Archive for the 'Blast from the Past' Category

In 1939, In his first-ever at-bat in the city of Detroit, Boston Red Sox rookie Ted Williams became the first player to hit a home run which totally cleared the right field seats at Briggs Stadium.

In 1996, the Texas Rangers became the first American League team in 79 years to pitch consecutive one-hitters as Roger [...]

I failed to mention in today’s podcast that this marks the birthday of Tigers Hall of Famer Wahoo Sam Crawford. He was born in 1880.
He broke into the majors with Reds in 1899 and stayed until 1902 when the National League and American League fought bitterly for players.
According to his Baseball-Reference.com page, before the [...]

In case you were wondering, here’s how the Tigers have fared against the Mariners since Seattle joined the American League in 1977:

All-Time Record: 185-152-1

All-Time at Home: 104-64-1

All-Time at Comerica Park: 22-18

All-Time at Seattle: 81-88

Wait a second. The Tigers and Mariners played to a tie? In the 20th century?
This little item sent me scrambling to my [...]

A 1985 interview with Mark Fidrych on the TV show “Once a Star”, hosted by Jack Brickhouse, Steve Stone and former Pistons guard and TV color analyst John “Crash” Mengelt.

An Appreciation of The Bird from former Free Press Writer Joe Lapointe in The New York Times.
Obits:

The New York Times (with quotes by Ernie Harwell).
The Boston Globe

The Los Angeles Times (with quotes from former Tigers’ second baseman Gary Sutherland) — and a JPEG of a 1976 Times article on The Bird.
The Washington Post

When it comes to topics like the death of Mark Fidrych, I tend to be reflective — and that usually means several hours (or even a day) can pass before I post something about it.
I’ll certainly have more on The Bird this week, but I will share my single memory of Fidrych and his magical [...]

The former Tigers outfielder and DH — a.k.a., Le Grand Orange to ’70s Expos fans in Montreal — turns 65 today.
Before then-TV analyst Al Kaline reminded us at every turn that Tony LaRussa is also an attorney in Florida, Mr. Tiger liked to talk about Staub being an accomplished chef. More on that shortly.

Daniel Joseph [...]

The five-time All Star turns 40 today.

Fryman, the Tigers’ first-round selection (#30) in the 1987 draft, spent parts of the first eight seasons of his 13-year career in Detroit and with some sorry teams. In his seven full seasons, he hit .272 and averaged 20 homers and 93 RBI — and wore #24.
On Nov. 18, [...]

Want to feel old? Try this on for size:

It was a quarter-century ago — March 24, 1984 — that the Tigers acquired relief pitcher Willie Hernandez and first baseman Dave Bergman from the Philadelphia Phillies for catcher John Wockenfuss and outfielder Glenn Wilson.

And the insanity that was the Summer of ‘84 began.

In case you’ve [...]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:06 — 29.9MB)

Welcome to The Detroit Tigers Podcast, the podcast for Tigers fans, by Tigers fans. This is Episode #65, a 26-minute podcast Detroit Tigers recorded in March 2007 from Swifton, Arkansas, and Scottsdale, Arizona U.S.A.
This episode was originally broadcast on March 14, 2007. In it we talk with Hall of Famer and former Tigers TV [...]