September 27 in Tigers and mlb history:
1907: After leading the American League most of the month, the Athletics (83-54) are beset by pitching problems as Detroit (86-56) comes into Philadelphia for a three-game showdown. Detroit win the first game, 5 - 4, to take over 1st place.
1908: The Tigers take over first place with a Sunday 5 - 2 win over the A's behind righty George Mullin.
1912: Eddie Plank goes 19 innings for the A's against Bob Groom and Walter Johnson of the Nationals, and takes a 5 - 4 loss when Eddie Collins' wild throw lets the winning run score. Johnson relieves Bob Groom at the end of the 9th, and pitches 10 innings of scoreless relief.
1914: Cleveland's Napoleon Lajoie doubles against the Yankees for his 3000th career hit to become the second modern major leaguer to reach the milestone.
1917: The Red Sox play a benefit game against an American League all-star team and Babe Ruth and Rube Foster combine for a 2 - 0 shutout.
The AL squad features Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, and Joe Jackson in the outfield.
More than $14,000 is raised for the family of sports writer Tim Murnane, who died February 13th. Murnane had played and managed in Boston in the 19th century. Actress Fanny Brice helps sell programs and former heavyweight champ John L. Sullivan coaches 3B for the Sox. Ruth wins the fungo hitting contest with a drive of 402 feet, while Joe Jackson has the longest throw at an impressive 396 feet.
1920: Shoeless Joe Jackson gets his last major league hit, a double off the #Tigers' Hooks Dauss, before being suspended due to the investigation of the 1919 World Series.
1925: In a doubleheader split with the Braves in St. Louis, the Cards' player-manager, Rogers Hornsby, hits his 38th and 39th home runs of the year, along with a single, double, and triple to push his average to .403. In batting practice tomorrow, Hornsby will foul a ball off his foot splitting his toenail, and will sit the last three games. The Rajah calls reporters into the clubhouse to view his bloody toe, "because some of those in the East may say I'm stallin' because I want to save my .400 average."
Hornsby will be the only player-manager to win the triple crown, which he does by topping .400 for the 3rd time in four years, while his 39 home runs and 143 RBI are National League highs. His .756 slugging average will be the NL record until topped by steroid user Barry Bonds in 2001.
1927: Babe Ruth connects for a grand slam off Lefty Grove while Lou Gehrig hits No. 46 in a 7 - 4 win over the A's. Ruth has 57 with three games to play. The grand slam is the Babe's second in three days.
1928: For a remarkable 2nd time in five weeks, Lefty Grove strikes out three batters on nine pitches, this time victimizing the White Sox (Moe Berg, Tommy Thomas and Johnny Mostil) in the 7th inning. Grove also starts the A's scoring with a solo home run and wins, 6 - 3, his 6th straight win over Chicago and his 24th of the year. Not until Jim Bunning, in 1959, will another American League hurler strike out the side on nine pitches.
1930: In Yankee Stadium, Josh Gibson of the Homestead Grays hits what his biographer John Holway will call "perhaps the longest home run ever hit in the House that Ruth Built," and Gibson himself describes as hit "on a line into the bullpen in deep left field." The Pittsburgh Courier's guess-timate is 430 feet while the Amsterdam News says 460. The bullpen in question extends quite a long way, and could easily accommodate anything from a 415-footer to a 500-plus-foot blast.
1931: Lou Gehrig hits a home run to tie Babe Ruth at 46 while the Yankees pound Lefty Grove, 13 - 1, and deny him his 32nd victory. Grove throws just three innings in the warmup for the World Series. Gehrig drives in two runs as he (184) and Ruth (163) combine to drive in 347 runs for the year, the most productive duo in history.
1932: The Detroit Tigers drafted Bots Nekola from the New York Yankees in the 1932 rule 5 draft.
1935: All American League games are rained out today.
1936: Replacing Johnny Mize, who is tossed by an umpire for arguing, Cardinal rookie first baseman Walter Alston makes an error in handling two chances and is fanned by Lon Warneke in his only major league at-bat. "Smokey" will, however, win seven pennants and four World Series in his 23-year Hall of Fame career as Dodger manager from 1954 to 1976.
1938: Hank Greenberg again hits 2 homers, extending his record to 11 times in the same season.
The 58th home run is an inside-the-park home run ending in a close play at plate.
They are the last he will hit this season, as he falls 2 short of Babe Ruth's 1927 record of 60.
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1940: Besides Bobo Newsom (21-5), Schoolboy Rowe (16-3), and Tommy Bridges (12-9), the Tigers' pitching staff combines for a losing record. Needing one victory to gain the title, manager Del Baker decides to withhold Newsom and Rowe and picks Floyd Giebell, an obscure rookie just called in from Buffalo. Giebell shuts out the Indians 2 - 0, to beat Bob Feller who gives up just 3 hits. Not eligible for the World Series, Giebell will never win another game in the major leagues.
During the game, unruly Cleveland fans shower the field with fruit and vegetables. At one point, a basket of green tomatoes is dropped onto Tigers C Birdie Tebbetts' head while he sits in the bullpen.
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1941: Ted Williams starts the day with a .401 batting average and refuses Boston manager Joe Cronin's suggestion that he sit out the rest of the season to preserve his average. Against the A's he hits one single in 4 at bats to drop his average to .3995.
1942: Charlie Gehringer makes his final career appearance for the Tigers in a loss to the indians.
1953: In a fitting finale, the St. Louis plays their last game as the Browns and lose their 100th game, 2 - 1, to the White Sox in 11 innings. Next season the team will move to Baltimore and will become the Orioles.
