July 31 in Tigers and mlb history:
1914 - Red Sox owner Joe Lannin buys the Providence Grays (IL) and Melrose Park from the Detroit Tigers for $75,000. Detroit gets to pick one player from the Providence roster and they select P Red Oldham, overlooking Carl Mays. Detroit then purchases the Buffalo (IL) team.
1916: Babe Ruth fires a two-hitter, by Ty Cobb and George Burns, for a 6 - 0 win for the Red Sox over the Tigers.
1942 - Charlie Gehringer?s final career home run is a pinch-hit homer in the bottom of the ninth. Detroit loses, though; the homer run just turns a 7-4 deficit into a 7-6 loss.
1959 Al Kaline hits the first of two career inside the park home runs.
1961 - The 2nd All-Star Game of 1961 ends in a 1 - 1 tie at Fenway Park. Rocky Colavito homers for the American League run. Heavy rains end the exhibition after nine innings.
1981 - The fifty-day old baseball strike is settled as owners and players agree on a pooling system for free agent compensation. The All-Star game will mark the end of baseball's first-ever mid-season work stoppage.
1996: The Dodgers obtain OF Chad Curtis from the Tigers in exchange for pitchers Joey Eischen and John Cummings. Curtis will lead off in place of the cancer-stricken Brett Butler.
1996 - The Tigers trade Cecil Fielder to the Yankees for a minor leaguer and Ruben Sierra.
2005 - Detroit sends Kyle Farnsworth to Atlanta for Roman Colon and Zach Miner.
2011: Two of the best pitchers in the American League face each other, as Detroit's Justin Verlander faces off against Los Angeles' Jered Weaver, both looking for their 15th win. Verlander takes a no-hitter into the 8th inning, while Weaver loses his cool after Carlos Guillen hits a 7th-inning homer; he throws a pitch over the head of the next batter, Alex Avila, and is ejected. Verlander and the Tigers prevail, 3 - 2.
2014 - It is the Tigers who engineer the biggest blockbuster deal, however, as they pull CF Austin Jackson from their game with the White Sox in the middle of the 7th inning because he has just been traded to Seattle. They receive IF Nick Franklin in return, but immediately package him along with P Drew Smyly and SS prospect Willie Adames to Tampa Bay to reel in former Cy Young Award winner David Price.
Tigers players and coaches birthdays:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sugdejo01.shtml
Joe Sugden 1912.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Billy_Hitchcock
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/hitchbi01.shtml?redir
Billy Hitchcock 1942, 1946, 1953, coach 1955-1960.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Al_Aber
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/aberal01.shtml?redir
Al Aber 1953-1957.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/malmbha01.shtml
Harry Malmberg 1955.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Terry_Fox
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/foxte01.shtml?redir
Terry Fox 1961-1966.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/baileho01.shtml
Howard Bailey 1981-1983.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/kaplega01.shtml
Gabe Kapler 1998-1999.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Andy_Van_Hekken
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/v/vanhean01.shtml?redir
Andy Van Hekken 2002.
from baseball reference
