dark, narrow road which eventually turned into a cul de sac much like in the movie “Training Day.” Luckily for me I don’t have to worry about Terry Crews and his pigeon army peering down, ready to peck my eyes out. 1994 was a rough year for everyone. The players strike created a dark cloud that hovered over Major League Baseball on into the next few seasons. What’s quite amazing is that it seems to be a prevalent theme in a lot of my posts. While my bitterness over what went down still lingers, one can’t help but think how the history books would be written had the season finished out on the field and not in the courtroom.

By the time the season was officially canceled the Detroit Tigers were in dead last in the old American League Eastern division with a record of 53-62. Even with 47 games left to go in the season, there was very little chance of the Tigers making up the 18 games they had fallen behind. What is even more depressing is that even though they were in last place in their division, had they been in the AL West they would have been in first place by one game over the Texas Rangers. Seeing a statistic as mind boggling as that in comparison to where the team is now almost makes one wonder how much worse things would have gotten collectively throughout the League, with the exception of the New York Yankees and Montreal Expos. But alas, these are the Tigers we’re talking about, and in the 1990s at that.

This particular hat served as the Tigers alternate cap and it was only used for a speckle of games in ‘94. It’s exactly like the traditional road cap, except for the fact that it has an orange bill. I don’t particularly mind this cap, but for some reason the bill creates a weird line of sight for those looking at it. While other teams have had similar caps with the logo and bill being the same color, this cap, on the other hand, is one of the only ones to not feature a different colored border around the logo.

Since this hat was only used for such a bummer of a season, I at least made up for things with some smart choices on my marks.

#11- Sparky Anderson managed the Tigers for 17 years starting in the middle of the 1979 season and ending at the close of the 1995 season. During his run the Tigers had gone 1331-1248 and made the postseason only twice. The thing you have to remember is that prior to 1995 only the best team in each of the two divisions per League moved on into the postseason. Therefore it was a hell of a lot harder to make the playoffs every year. For Sparky to do it twice with a 50 percent success rate on winning a World Series title; sometimes you have to count your blessings. But, the one thing that very few people tend to remember about the ’94 strike is that it continued on into the 1995 season. That’s kind of a rough way for a Hall of Fame manager to go out; not even completing a full season.

Even though I never grew up a Tigers fan I’ve always found them to be one of the most historically alluring franchises, and Sparky played a big part. I mean, look at the guy…

He always looked the same throughout his career, even when he managed the Cincinnati Reds. He was old school baseball wizard, and any fan of them game would have loved to have had him as their grandfather. He passed away at the age of 76 on November 4, 2010 and deep down you knew you were truly saddened by it. Even if you are a Chicago White Sox fan.

#3- If you watch the MLB Network as often as I do, then you’ve probably watched the “Prime 9” episode of Hall of Fame snubs. While I can’t remember where Alan Trammell fell on that list, you’d better believe that I’m totally 100 percent on board to get him into the Hall. Trammell was a second round draft pick for the Tigers back in 1976 out of Kearny High School in San Diego, California. He made is debut in 1977 and actually wore the #42 for all 19 games he appeared in. By the time 1978 rolled around Trammell got himself a new number and took charge at the plate hitting .284 with two home runs and 34 RBI which were good enough for a fourth place finish in the AL Rookie of the Year voting. In his 20-year career, all of which was played in Detroit, he amassed four Gold Gloves in five years from 1980-1984 (Robin Yount hosed him in 1982), but Trammell was mostly known for his offensive prowess. For his career he hit an impressive .285 with a modest 185 home runs and 1003 RBI. His best year came in 1987 when he finished in second place for the AL MVP when he went .343/28/103, all of which were career highs, but he got beat out by Toronto Blue Jays outfielder George Bell.

Trammel called it quits after the 1996 season and even took up the managerial spot for the Tigers from 2003-2005 with very poor success. Throughout his career he made six All-Star Game appearances, won three Silver Slugger awards, had two 20+-game hit streaks and most important, was the World Series MVP in 1984. Most people tend to think that it was Kirk Gibson who won it on account of his first of two historic game-winning World Series home runs. Nope! It was Trammell, who hit .450 with two home runs and six RBI. Boom!

