January 24 in Tigers and mlb history:
1913 - In a story in the New York Times, Detroit Tigers President Frank Navin blames the length of the games on the coaches' boxes. Navin, reacting to American League President Ban Johnson's complaint that too many games the previous season had taken two hours to play, says the boxes should be moved back so that the catcher can give the pitcher his signals more quickly. From where they are now, he said, the coaching players can detect the catcher's signals unless he takes a lot of time to hide them. Navin said this slow signalling is the reason for the longer games.
1939 - Eddie Collins, Willie Keeler and George Sisler are elected to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Sisler set a major league season-record (later broken by Ichiro Suzuki) with 257 hits in 1920 and batted .420 in 1922 on his way to a .340 career batting average.
Collins batted an even .333 for his career and stole 744 bases as a member of four World Series Champions.
Keeler, who "hit 'em where they ain't", batted .341 and collected 2,932 hits.
1955 - In an effort to speed up the game, Major League Baseball announces a new rule which requires a pitcher to deliver the ball within 20 seconds after taking a pitching position.
1973 - Left-handed pitcher Warren Spahn is elected to the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA. Spahn, in his first year of eligibility, is named on 316 out of a possible 380 ballots. Spahn won a total of 363 games during a 21-year major league career.
2011: The Tigers trade P Armando Galarraga, who lost a perfect game due to umpire Mike Joyce's blown call on June 2nd, to the Diamondbacks in exchange for minor league Ps Ryan Robowski and Kevin Eichhorn.
2012: Rocked by the loss of DH Victor Martinez to an off-season injury last week, the Tigers react by signing the most prominent free agent remaining on the market 1B Prince Fielder. It takes a 9-year, $214 million contract to land the big slugger. The move is doubly surprising because Detroit was not rumored to be among the teams bidding for Prince, and because they already have one the game's premium first basemen, Miguel Cabrera, signed to a long-term deal.
Tigers players birthdays:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Joe_Cobb
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cobbjo01.shtml?redir
Joe Cobb 1918.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/smithru01.shtml
Rufus Smith 1927.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Jay_Sborz
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sborzja01.shtml
Jay Sborz 2010.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Andy_Dirks
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/dirksan01.shtml
Andy Dirks 2011-2013.
Tigers players who passed away:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Ralph_Young
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/y/youngra01.shtml?redir
Ralph Young 1915-1921.
from Baseball Reference
