Tigers 7, Redlegs 2

Spencer Turnbull picked up his first win of his career at Comerica Park Friday night, allowing the Reds just 3 hits, 2 runs, while striking out 6 Cincy batters in 6 innings.

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

This 2019 Topps NOW Players Weekend of BULL is awesome!

Now, if I could only find a copy, as a check of eBay and COMC came up empty.

According to Trading Card Database, there were just 56 copies made...Yikes!

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

▶▶ The Tigers  play the Reds on Saturday afternoon, a time change from the scheduled night game because of bad weather headed to the Motor City.


Michael Fulmer will start for the Tigers, while the Reds call on right hander Trevor Bauer.

Have a awesome weekend,  and, as always...PLAY BALL! ⚾️🌭📻📺

Bill Slayback (1948-2015)

I was saddened to read today of the passing of former Detroit Tigers pitcher Bill Slayback.

William Grover Slayback was born on February 21, 1948, in Hollywood, California.



As a Tigers fan growing up in the early 1970s, I remember going to Tiger Stadium with my Uncle Bob to see Slayback pitch his rookie year of 1972.



Bill was terrific his rookie year, nearly tossing a no-hitter in his big league debut on June 26, 1972.

I ddon't know if I was at Slayback's debut, or one of his games after that, but I remember him pitching a terrific game and being so excited afterwards to go home and watch the sports report on TV for the highlights.

Bill didn't  know he was throwing a no-hitter that night until Al Kaline told him after Kaline tried throwing out the Yankees Johnny Callison on a single to right in the 8th inning.



Here's  a nice piece on Bill from SABR.



As a Tigers fan, and a baseball fan, I also knew that Bill, along with Tigers Hall of Fame announcer Ernie Harwell co-wrote, and Bill sang "Move over Babe, Here comes  Henry!"  as future Atlanta Braves OF Henry Aaron was about to surpass Yankees great Babe Ruth as big league  baseball's all-time home run champion.

Bill Slayback pitched in just 42 games for the Tigers from 1972-74, as arm injuries led to his early departure from baseball after a meteoric rise.



In some ways Bill Slayback's short tenure with would re-appear again just two short years later in a young  fireballing right handed pitcher  named Mark Fidrych.




Rest in Peace Bill Slayback.

Happy Baseball Birthday Mr. Tiger

Happy 80th Baseball Birthday to Al Kaline.

Happy Baseball Birthday...Bill Freehan...Go Blue!

It's Michigan-Ohio State game day.

Happy Baseball Birthday to former Big Ten batting champion and Wolverine football player William Ashley Freehan.

Go Blue!

Play Ball!

Meeting Mr.Tiger

This Throwback Thursday picture is from either 2007/08 in Lakeland, Florida.

Yes, I'm trying not to cry as I pose with Detroit Tigers Hall of Famer and 10 time Gold Glove Award winner Al Kaline.

Happy National Cat Day

Today is all about the kitty cats.

It's National Cat Day today, October 29th, 2014.

Now, I didn't wake up knowing it was a day for feline celebrations, but that changed when PAWS, the Official Detroit Tigers team mascot, posted this cool selfie today on Twitter.

As the proud owner of two new kitties myself, I'm going to make sure to give extra hugs and kisses to Mr. Paws and Miss Salem today.

In case you were wondering, yes, Mr. Paws was named after PAWS.

PLAY BALL!

Happy Baseball Birthday...Johnny Podres

Today we celebrate the Happy Baseball Birthday of 1955 World Series hero Johnny Podres.

John Joseph Podres was born on September 30, 1932, in Witherbee, New York, and attended high school at local Minerville HS in Witherbee.

In 1951, at the age of 19, Johnny signed as a amatuer free agent with the Brooklyn Dodgers,  and made his big league debut with Brooklyn on April 17, 1953.

In 15 big league seasons Johnny Podres compiled a 148-116 record, with a ERA of 3.68,   for the Dodgers, Detroit Tigers, and San Diego Padres.

Johnny pitched in 2,265 innings, striking out 1,435 batters, walking 743 batters in 440 big league games.

Podres led the NL in ERA in 1957, at 2.66.

Johnny was a National League All-Star for the Dodgers in 1958, '60, '62.

Johnny won at at least 12 games for the Dodgers between 1957 and 1963... 12, 13, 14, 14, 18, 15, and 14.

His best regular season was in 1961, when Johnny won 18 games, losing just five games in 255 innings pitched, leading the NL in winning percentage, at .783%.

In the 1955 World Series Johnny Podres became part of Brooklyn Dodgers lore and big league baseball history.

The Brooklyn Dodgers won their one and only World Series in 1955, and it was because of the pitching of Series MVP Johnny Podres.