#45- From 1990- halfway through 1996 Cecil Fielder was arguably one of the top power hitter is the game, ad he did all of his swatting in the Motor City. In his first two years with the Tigers Fielder finished in second place for the AL MVP award, losing to Rickey Henderson in 1990 and Cal Ripken, Jr. in 1991. Fielder’s numbers those years?

1990: .277 average with a League leading 51 home runs and League leading 132 RBI. He also struck out a League high 182 times that season.

1991: .261 with a League high 44 home runs and a League leading 133 RBI. He improved on the strikeouts, but not by much.

Those two years plus 1993 were the only three years in which Fielder made the All-Star game as well. The strange thing about Fielder is that he never hit more than 14 home runs in any of the four years he played with the Blue Jays prior to going to Detroit, and he never hit more than 17 in any year after he left Detroit. The only obvious conclusion I can come up with… Tiger Stadium was one hell of an easy place to knock the crap out of the ball.

I realize I didn’t focus too much attention on the 1994 aspect of the hat, but what else was there really to say. All three of these guys were present in the old days of Tigers suckfest, but all of them were truly legends before and during that era. I guess the only way I can end this is by saying “Robocop” is a damn fine move, and even Clarence Boddicker, a Tigers season ticket holder, would approve of this post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu0LJtbWBTg

February 7- Lakeland Flying Tigers

For the last hour or so of trying to write this post I’ve been constantly distracted by people asking me questions about the University of Oregon football and basketball programs. I guess that’s what I get for coming to a bar to try and crank this out.

I picked this hat up in December of 2011, along with a few other Minor League caps off of the Lids Web site. Like most of the hats I got, I bought it primarily off of the look. I mean, I did know that it was a team within the Detroit Tigers organization, but outside of that, I really didn’t know much. Most of my baseball focus has always been primarily centered around the Majors. Nothing personal against anyone coming up through the Minors, I just don’t have that much time/brain space available for so many names, numbers and dates to memorize; especially since the rosters are drastically different every other year. But, the one thing that Minor League teams have going for them over the Majors is the originality in their logos and colors.

The Tigers class-A squad has been a fixture of Lakeland, Florida since 1963; however, from 1963-2006 they were simply known as the Tigers. In 2007 the team changed its name to the Flying Tigers to pay tribute to the men who were trained at the Lakeland School of Aeronautics and fought for their country during World War II. The name was taken from the 100-plane squad who flew Curtiss P-40 Warhawks in the Pacific during the war. This hat in particular is their alternate logo cap, which features the P-40 as well as the slogan “Tiger Town USA.” I actually visited Lakeland over the summer, but got there well after the season had ended. Joker Marchant Stadium, where the Flying Tigers play, is also the same facility where the Tigers reside during Spring Training.

The biggest bummer about marking this hat up, along with any other newer style cap, is that I have a small window in which to pull anything historic from. I’m not saying that nothing has happened in the last six years, but it is sometimes nice to have to do way more in depth research to find something that even the most ardent of baseball fan didn’t know about. With that, I give you these…

#8- Andy Dirks is probably one of the most promising young talents currently playing at the Major League level, especially after the 2012 season. Dirks was drafted by the Tigers in the eighth round of the 2008 Amateur Draft from Wichita State University. (I’m not sure how many of you know that much about college baseball, but at some point be sure to look up “Benjamin Christensen; Wichita State”) Dirks played Rookie and low level-A ball for all of 2008, but ended up on the Flying Tigers roster for the start of 2009 season. In the 27 games he played, Dirks batted .330 with 18 RBI and no home runs. Not exactly colossal stats for that short of a time period; however, when compared to Brennan Boesch’s stats from 111 games in 2008, it’s quite significant. Plus, it’s just fun to say, “DIRKS!!!”

#41- One of the only pitchers to have to stick it out for two seasons in Lakeland, Charlie Furbush played in 37 games between 2009 and 2010, but only played a small handful of games in the Majors for the Tigers before being dealt to the Seattle Mariners for Doug Fister in 2011. Thus making “Fister for Furbush,” and vice-versa, one of the best sounding trades in MLB history. During his two years in Lakeland Furbush went 10-12 with a 3.73 ERA and 202 strikeouts. Furbush started all but one of the games he played in during this stretch. When he got to the Majors Furbush found himself playing in the same role; however, in 2012 the Mariners opted to move him to the bullpen after several shaky starts. The move proved beneficial for both parties as Furbush proved to be a valuable set-up guy before Tom Wilhelmsen saved 29 games. But most importantly, Charlie Furbush is just an awesome dude! 

