At the Corner

Leyland in Lakeland

Jim Leyland, about to enter the witness protection program after the 2008 season.

Fall Ball

Well boys, we're still playing baseball in Florida -- and not only at Tropicana Field.

Here at Tiger Town, the Fall Instructional League goes through Friday. I took this photo yesterday as the Tigers hosted the Astros. I saw Al Kaline, Dave Dombrowski and dozens of scouts. Stopped by today and saw Jim Leyland, out of uniform, a pack of Marlboros always within reach.

I know...it's tough living where the play baseball from February through October, but someone has to do it.

"Bless you boys."

Who was the Greatest Tiger First Sacker?

This one is going to be another tough choice fellas, a guy we knew and loved, versus two Hall of Fame Greats that our Dads and grandpas told us about. I’ll present them to you chronologically; you fill out the lineup card. (Kooch looked up Freehan on Wikipedia, a great idea. I’ll hyperlink the ballpayers’ names to Wiki for easy reference.)

Harry Heilmann must have been a monster in his day (the teens and 1920’s.) At 6’1” and on a

lineup with Ty Cobb and Sam Crawford, the pitchers must have been forced to pitch to him. Fifteen years a Tiger, with a lifetime .342 average, you could say his numbers were evidence of the era, but he took the batting crown four times, so no matter the numbers, he was often the best of his peers. In 1923 he hit .403. A little younger than Cobb, Heilmann saw the dawn of the live ball, and was the first player to homer in every major league park after he was traded to the national league. To this day he is among the all-time hitting leaders in most categories, and besides, there’s a playfield on the east side of Detroit named after him. (At least there was when we were growing up.) Heilmann was extremely popular with our Dads, as he was the Tiger broadcaster in the late ‘30s and ‘40’s, told a great story and had a quick wit. They remembered him as we remember Ernie and George.
The only problem is where he is going to fit in our lineup? He could be considered a rightfielder, playing 1587 games there, only 448 at first, but we all know of a pretty good rightfielder who will give him stiff competition later in our poll.

Fellow Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg might give Heilmann a run for the money in our poll. He was “only” a Tiger for eleven years of his 12-year career, but what an impact he made. He led

the league in homers four times, including almost breaking Ruth’s record, with 58 dingers in 1938. To this day he ranks as having one of the highest slugging percentages in baseball, and retired with a .313 average.
Greenberg was known to be a classy fellow who rose above the anti-Semitism of the day. He made a controversial decision (later repeated by Sandy Koufax) to sit out Yom Kippur. Free Press columnist Edgar Guest wrote a poem (yes, newspapers had poetry in those days.) “We shall miss him on the infield and shall miss him at the bat / But he's true to his religion--and I honor him for that." Although the draft board classified him as being “flat-footed” he enlisted after Pearl Harbor, sacrificing about four and a half years of his career.

Then there was “Stormin’ Norman,” Norm Cash We remember him for his power, popping the ball over

the third deck in Tiger Stadium four times, and getting 377 home runs in his career. But he debuted with the Tigers in 1961, winning the batting title with a .361 average. When teammate Lolich asked him why he didn’t hit for average instead of power, Norm said “Jim Campbell pays me to hit home runs. I can get hits if I want to, just watch tomorrow.” The next game he went three for four.
"I owe my success to expansion pitching, a short right-field fence, and my hollow bats." (He admitted to corking his bats.)

In addition, he was one of the finest fielding first basemen, and was with the Tigers 15 years, second only to Kaline, who happened to be his roomate.
We remember him for his hitting but we loved him for his sense of humor. Who can forget him finishing the ninth in a Nolan Ryan no-hitter, coming to bat with a table leg and wearing over sized sun-glasses? Or the time he tried to call “time-out” when caught in a run-down?