Podres went 2-0 against the New York Yankees, including a complete game 2-0 shutout win in Game 7 at old Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

Podres pitched 18 innings against the Yankees, allowing just 3 runs, 2 earned, striking out 10.

For his performance Podres became the first ever WS MVP, given out in 1955 by Sport Magazine.

Later that year Podres was also named Sports IlIllustrated Sportsman of the Year.

Johnny won three more WS titles with the Dodgers, all of them in Los Angeles, in 1959, '63, and '65.

After his big league career Johnny became a big league pitching coach, working for the Padres, Red Sox, Twins, and Phillies.

Johnny Podres passed away on January 13, 2008, in Glens Falls, New York, at the age of 75.

Today we remember Johnny Podres and say Happy Baseball Birthday Johnny!

PLAY BALL!

Thanks Tigers!

Thanks to my favorite baseball team, the Detroit Tigers, on winning their 4th consecutive American League Central Division Championship!

On to the playoffs!

#ShowYourStripes

#GoTigers

Sunday Salute

Its the final day of the 2014 regular big league baseball season, Game 162.

Baseball is the greatest of all games, a test of resolve that comes down to one game sometimes, as it does in the Motor City and the Windy City today.

My Detroit Tigers, yes, they're mine, have a 1 game lead in the American League Central Division over the Kansas City Royals .

The Tigers host the Twins, and the Royals play at the White Sox, to determine the division champion for 2014.

A tip of the cap to all the great baseball fans out there, keep up your passion for our great game.

A special tip of the cap to Paul Konerko of the Chicago White Sox and Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees as they play their final games of their Hall of Fame careers.

Thanks for the memories.

Play Ball!

Happy Baseball Birthday...Mark "The Bird" Fidrych

Today's Happy Baseball Birthday is former Detroit Tigers pitcher Mark "The Bird" Fidrych.

Mark Steven Fidrych was born on August 14, 1954, in Worcester,  Massachusetts, and  attended  Worcester Academy High School.

The Detroit Tigers drafted Mark in the 10th round if the 1974 amatuer baseball draft.

After a couple of years in the Tigers farm systen, Fidrych made his big league debut for the Tigers on April 20, 1976.

All Tigers fans around in '76, myself included, can rattle off Fidrych's 1976 season... 19 wins, 9 losses, an American League leading 2.34 ERA and 24 compete games. 

Fidrych was a baseball rock star who talked to the baseball, manicured the dirt around the pitching mound on his hands and knees, had a big, infectious smile,  ran on and off the field, and thanked his Tigers teammates after they made plays like it was a Little League game.

Injuries, starting in the spring of 1977, would allow Mark Fidrych to start only 27 games between '77-'80, and his final big league game was in Toronto,  on October 1, 1980, vs the Blue Jays.

Nearly five years later, in 1985, famed baseball doctor James Andrews diagnosed Fidrych with a torn rotator cuff injury, and although it was repaired, the damage was done,  and Fidrych never pitched again.

Mark Fidrych passed away at the age of 54 on April 13, 2009, of a accident on his farm in Northboro. 

No player, not  Alan Trammell,  Kirk Gibson, Jack Morris,  Cecil Fielder, Justin Verlander, or Miguel Cabrera ment more or was more beloved by Tigers fans like Mark Fidrych was in 1976.

Happy Baseball Birthday Mark!

PLAY BALL!

Happy Baseball Birthday...Rocky Colovito

Happy Baseball Birthday! to former big league slugger Rocky Colovito.

Rocco Domenico Colovito was born on August 10, 1933 in New York, New York.

Rocky attended Roosevelt High School in NYC, and signed as a amateur free agent with the Cleveland Indians in 1951.

Rocky made his big league debut with Cleveland on September 10, 1955, and came up to stay in 1956, hitting .276 in 101 games, scoring 55 runs,  slugging 21 home runs, with 65 RBI,  in 322 at bats.

Those 21 home runs started a streak of 11 consecutive 20+ home run seasons, 1956-66,  including three 40+ HR years, '58, '59, '61.

With the Tribe in '58 Rocky smashed 41 home runs, with 113 RBI, batting .303, and leading the American League in slugging percentage at .620.

In '59 the Indians slugger smacked a American League leading 42 HR, driving in 111 Tribe runners, making his first American League All-Star team.

Just before the start of the 1960 season the Cleveland Indians shocked the baseball world by trading Colovito to the Detroit Tigers for 1959 American League batting champion Harvey Kuenn.

Indians fans loved the slugging Colovito, and Tigers fans loved Kuenn, and neither set of fans were very happy.

Colivito and the Tigers would prove to be the winners of the trade.



One of my favorite baseball cards in my collection is the 1962 Topps card of him in his classic Tigers road uniform.

In 4 years alongside future Hall of Fame RF Al Kaline, Colivito smashed 139 home runs, 45 of them coming in 1961, along with 140 RBI, a .296 average and his first All Star Game as a Tigers player.