1953: Harvey Kuenn hits 2 singles in the Tigers 7 - 3 season finale win over the indians to finish with 167, still a Tigers rookie record. Kuenn will be named AL Rookie of the Year.
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1961: On the anniversary of Hank Greenberg's 58th home run, Rocky Colavito hits his 45th home run of the season in the Tigers 10 - 2 win over the kansas city athletics, the second-most in franchise history until Cecil Fielder hit 51 in 1990.
1961: Sandy Koufax (18-13) fans seven Phils in the course of a 2 - 1 loss to set a National League record for strikeouts in a season: 269. This surpasses Christy Mathewson's 267 in 1963, which was accomplished in 367 innings pitched, as opposed to Koufax's remarkable 255. Both runs off Sandy are unearned. In 1965 Sandy will set the record for a Lefthanded pitcher with 382 Strikeouts.
1967: Philadelphia's Jim Bunning loses a major league-record-tying 5th 1 - 0 decision for the year, as Houston's Mike Cuellar outlasts the veteran in 11 innings.
1968: Facing Lee Stange at Fenway Park, Mickey Mantle flies out in his final plate appearance, before being replaced by Andy Kosco.
1968: Detroit Tigers manager Mayo Smith sitting at his desk, and there is the black rotary dial phone, that Tiger great Denny McLain used to phone in his bets! Denny told that anecdote in an interview with 1984 champion Lance Parrish on Episode 75 of the NoFilterSports podcast.
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1972: Trailing 5 - 1, the Tigers score three in the 8th and two in the 9th to beat the Yankees and Sparky Lyle. Duke Sims singles in the winning run.
It's another multi-hit game for Al Kaline with 2 hits and 2 rbi.
Kaline carries the team on his back batting .376 for the month (29 for 77), 5 doubles, 4 homeruns, and 11 rbi, but more important the the last 10 games of the season, Kaline ends the year with a 10 game hitting streak (21 for 41) as the Tigers win 8 of 10 to clinch the AL East.
1975: With the Orioles, Jim Northrup gets a pinch hit in his final career at bat.
1983: Tim Raines becomes the first player since Ty Cobb to steal 70 bases and drive in 70 runs in the same season, going 3 for 4 with a home run, a stolen base, and four RBI in Montreal's 10 - 4 win over St. Louis.
1983: The Detroit Tigers signed Scott Medvin as an amateur free agent.
1983: Jack Morris strikes out 9 en route to a career high and AL-best 232 Ks and the Tigers beat the orioles 9 - 2.
1984: Jack Morris takes a no-hitter into the 6th inning, but gets no decision in the #Tigers' loss, falling short in his bid for 20 wins
1986: Jack Morris shuts out the Yankees, 1 - 0, in 10 innings, raising his record to 20-8.
1998: Bobby Higginson homers off Roy Halladay with 2 out in 9th to breakup a no-hitter. It was Halladay's 2nd career start.
1999: Tiger Stadium hosted its 6,873th and final regular season game. The Detroit Tigers moved for the following season to Comerica Park.
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1999: With each of the Tigers wearing the uniform numbers of all-time great Detroit players at their position (OF Gabe Kapler, standing in for Ty Cobb, wears no number) the Tigers defeat the Royals, 8 - 2, in the last game ever played at Tiger Stadium. Robert Fick's grand slam in the 8th brings the capacity crowd of 43,356 to its feet. Al Kaline called it the night before.
Luis Polonia and Karim Garcia also homer as Brian Moehler beats Jeff Suppan. At 7:07 p.m.: Todd Jones strikes out Carlos Beltran for the final out at Tiger Stadium.
2003: With a startling rally, the Tigers avoid equaling the modern major league record of 120 losses set by the expansion 1962 Amazin' Mets. It takes one of the biggest comebacks in franchise history as Detroit beats the Twins, 9 - 8, on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 9th after trailing by eight runs earlier in the contest.
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2012: Doug Fister of the Tigers strikes out 9 consecutive batters in defeating the Royals, 5 - 4, setting a new American League record. With the White Sox's 3 - 2 loss to the Rays, Detroit now leads the AL Central by two games.
2014: With the Reds, former Tiger Ram?n Santiago hits a 10th-inning walk-off grand slam.
He is the only player in major league history to hit an ultimate grand slam in his final career at-bat.
Currently Tigers first-base coach.
2016: Justin Verlander strikes out 12 in 7+ shutout innings and the Tigers crush the indians 12 - 0. Miguel Cabrera has a home run (35), a double and 5 RBI.
Tigers remain one game back in the race for the 2nd wild card.
Tigers players and executives birthdays:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/ferrycy01.shtml
Cy Ferry 1904.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gibsofr01.shtml
Frank Gibson 1913.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gagnoch01.shtml
Chick Gagnon 1922.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/billijo02.shtml
Josh Billings 1927-1929.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/wyattwh01.shtml
Whit Wyatt 1929-1933.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/casalje01.shtml
Jerry Casale 1961-1962.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/wickeda01.shtml
Dave Wickersham 1964-1967.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Bill_Lajoie
Bill Lajoie Scout 1969-1973, Scouting Director 1974-1978, Assistant General Manager 1979-1983, General Manager 1984-1990.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/suthega01.shtml
Gary Sutherland 1974-1976.
Tigers players and coaches who passed away:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/f/ferrycy01.shtml
Cy Ferry 1904.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jaegech01.shtml
Charlie Jaeger 1904.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/barnefr01.shtml
Frank Barnes 1929.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Gates_Brown
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/brownga01.shtml
https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/eacd4f5e
Gates Brown 1963-1975, coach 1978-1984.
Baseball Reference