If you had to make out your lineup card, who would you pick?

all time tigers

well, as far back as my memory can take me, i still recall the names i would hear ernie say as i sat in the backyard with my uncle, he having a stohs, or maybe a goebel or altes, me some vernors and ice cream. and dont forget the better mades. Or maybe we would be on our porch , on detroits east side. at night of course. this is when listening to our tigers was almost vespers. it took on a comforting feeling. the day was done. dinner over, and the tigers were the entertainment. neighbors were out. someone cutting their lawn, dusk in the motor city. at night, listening to the games, on warm summer evenings, or rain delayed saturday afternooons, with my mom, or dad or uncles, or brothers. heck, it seemed most of the neighborhood had ernie on. i especially noticed as i went door to door on a friday night collecting for my free press route. the homes had the game on. always on the radio. you could follow the game from house to house i recall. ahh yes, back to the names. names that seemed to conjure strength, creating my own vision of mcauliffe, in that strange stance facing a 3-1 pitch with two on in the 7th. and that stadium. visions of that beutiful park on michigan and trumbull, too young to go there alone, so having ernie or george kell take me there was just fine. names like mcauliffe, cash, oyler, stanley, the gater, kaline colovito, bruton, wood, maxwell, boros, northrup, horton, wilson, mclain, demeter, triandos, lolich, rodriguez,(chico), freehan, gladding, sparma, trammell, whitaker, morris, parrish, gibson, dressen, smith, houk, martin, lary, bunning, mossi, before this, my parents would talk of the times they went to the corner to see the likes of greenberg, heillman, gehringer, schoolboy rowe: and my parents parents, recalling the viscious one, cobb. i still recall the strong pitcher earl wilson used as a pinch batter and driving in so many. or the tall drink of water jake wood, at 2nd. dropping virtually every other ball hit to him. but man could he steel. the predecesor to leflore in that sense.
todays heros unfortunaltey for me, are not as memorable since moving to chicago over 30 years ago.
were these all time tigers for their feats playing this game? not close. some maybe, but the majority just guys playing the game we loved as kids. in my mind, they still are the all time tigers cause they represented a time and a city i grew up loving. hard to believe this in todays world, but, it was for so many of us, a great place to grow up. and the tigers were summer in detroit. and ernie was the voice. and the wins were sometimes few, but the mystique of the team, the park, the description on radio since only saturday afternoons brought us a game from the corner on wwj channel 4, (brought to you by strohs), was the only time we could see this wonder on grass. as green as irelands shores. so yes, i will say these are my all time tigers. of course the ones with the legendary records are the ones most will recall, the kalines, mickeys 3 wins in 68, morris, cobb, but for those of us who do recall the not so popular names listed above, how about it. they were baseball in our home town. we lived and died with each win i guess. for what its worth, this comprises my favorite tigers. for the memories of nothing else.

Jose, can you sing?

Today's Free Press has an interesting story about Jose Feliciano singing the anthem before Game 5 of the '68 WS -- a game my mom attended.

Flashback: Jose Feliciano makes anthem history at Tiger Stadium

http://www.freep.com/article/20081008/SPORTS02/81008002/1050/SPORTS02

Who was the Greatest Tiger Catcher?

Wow, that's tough. I saw three of these guys, and they were all good, maybe great.

But let's go way back. Back to "Iron Mike" Mickey Cochrane. (Also called "Black Mike" due to his nasty temper, but that really has nothing to do with our poll. He was good buddies with Ty Cobb; 'nuff said about his temper.)

He hit .320 in that Ruthian era of 13 years in the 1920's and '30s, and was quickly elected to the Hall of Fame. Interestingly, he batted left (rare for a catcher) and was so fast down the base line, he often led off. Then he went on to manage the Tigers into two World Series, winning one.

Unfortunately, he only played for the Tigers for his last four seasons, and his last one in 1937 he only played 27 games. Was he really a Tiger, or was he a Philadelphia Athletic, as he was for the first nine years of his career, playing for Connie Mack?

Now we come to "our generation." Bill Freehan was a rock behind the plate. He was the consummate field general, calling a great game and keeping nuts like Denny McClain in check. This native Detroiter played 15 years, but in the hit starved late 1960's, he only hit .266, and got 200 homers at the friendly confines of Tiger Stadium, old green seats and all. Perhaps worst of all, you could clock him from first to third with a calendar. But a really nice fellow, and Lance Parrish credits him with great coaching and advice.

Lance was a good ball player. Compared with his mentor, Freehan,Parrish hit 229 homers in just 11 seasons, 10 in Detroit. Lifetime average of .261 wasn't great, but steady.

Finally, consider Pudge Rodriguez. Although he's a much nicer fellow, we must consider Pudge as we do Cochrane. He will likely go to the Hall of Fame some day, but he was only a Tiger for four seasons. Great speed for a catcher, hit about .300, and had a cannon for an arm to any base.

See what I mean? This is tough to pick just one guy!