Following the 1963 season the Tigers traded Rocky to the Kansas City Athletics,  after a 22 HR, 91 RBI season.

Rocky hit 34 HR, with 102 RBI for the '64 A's, who then traded Colovito back to his original team, the Indians.

Colovito promptly smacked 26 homers and drove in an American League leading 108 base runners in 1965.

In '66 Rocky slugged 30 homers and had 72 RBI, making his final All-Star Game.

In the middle of the '67 season, on July 29th, the Tribe sent Colovito to the Chicago White Sox, who  then sold Rocky to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

On July 7, 1968, the Dodgers released Rocky, who signed with the New York Yankees on July 15th.

The Yankees then released Rocky at the end of the 1968 season, Rocky's final year in the big leagues.

In his 14 years in the big leagues,  Rocky Colivito played in 1,841 ball games, collecting 1,730 base hits, 282 doubles,  21 triples, 374 home runs, 1.159 RBI, and 971 runs scored.

In the field Rocky made just 70 errors in 3, 516 chances, finishing with a .980 fielding percentage.

Colovito coached in the big leagues after his playing days, with the Indians in the 1970s and the Kansas City Royals in the 1980s.

Rocky Colovito was named to the Indians All Century Team in 2001, and was Inducted into the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame.

 Happy Baseball Birthday! wishes to the Rock, Rocky Colovito!

PLAY BALL!

New Detroit Tigers Scorecard

The Detroit Tigers will have these scorecards available for the August 13th game at Comerica Park. 

Yes,  I'd love it if someone would send me one.

Happy Baseball Birthday...Harry Heilmann

Today we celebrate the Happy Baseball Birthday! of former big league batting champion and Baseball Hall of Famer Harry Heilmann.

Harry Edwin Heilmann  was born in San Francisco, California on August 3, 1894.



The Tigers purchased Heilmann for $1,500 in 1914 from the Poftland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League.

Heilmann is a Tigers legend, part of the best American League outfield in the 1920s along with Ty Cobb, Bobby Veach, and Heinie Manush.




From 1923 through 1927, Ty Cobb s last year in Detroit,  the Tigers entire starting outfield of Manush, Heilmann, and Cobb, were all future big league HOF players.





Heilmann is also famous for winning four A.L. batting titles in odd numbered years, 1921-23-25-27.

In 1999 the Detroit Tigers were playing at old Tiger Stadium for the last time ever, a weekend wraparound series against the Kansas City Royals.

On the last Sunday ever in the grand old ballpark I had the opportunity to meet former Detroit Free Press writer, the legandary Joe Falls.

Mr. Falls talked old school  baseball, the Tigers, and the great Tigers batting champion Harry Heilmann.

Heilmann was left off the Tigers All-Time team, and both of us knew it was a shame that those involved put Kirk Gibson in the team's outfield with Ty Cobb and Al Kaline.

Harry Heilmann is one of the most ignored BaseballHall of Fame players ever...his own team even dissed him in favor of an average outfielder bevause they wanted young fans involved in the All-Time team selection process.




Did you know? 


Harry Heilmann was the first former big league ballplayer to become a baseball broadcaster? 

Harry Heilmann broadcast Tigers games from 1934 until his passing away from Cancer just two days before the All-Star Game at Briggs Stadium in Detroit in 1951.

Happy Baseball Birthday...Fred Scherman

Happy Baseball Birthday to former big league pitcher Fred Scherman, who turns 70 today.

The former Tigers, Astros, and Expos pitcher was born on July 25, I 944, in Dayton, Ohio.

Fred played high school baseball for Fairview HS, then for the Ohio State  Buckeyes of the Big Ten before signing with the Minnesota Twins as a amateur free agent in 1964.

Later in '64 Scherman was drafted from the Twins system by the Tigers in the 1st Year MLB Player Draft.

Fred made his big league debut for Detroit on April 26, 1969, at the age of 24.

Fred pitched for the Tigers until 1973, including the American League Eastern Division Championship team of '72.

Fred's best season in the big leagues was 1971 with the Tigers. 

In 69 games Scherman compiled a 11-6 record,  2.71 ERA, 20 saves, in 113 innings pitched. 

Scherman forever put his name in baseball history, albeit fir a bad thing, when  on September 13, 1971 he surrendered future Hall of Famer  Frank Robinson's 500th home run.

Scherman was traded by the Tigers after the '73 season to the Astros, and was then purchased from Houston by the Montreal Expos on June 8, 1975.

Fred's final big league game came as an Expos pitcher on July 6, 1976, at the age of 31.

His 1972 Topps baseball card below us a photo I took of one if my Fred Sherman cards I have.

Happy Baseball Birthday Fred.

PLAY Ball!

