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.

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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!

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▶▶ 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! ⚾️🌭📻📺

Happy Baseball Birthday, Celebrity Edition...Charlie Sheen

Today's Celebrity Happy Baseball Birthday is actor Charlie Sheen.

Carlos Irwin Estevez was born on September 3, 1965, in New York City, is an avid baseball fan, and  loves the Big Red Machine and the Cincinnati Reds.

Baseball fans and movie lovers also know Charlie as the young veg head Rick Vaughn, The Wild Thing, in Major League and Major League 2.

Charlie also starred as Elmer "Hap" Felsch in the movie Eight Men Out, about the 1919 Chicago White Sox scandal that led to the infamous team nickname "Black Sox," as the "8 Men Out" conspired to lose games in the 1919 World Series. 

Sheen, in my humble opinion, was brilliant on TV as Charlie Harper on the CBS sitcom "Two and a half Men."

The reruns still make me laugh.

His departure from the show has bern well documented,  and after all, we're celebrating the good that is Charlie Sheen, the Reds fan.

Happy Baseball Birthday Charlie!

PLAY BALL!

2015 All-Star Game logo unveiled

Here's your first look at the Cincinnati Reds 2015 All -Star Game logo, just released a few moments ago on Twitter, and it's awesome.

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... Gordy Coleman

Today's Happy Baseball Birthday is former big league first baseman Gordy Coleman.

Gordon Calvin Coleman was born on July 5, 1934, in Rockville, Maryland.

Gordy went to Richard Montgomery High School, were he lettered in baseball, basketball, and football.

Gordy went on to play baseball and football at Duke University, and was signed by the Cleveland Indians as a free agent in 1953.

Gordy played minor league baseball in the Indians system before serving in the United States Army in 1957-58.

In 1959 Coleman returned to the minors, playing for the Indians affiliate in Mobile, Alabama.

With the Bears in '59 Coleman won the Southern Association Triple Crown, batting .353, with 30 home runs and 110 RBI.

Gordy Coleman made his big league debut for the Tribe on September 18, 1959, smacking a triple off the Kansas City Athletics Bob Grimm for his first big league hit.

Before the 1960 season Coleman was traded, along with Billy Martin, to the Cincinnati Reds.

Coleman would play the next 767 games of his big league career with the Reds.

The 6'3'' first baseman was a mainstay with Cincinnati from 1960-67, compiling a terrific .990 fielding percentage, handling 5,393 chances.

Coleman hit .271 with the Reds, collecting 642 base hits, with 102 doubles and 98 home runs, with 385 RBI, scoring 277 runs.

Gordy played his final game in the big leagues, for the Reds, on May 3, 1967.

After his playing career Gordy worked in the Reds front office, and on Reds TV broadcasts from 1990 until his death in 1994, from a heart attack, at age 59.

Gordy Coleman is in the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame.

It's a honor to wish a Happy Baseball Birthday to Gordy Coleman.

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!

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...Hal Morris

Today we celebrate the 49th birthday of former big leaguer Hal Morris.

Our Happy Baseball Birthday big leaguer was born on April 9th, 1965, in Fort Rucker, Alabama.

Morris graduated from Munster High School in Munster, Indiana, and went on to play baseball at the University of Michigan.

Michigan went to the College World Series in 1983, and two teammates, Chris Sabo, and Barry Larkin, would reunite with Morris 7 years later as World Series Champions on the 1990 Cincinnati Reds.

Morris was an 8th round draft pick of the New York Yankees in the 1986 amateur player draft.

Hal made his big league debut on July 29th, 1988, for the Bronx Bombers, at age 23.

Morris played for 13 years in the major leagues, with the Yankees, Reds, Kansas City Royals, and Detroit Tigers.

Hal played his final game in the big leagues ,at age 35, on October 1st, 2000, with the Tigers.

Morris collected 1,216 base hits in 3,998 at bats in 1,246 games.

Morris batted .304 lifetime, with 246 doubles, 21 triples, 76 home runs, and 513 RBI.

In the field, Morris was a terrific first baseman.

Morris fielded 8,138 chances, committing just 52 errors, and finishing with a stellar .994 fielding percentage.

Hal Morris is currently the  Director of Scouting for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Happy Baseball Birthday Hal...and Go Blue!

Play Ball!

Happy Baseball Birthday..."Sleepy" Bill Burns

Today we say Happy Birthday to big league pitcher Bill Burns.

Bill Burns was born on January 17, 1880, in San Sabo, Texas.

"Sleepy" Bill made his big league debut with the Washington Senators on April 18th, 1908, at the age of 28.

Burns was a left handed  pitcher who started 85 games , pitched  717 2/3 innings in five seasons of big league baseball.

"Sleepy" Bill was given his nickname due to his deliberate mound presence and his propensity to sleep in the dugout during days he didn't pitch.

Bill Burns recorded 30 wins and suffered 52 losses.

Burns did complete 45 games, and managed to hit 38 of the 2, 846 batters he faced in the big leagues.

As soon as I saw the name Bill Burns today in Baseballreference.com, I wondered if he was the same "Sleepy" Bill Burns from the movie "Eight Men Out."

He is indeed, the same former pitcher who was involved in negotiations between the gamblers and the players.

The 1988 movie by director John Sayles tells the tale of the 1919 Chicago "Black Sox" and their throwing of the '19 World Series vs. the Cincinnati Reds.

"Sleepy" Bill Burns is played by Christopher Lloyd in the movie.

I was also surprised that Bill Burns was once a teammate of Ty Cobb, in Burns final big league season of 1912.

Burns and the Tigers were a not so good 69-84 in 1912, a 6th place finish in the American League.

Ty Cobb was just 25 years old in 1912, and the games best hitter swatted 226 hits in just 140 games, batting .409, with 30 doubles and 23 triples.

Today's Baseball Birthday is why I love baseball.

We learned that birthday boy Bill Burns was the same "Sleepy" Bill Burns in the movie Eight Men Out, played by the famous Christopher Lloyd, and that Burns was Ty Cobb's teammate in 1912, his last year of baseball.

Bill Burns made his mark in baseball, infamous, or not.

Burns passed away at the age of 73, on June 6th, 1953...D -Day...in Ramona, California.

Happy Baseball Birthday "Sleepy" Bill!