Motor City Bengals All-Time Detroit Tigers Team: LF Willie Horton

Willie Horton Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Last week we touched on some 1968 nostalgia by naming Bill Freehan as our all-time Tigers’ catcher, and this week we continue it by naming our all-time Tigers’ left fielder, Willie Horton.

Let’s take a gander at how our team is shaping up.

1B: Hank Greenberg

2B Charlie Gehringer

SS: Alan Trammell

3B: Miguel Cabrera

C: Bill Freehan

Click through the slideshow to read our previous entries.

Willie Wattison Horton made his major league debut for the Tigers in 1963 and played sparingly before coming up full-time in 1965. It was a break-out rookie campaign for Horton, who earned the first of four All-Star appearances, slammed 29 homers (after just two in 1963-64), 104 RBIs and hit a respectable .273.

One of the enduring stories of Horton came on July 23, 1967. On what would become an infamous chapter in the history of the city of Detroit, the Tigers had just split a double-header with the New York Yankees at Tiger Stadium while hostilities were boiling over elsewhere in the city. Horton went to the center of the riot area, stood on a car in full uniform, and pleaded for order that never came. Still, his passion for the city created an undying bond between Tigers’ fans and Willie.

His career year came in 1968 when he hit 36 homers. More importantly, Horton hit .304 with a home run in the World Series against St. Louis. Last week, we described Freehan’s career moment coming in Game 5 with the Tigers’ backs against the wall. This was also a moment for the ages for Horton.

With the Tigers facing elimination at Tiger Stadium in Game 5, perhaps Freehan’s signature moment occurred.  St. Louis was up by a run in the fifth inning when Lou Brock tried to score from second on a single to left. Willie Horton gunned the ball into the catcher, who had the foresight to remember the scouting report on Brock which said he rarely slid into home. Freehan stuck his left leg out and held the ball in a collision, thus preventing the Cardinals from going up by two runs.

It was the turning point of the series as the Tigers went on to win that game and the next two in St. Louis. If Horton’s throw went awry, the series may not have gone back to Busch Stadium. Willie listed this as easily the best moment of his career.

Horton had several productive years post-’68. He was known more for his bat than his glove, which was a reason he became one of the first successful designated hitters. He was named the AL’s Outstanding DH in 1975 after hitting 25 homers and 92 RBIs for a terrible Tigers team.

After a year that saw offensive numbers drop across the board, Detroit traded Horton to Texas. He spent the rest of his career meandering around the American League with stops in Cleveland, Oakland, and Toronto before finishing in Seattle. He picked up the AL Outstanding DH award again, for the Mariners in 1979, and retired following the 1980 season.

Willie Horton finished with 1,993 hits, a .273 average, 873 runs, and 1,163 RBIs. At the time of his retirement, his 325 homers put him sixth in AL history.

The Tigers retired his #23, and debuted his statue, in a ceremony at Comerica Park on July 15, 2000. While his numbers don’t make him Hall-of-Fame worthy and perhaps make his number retirement debatable, his acts on and off the field in 1967-68 endeared him to fans of that era, and earned him a spot on Motor City Bengals’ All-Time Detroit Tigers team.

Next week, we’ll move to Horton’s left and name the all-time Tigers centerfielder. Hmmm, wonder who it might be…

Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports

Another unappreciated legend has been named to the Motor City Bengals All-Time Detroit Tigers team in the form of catcher Bill Freehan. One of the best catchers of the 1960’s, Freehan doesn’t get much mention nationally these days, but Tigers’ fans whose roots go back to the 1960’s will always remember Freehan fondly.

This doesn’t mean the vote between MCB staffers was not a close one. In fact, Freehan edged a Detroit Hall-of-Famer, Mickey Cochrane, by just one vote for the honor. Lance Parrish and Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez also received mentions.

William Ashley Freehan was a native Detroiter, the only member of the MCB All-Time Team to be born in the city he played for and one of two players (Charlie Gehringer) to be born in Michigan. He played his college ball at the University of Michigan, setting the all-time Big Ten batting mark of .585 in 1961. He actually made a brief appearance for the Tigers that same season, but bowed out of the majors until returning full-time in 1963.

He split time behind the plate with Gus Triandos that first full season, but grabbed the starting job in 1964, hitting .300 with 18 homers and 80 RBIs. That year began a streak of 10 straight All-Star appearances which included seven starts. He began another streak the following year, 1965, when he collected the first of four straight Gold Glove awards.

Bill had an accurate canon behind home, throwing out a league-leading 53 percent of would-be stealers in 1964. While that exceptionally high number would plateau in later seasons, he would never dip below 32 percent in that category the rest of his career, save for his last year when he saw limited action.

Freehan’s average dipped for a few years, but as the Tigers moved back into contention in the mid-1960’s, his average and home run production increased. He placed second in the MVP voting in 1968, finishing behind teammate and 31-game winner Denny McLain.

