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11 unusual facts about Detroit Tigers


Aggieville Riots

One night after the Aggieville Riot, Detroit suffered widespread looting and violence in the wake of the Detroit Tigers' victory in the 1984 World Series over the San Diego Padres.

Al Stump

Stump spent time with Detroit Tigers' Hall Of Fame baseball player Ty Cobb in 1960 and 1961 collaborating on Cobb's autobiography.

Andy Kosco

Shortly before the 1959 season, Kosco was signed by the Detroit Tigers as an amateur free agent.

Ball Park Franks

A Frankfurt, Germany, meat-packing company called Hygrade Food Products won a competition in 1959 to be the exclusive supplier of hot dogs to the Detroit Tigers stadium.

Ben Guez

Benjamin James Guez (born January 24, 1987) is an American minor league baseball outfielder in the Detroit Tigers organization.

Gwen Sebastian

Gwen Sebastian sang the National Anthem for the New York Yankees' Spring Training game against the Detroit Tigers in Tampa, Florida on March 28, 2010, and received a congratulatory hug from actor Richard Gere who was in attendance.

Heather Nabozny

She is the head groundskeeper of the Detroit Tigers baseball park since 1999, becoming the first female head groundskeeper in the history of Major League Baseball.

Kelly Automotive Park

Constructed in 1934, and rebuilt in 2008, the ballpark hosted minor league teams that were affiliated with the New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Marnix Van Holsbeeck

He serves as primary diagnostic consultant for numerous professional sports teams including the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Red Wings, and Detroit Lions.

Spike McRoy

He got his nickname Spike from his great uncle, a Ty Cobb fan, who sent McRoy a miniature Detroit Tigers uniform when he was born.

The Macomb Daily

The writers from the other Detroit area Journal Register newspapers who appear frequently in The Macomb Daily are Oakland Press staff writers Gary Graff (who covers pop music), Jim Hawkins (Detroit Tigers), Paula Pasche (Detroit Lions), and Dave Pemberton (Detroit Pistons and Michigan State Spartans) and the News-Heralds Matthew Mowery (Michigan Wolverines).


Alex Main

Miles Grant "Alex" Main (May 13, 1884 in Montrose, Michigan – December 29, 1965 in Royal Oak, Michigan) was a professional baseball pitcher who played from 1914 to 1915 and in 1918 for the Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Packers and Philadelphia Phillies.

Allen McDill

Allen Gabriel McDill (born August 23, 1971 in Greenville, Mississippi) is a former left-handed specialist in Major League Baseball who pitched from 1997 through 2001 for the Kansas City Royals (1997–98), Detroit Tigers (2000) and Boston Red Sox (2001).

Baseball superstition

Others include routines such as eating only chicken before a game like Wade Boggs, Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander eating three crunchy taco supremes (no tomato), a cheesy gordita crunch and a Mexican pizza (no tomato) before every start from Taco Bell.

Bill Klem

Of the 16 major league teams in existence during his career, all but one—the St. Louis Browns, who would not win a pennant until 1944—appeared in a World Series that he officiated; the only other teams which did not win a championship with Klem on the field were the Brooklyn Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies (neither of which won a title during Klem's lifetime) and the Detroit Tigers.

Chris Reitsma

Reitsma did relatively well, earning 15 saves, but on the last day of non-waiver trades, the Braves traded for relief pitcher Kyle Farnsworth from the Detroit Tigers.

Danny Patterson

He was a part of a big trade on November 2, 1999, where the Texas Rangers traded Patterson, Juan González and Gregg Zaun to the Detroit Tigers for Justin Thompson, Francisco Cordero, Gabe Kapler, Bill Haselman, Frank Catalanotto and minor leaguer Alan Webb.

Daron Sutton

Prior to moving to Arizona, he served for five years as the television voice of the Milwaukee Brewers, and prior to coming to Milwaukee in 2002, he was one of the radio voices of the then-Anaheim Angels, working alongside current Detroit Tigers television play-by-play broadcaster Mario Impemba.

Dennis Archer

Archer was a strong supporter of numerous construction projects in downtown Detroit, including two new stadiums, Ford Field for the Detroit Lions and Comerica Park for the Detroit Tigers.

Detroit Medical Center

The Detroit Medical Center is as an award winning medical center and is the official healthcare services provider for the Detroit Tigers, the Detroit Red Wings, the Detroit Pistons, the Detroit Shock and the Detroit Grand Prix.

Detroit Wheels

The Wheels were founded December 13, 1973 by ten investors, whose number eventually grew to 33, including singer Marvin Gaye, Motown Records vice-president Esther Edwards, and Little Caesars founder (and future Red Wings and Tigers owner) Mike Ilitch.