Rick Porcello thanks baseball fans

Detroit Tigers pitcher Rick Porcello may have finished third in the #FinalVote this week, but he finished #1 with Tigers fans in a letter to baseball fans across the country.

Oh, and he joined Twitter as well... @RickPorcello

#PickRick #VoteRizzo

Time for the annual #FinalVote to chose the final two spots for this year's big league All-Star Game next Tuesday at Target Field in Minneapolis.

As a Detroit Tigers fan I will be doing my due diligence by voting for Tigers RHP Rick Porcello.

Also, the Tigers have teamed up with the Chicago Cubs in the National League for first baseman Anthony Rizzo.

So, it's #PickRick and #VoteRizzo for my fingers as much as I can until the 4pm deadline on Thursday.

You can text as well... for Porcello text "A3" to 89269, text "N4" for Rizzo.

Go to MLB.com to vote or go through the MLB AT BAT APP.

Between Noon and 4pm on Thursday you can hash tag your choice, #PickRick, or #VoteRizzo as many times as you can.

#PickRick

#VoteRizzo

Play Ball!

Happy Baseball Birthday...Babe Herman

Today we celebrate the Happy Baseball Birthday of former big league outfielder Babe Herman.

Floyd Caves "Babe" Herman was born on June 26, 1903, in Buffalo, New York.

Babe graduated from Glendale High School in Glendale, California.

He played in the minor leagues through the early to mid 1920's, including spending time with Ty Cobb's Detroit Tigers in spring camp in1922.

Herman made his big league debut on April 14, 1926, at age 22, with the Brooklyn Robins.

In 137 games as a rookie Babe collected 158 base hits, smacked 35 doubles, 11 home runs, and drove in 81 runs in 496 at bats.

Babe was one of the National Leagues best power hitters in his years in Brooklyn.

In 1928, 29, 30, Babe hit .340, .381, .393, and collected an amazing 217 hits in 1929, and 241 more hits in 1930.

On his 13 years in the big leagues, Babe Herman played in 1,552 games, with the Robins, Reds, Cubs, Pirates, Cardinals, Tigers, and Brooklyn Dodgers.

Babe smacked 1,818 hits, 181 HR, 997 RBI, 399 doubles, 110 triples, and scored 882 runs in 5,603 at bats.

Babe played his final big league game at age 42 for the Brooklyn Dodgers, on September 16, 1945.

The 6'4'' 190 lb big leaguer passed away at the age of 84 on November 27, 1987, in Glendale.

Happy Baseball Birthday Babe!

Play Ball!

ROAR of 1984

Tonight at 7 pm on tigers.com fans can 're-live Game 5 of the 1984 World Series by watching a live stream 're-airing of the Tigers 8-4 Series clinching win over San Diego.

Tigers fans can get involved in the celebration on Twitter today by using hash tag  #Roarof84

Happy Baseball Birthday...Jake Wood

Today we say Happy 77th Baseball Birthday to former Detroit Tigers second baseman Jake Wood.

Jacob "Jake" Wood was born on June 22, 1937,  in Elizabeth, New Jersey, 

Jake played one year of college baseball at Delaware State before signing with Detroit as a amateur free agent in 1957.

Wood started his minor league baseball career at Erie, of the New York-Penn League.

Wood earned his trip to the big leagues with his performance at AAA Denver in 1960.

Jake hit .305, with 24 doubles, 18 triples, 12 home runs, and 76 runs batted in.

Jake Wood made his big league debut on Opening Day 1961, at Tiger Stadium, becoming the first African-American ball player to make his way through the Tigers minor leagues to the big league level.

Jake was issued Olde English D uniform  #2...now retired for Hall of Fame second Baseman Charlie Gehringer.

In the 7th inning Jake collected his first big league hit, a two run HR off Jim Perry of the Cleveland Indians.

Wood played in all 162 games at second base in 1961, leading all American League rookies with 14 triples...and 141 strikeouts.

Jake smacked 171 base hits in 1961, with 17 doubles, 11 home runs, and also stole 30 bases, in 663 at bats.

In 1962, Jake played in 111 games at second base for Detroit, scored 68 runs, stole 24 bases, collecting 83 hits.

Wood hurt a finger in 1963, and was a part time player for the Tigers into the 1967 season.

After playing in just 16 games in 1967, Wood was traded to the Cincinnati Reds, where he appeared in just 14 games.

Jake Wood played his final big league game as a member of the Reds, on August 11, 1967, at the age is 30.

Jake Wood was inducted into the Union, County, Delaware Hall of Fame, and resides in Pensacola, Florida.

Happy Baseball Birthday Jake Wood.

Happy Baseball Birthday...Ron LeFlore

Go Go Go!

Today we celebrate the Happy Baseball Birthday of former big league center fielder Ron LeFlore.