In the Year of the Pitcher, its not a surprise that Freehan and his teammates struggled in the World Series against St. Louis Cardinals’ pitching, led by NL MVP and Cy Young winner Bob Gibson. So while Freehan’s contribution to the Tigers’ championship didn’t come at the plate (hitting just .083), it certainly came behind it.

With the Tigers facing elimination at Tiger Stadium in Game 5, perhaps Freehan’s signature moment occurred.  St. Louis was up by a run in the fifth inning when Lou Brock tried to score from second on a single to left. Willie Horton gunned the ball into the catcher, who had the foresight to remember the scouting report on Brock which said he rarely slid into home. Freehan stuck his left leg out and held the ball in a collision, thus preventing the Cardinals from going up by two runs.

The rest was history. The Tigers went on to win that game and the next two in St. Louis to capture the franchise’s third championship. Had Freehan missed the tag or prepared for Brock to slide, the series may have never gone back to Busch Stadium.

All told, Freehan was known more for his glove than bat, yet when he retired in 1976 he had 200 home runs and 2,502 total bases, placing him behind just Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey for American League catchers (both of whom are in the Hall-of-Fame). He held the highest career fielding percentage of .9933 until 2002 and held the record for putouts (9,941) until 1988.

A strong case can be made for Freehan’s Hall-of-Fame candidacy. He ranks 14th among catchers in JAWS. Of the top 10 players for that statistic, only three aren’t in the Hall. Mike Piazza (#5) will eventually get in and you’d think Rodriguez (#3) would also get in, but you never know with Pudge’s PED allegations. Nonetheless, Freehan’s placement puts him ahead of Hall-of-Fame catchers Buck Ewing, Roy Campanella, and several others.

Freehan, who went on to be the head baseball coach at U-M, and had a brief run as a color guy for Tigers’ games on PASS cable, has fallen out of the limelight in recent years. Sadly, this is because the 72-year old is reportedly battling Alzheimer’s disease.

Next week we’ll move on to the outfield and our first stop will be in left field.

Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

More than likely our All-Time Detroit Tigers third baseman will spend just two years at the position, but how could we not name Miguel Cabrera to Motor City Bengals’ All-Time Detroit Tigers team?

Cabrera will shift back to first base in 2014 after spending two seasons at the hot corner during Prince Fielder‘s brief tenure in Detroit. Certainly Miggy wasn’t the best defensive third basemen around, and the strain of the position may have hampered any possible recovery from various injuries down the stretch in 2013, but how can you knock those two years at third which included two MVP awards and the first Triple Crown in 45 years?

Haling from Venezuela, 20-year-old Cabrera burst on the scene with the Florida Marlins in 2003–making the jump all the way from Double-A. He would never return to the minors and instead would land in the clean-up spot for the soon-to-be World Champion Marlins. He helped to further the misery of the Chicago Cubs by pounding out three homers in the NLCS.

In 2005, Miggy hit over .300 for the first time (.323) and hit 33 homers for the second straight season. He was an NL All-Star from 2004 to 2007.

In one of the more lopsided trades in baseball history, the Florida Marlins, perhaps worried that Cabrera would command too much in future income, began shopping him around baseball. Many were interested, but the Detroit Tigers won the sweepstakes by shipping Andrew Miller, Dallas Trahern, Eulogio De La Cruz, Burke Badenhop, Cameron Maybin and Mike Rabelo to Florida for Miggy and Dontrelle Willis. Before the start of the 2008 season, the Tigers agreed to an eight-year, $152.3 million contract.

Miggy didn’t miss a beat changing leagues. While his average dipped below .300 for the first time in four seasons, he still managed to hit 27 homers and drive in 127. The following year began his current streak of .300 seasons, and nearly each season has seen that average rise.

He won the Triple Crown in 2012 with numbers of .330, 44 homers and 139 RBIs (all career highs). And yet thorough much of 2013, he was on a better pace than his final 2012 numbers. Ultimately, the injuries hampered him and he again finished with 44 homers, good for second in the AL, but won his third straight batting title with an average of .348.

No one knows what the future for Miguel Cabrera holds in Detroit. One of the best pure hitters of this generation will be eligible for free agency after the 2015 season. More than likely the Tigers will do all they can to hold on to him, but the then 33-year old is sure to command a pretty penny or two.

It’s worth noting that George Kell would have been the top pick for Tigers’ third basemen if not for Miguel’s incredible few years at the position.

Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

The best Detroit Tigers shortstop of all-time is Alan Trammell.

Alan Stuart Trammell was the second round pick of the Detroit Tigers in the 1976 draft. It didn’t take the San Diego native long to make his first appearance in the major leagues. On Sept. 9, 1977, in the second game of a double-header at Fenway Park, Trammell and a young second baseman named Lou Whitaker each made their major league debut.

The pair would go on to play together for 19 seasons. While his partner won the 1978 AL Rookie of the Year award (Tram finished fourth), Trammell hit nearly 100 points higher than in his limited action of 1977. His average reached .300 for the first time in 1980, and it netted him the first of six All-Star appearances.