Don Lenhardt

Much-traveled (and frequently traded), he would play in the American League for five seasons (1950–1954) for the Browns (twice), Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox (twice), Detroit Tigers, and the Baltimore Orioles (where as a transplanted St. Louis Brown he was a member of the first modern Baltimore MLB team in 1954).

Don Newcombe

Until 2011 when Detroit Tigers Pitcher Justin Verlander did it, Newcombe was the only baseball player to have won the Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player and Cy Young awards in his career.

Dundee-Crown High School

Juan Acevedo- Major League Baseball pitcher, at one time owned franchise record for saves in a season for the Detroit Tigers

Fritz Buelow

Buelow got his start in the major leagues after being sold in September 1899 by Detroit of the Western League to the St. Louis Perfectos with Tom Thomas and Pat Dillard.

Garth Iorg

In his final major league plate appearance, Iorg made Toronto's last out of the 1987 season when a win would have tied the Blue Jays with the Detroit Tigers for the American League East title.

Georgia-Florida League

In 1963, the minor leagues reorganized and the Georgia-Florida League was designated Class A. But there were only four teams in the '63 GFL, and its champion, the Thomasville Tigers, a Detroit affiliate, attracted only 7,234 fans over the entire course of a home schedule of over 60 games — an average of about 120 fans per game.

Jeff Datz

A former catcher, Datz played in seven games for the Detroit Tigers in 1989.

Jim Schelle

In a game against the Detroit Tigers, he came into the game to start the fourth inning in relief of Bob Joyce.

Kalkaska, Michigan

Emil Frisk (1874-1922), professional baseball player for the Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers, and the St. Louis Browns from 1899 to 1907.

Leo Macdonell

Macdonell was the Detroit Times hockey and golf reporter in the early 1930s, but he was recruited to cover the Detroit Tigers for the 1934 World Series.

London Majors

After pitcher Dave Rozema retired from Major League Baseball (Detroit Tigers, 1977–84, and Texas Rangers, 1985–86) on April 30, 1986, he pitched for the London Majors in the early 1990s.

Kilkenny previously played for the Detroit Tigers (1969–1972), Oakland Athletics (1972), San Diego Padres (1972), and Cleveland Indians (1972–1973) during a five-season stint (1969–1973) in the Major Leagues.

Lynn Red Sox

The Essex County city fielded a Detroit Tigers farm club — the Lynn Tigers, initially managed by Kennedy — for the first three months of 1949 but withdrew from the league July 19.

Narleski

Ray Narleski was a Polish-American baseball player, who played for the Cleveland Indians from 1954 to 1958, and for the Detroit Tigers in 1959.

Nat Allbright

One client wanted to have himself inserted as a catcher for Dizzy Dean, pitching for the Cardinals in the 1934 World Series against the Detroit Tigers, while another customer had his father's name inserted into a game in which he supposedly played alongside Babe Ruth for the New York Yankees.

Park Jung-Jin

As Australian closer Brad Thomas left the Eagles for the Detroit Tigers in MLB after the 2009 season, former Minnesota Twins setup man Julio DePaula became a closer for the 2010 Eagles, where manager Han Dae-Hwa intended to use Park as a left-handed specialist or long reliever.

Ray Lane

From 1967 through 1972 Lane teamed with Ernie Harwell on Detroit Tigers radio broadcasts; he also worked on the team's television broadcasts from 1999–2003.

Rick Grapenthin

From 1986-1989; Grapethin played for the 'Triple-A' clubs for the San Diego Padres, St Louis Cardinals, Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees.

Rick Rizzs

His tenure with the Mariners was only interrupted by a two-year stint from 1992 to 1994 providing game coverage of the Detroit Tigers, teaming with Bob Rathbun on WJR.

Steve Lombardozzi, Jr.

On December 2, 2013, Lombardozzi was traded to the Detroit Tigers, along with pitchers Ian Krol and Robbie Ray, for starting pitcher Doug Fister.

Tecmo Baseball

A player on the Detroit team was named Arex but his statistics were those that Alan Trammell of the Detroit Tigers had in 1987.

Tom Kramer

Despite starting the 1995 season with a record of twelve wins and one loss and a 3.33 earned run average in 127.0 innings pitched for the Reds' then-AA affiliate, the Chattanooga Lookouts, Kramer was traded to the Detroit Tigers midway through the season, finishing out the season pitching for then-AAA affiliate Toledo.

Walt Masterson

Walter Edward Masterson III (June 22, 1920 – April 5, 2008) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers.

Walter Briggs, Jr.

He was owner of the Detroit Tigers for five seasons following the death of his father, Walter Briggs, Sr., in 1952.

Willie Hernández

Prior to the 1984 season, Hernández was traded to the Detroit Tigers with Dave Bergman for Glenn Wilson and John Wockenfuss.