January 22- Detroit Tigers

Throughout the year there is another constant that will come up roughly 35-40 more times; the first assortment I bought were simply on the basis of having one hat per team. Besides the Oakland A’s, the other teams I made an exemption for are the Montreal Expos and the Detroit Tigers. My affinity for the Tigers has been around since the mid-90s. There was always something about their colors and logo that popped. Which is actually kind of funny because they’ve kept the idea of their logo pretty much the same throughout their history; while at the same time, the Old English script is so intricate and detailed that there really wasn’t much of need to switch to anything else. But the more important thing I should probably point out is that when I bought this hat, my intentions of going way back throughout the team’s entire history of hats had never crossed my mind. I was going to stick with the current home and away. So, having explained that, on we move…

The Tigers introduced this hat at the start of the 1983 season and have been using it as their road cap ever since. The previous 10 years had also featured an orange “D” logoed hat, but I will get to that one later down the road. The ’83 season went incredibly well for the Tigers; however, even their 92-70 record under Sparky Anderson wasn’t good enough to get them into the playoffs. As members of the American league East division the Tigers finished six games behind the Baltimore Orioles, who later went on to win the World Series over the Philadelphia Phillies. This was also back in the day when each league only had two divisions. The Tigers, not particularly frazzled by their modest success, decided to lay the entire league to waste with their 104-58 record in ’84, also adding a World Series title to their collection after eviscerating the San Diego Padres in five games. That was the first time Kirk Gibson became a postseason legend. Buuuuuuut… it wasn’t good enough to make my cap, a decision I partially regret.

I had purchased the home hat first, and this one well after I had marked the previous. And once again, I need to point out that I marked it with the intention of not getting any other Tigers hats before you judge.

#47- This one won’t get much debate I would imagine. Jack Morris played for the Tigers for almost his entire career. From 1977-1990 he donned the “D”, and became synonymous with some of the great pitchers of the 80s and early 90s. During his 14-year tenure in Detroit he went 198-150 with a 3.73 ERA and 1980 strikeouts. He also served as the ace for all but 1977-78, as he was coming out of bullpen for relief work. Clearly that concept didn’t last too long. I’m not going to go into the Hall of Fame talk too much, but I’ll simply say that the Baseball Writers Association of America is pretty f---ed in the head for keeping him out. Grated, he did only win one World Series ring during his time in Detroit, but went on to win three more (one with the Twins, two with the Blue Jays). I think the saddest thing about Morris is that he never won the Cy Young. His best finish was third, losing out to Steve McCatty (Athletics) in second place and Rollie Fingers (Brewers) in the top spot. Go figure that Morris would get taken down by two guys who had played for the Athletics. Personal victory for me! Sorry Jack.

#20- This one was way more personal for me, but like I said, I did it with the intention of not getting another Tigers hat at the time. One of my all-time favorite players is someone who I never had the chance to see pitch live; however, was able to see video of years later. Mark Fidrych is a guy who I have pretty much idolized since the first time I saw his face grace an old issue of Rolling Stone from 1977, in which he was the first professional athlete to ever grace the cover. Fidrych played from 1976-1980, but was hampered by several injuries in short periods of time: torn knee cartilage, and rotator cuff tear, which he never had looked at or fixed throughout his career. I don’t want to go on too much about him, as I will do that in another post. But one thing I will say is that Fidrych was, and is still one of the most revered pitchers in Tigers history. Anyone who was alive to see him play still recount being at Tiger Stadium when he played in 1976. It was always dead silent when he threw, and a roar of applause when he got off the mound. The Bird, as he was dubbed in Lakeland by coaches because of his uncanny resemblance to Big Bird from Sesame Street, was also one of the most unusual figures in baseball. He’d always fill in the dirt in front of the rubber in between innings and had a carefree attitude wherever he went. Definitely a kind of guy who isn’t too far from myself, personality wise at least.