As the Tigers began to contend in the American League East in the early 1980’s, Trammell’s plate production increased. In 1983, the Tigers won more than 90 games (92-70) for the first time since 1971 but finished a distant second place to the eventual World Champion Baltimore Orioles and, of course, we all know what happened in 1984. Those two seasons were among the best of Tram’s career. He notched double-digit home runs for the first time in his career (14 in both ’83 and ’84) and hit .319 and .314 respectively. He had a .351 average with three homers and nine RBIs in the 1984 postseason and won the World Series MVP.

After a couple off-years while battling injuries, Sparky Anderson asked a healthy Trammell to anchor the Tigers’ 1987 lineup and bat cleanup. He responded with the best year of his storied career, setting career highs with a .343 average, 28 homers and 105 RBIs. When it appeared the Tigers would miss out on the postseason after falling behind the Toronto Blue Jays in the standings, Tram came to life. He hit at a .416 clip in September, lifting the Tigers to an astonishing come-from-behind AL East title.

In shades of things to come, Trammell was robbed in the AL MVP voting that season, finishing second to Toronto’s George Bell.

Defensively, Trammell wasn’t thought of in the same sentence as defense-first guys like Ozzie Smith, but he was steady and rarely made miscues or cost his team runs with errors. He won five Gold Gloves during his career and, along with Whitaker, formed the longest continuous double-play combination in baseball history (19 years and more than 2,000 games).

In the latter portions of his career, Trammell battled numerous injuries which caused his production to ebb and flow, however he still batted over .300 three more times. Most expected Trammell to retire when Whitaker announced that the 1995 season would be his last, but Tram decided to give it one more go, playing a reduced roll for the awful 1996 Tigers. Tram spent time at third base, second base, left and center, in addition to shortstop and DH the year Detroit set a then-franchise record of 109 losses.

Seven years later, Trammell managed the worst team in American League history, the 2003 Tigers. The team bounced back from that terrible season and improved by nearly 30 games in 2004, but when the team regressed a bit in 2005, Trammell was fired. It’s worth nothing that even the best managers in baseball history could not have done anything with that 2003 team and, after winning the AL pennant in 2006, Jim Leyland thanked Alan Trammell for his help in turning the franchise around.

We’ve greatly covered Trammell’s continued Hall-of-Fame snub, so we’ll skip that for now. Most believe that he will certainly get in via the Veteran’s Committee, so how fitting will it be when Tram is (eventually) inducted into Cooperstown along with Lou Whitaker? It will happen. It’s just a matter of time.

Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports

We name the organization’s top second sacker, Charlie Gehringer.

We’ve lamented the fact that Lou Whitaker may never make the Hall-of-Fame, but as great as he was, Charlie Gehringer was truly one of the best players in baseball history, and certainly one of the best second basemen of all time.

Gehringer had a long and distinct career in baseball, all with the Tigers. Born in Fowlerville, Charlie was a naive Michigander and would be the place he’d live all his life.

In the early 1920’s, Gehringer lettered in basketball, not baseball, at the University of Michigan, but his skills on the diamond were solid enough to grab the attention of Tiger Bobby Veach. In 1923, Veach brought Gehringer to Navin Field for a workout in front of player-manager Ty Cobb. The Tiger legend loved what he saw and convinced management to tender him a contact.

In his second full season in the big leagues (1927), Charlie became a star under new manager George Moriarty. In the years of Lou Gehrig‘s consecutive games streak, Gehringer was the Tigers’ Iron Man, playing every game from 1928 to 1930, 1933 to 1934, and 1936. He led the league in runs (131), hits (215), doubles (45), triples (19) and steals (19) in 1929.

On the defensive side, he was a very good defender and spent more than 1,000 games forming a keystone combination with shortstop Billy Rogell.

Gehringer was the lone Tigers’ representative in the very first All-Star Game, held at Comiskey Park in Chicago in 1933, and led the team in average in the pennant-winning seasons of 1934 and 1935. He hit .371 in 1937, which was a career high and earned him the MVP.

Gehringer remained a force for the Tigers through their pennant winning season of 1940, hitting .313. In 1941, he hit nearly 100 points off his average and found himself on the bench in 1942. Following that season, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy until 1945. He considered making a comeback at the age of 41, but ultimately decided against it.

In 16 full-seasons in the majors, Charlie hit under .300 just four times (his first full year and his final two). In the peak of his career, from 1927 to 1940, the only sub-.300 season was 1932 when he hit .298. He finished with a career average of .320, 2,839 hits, 184 homers and 1,427 RBIs.

Charlie was a six-time All-Star, won three pennants, one World Series, an MVP, and batting title. His number two was retired alongside Greenberg’s number five in a ceremony at Tiger Stadium in 1983, and he was elected to the Baseball Hall-of-Fame in 1949 with more than 85 percent of the vote.

It is for all these reasons that Charlie Gehringer is named to the Motor City Bengals’ All-Time Detroit Tigers team, and was another unanimous pick by staff.

Honorable mention goes to Whitaker (of course), and Dick McAulliffe.