January 5 in Tigers and mlb history:
1864: Ban Johnson born in Norwalk, Ohio. Founder and longtime president of the American League. Suspended Ty Cobb in 1912 & 1926.
1879: Hall of Famer Rube Foster was born this day in Calvert, TX.
1915: The Federal League sues organized baseball, claiming it to be an illegal trust and asking that it be dissolved and all contracts voided. The case is filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago, before Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. He will stall his decision, and peace is declared at the end of the year, but another suit, brought by the owners of the Baltimore Terrapins franchise, will result in baseball receiving an exemption from antitrust laws.
In the meantime, the FL shifts players to strengthen teams in key cities. Benny Kauff, the league's answer to Ty Cobb, is moved from the Indianapolis Hoosiers to the Brooklyn Tip-Tops.
1915: Thirteen years after a U.S. District Court decision for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia effectively banned him from playing for the Philadelphia Athletics, Nap Lajoie rejoins the team. With Lajoie leaving the Cleveland Naps. Cleveland's owner will ask several newspapermen for nickname suggestions to replace the "Naps".
He'll pick the name "Indians". A popular myth will be that a newspaper contest resulted in the winning nickname, after the late Lou Sockalexis, a Penobscot Native American who was a popular Cleveland player in the late 1890s. The team doesn't correct the myth until 2000.
1920: Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee defends selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees for cash by calling his former player "one of the most selfish and inconsiderate men ever to put on a baseball uniform".
1925: During the Chicago White Sox and New York Giants European tour, John McGraw, Charlie Comiskey and Hughie Jennings are honored with silver medals by the French Baseball Federation for their efforts of promoting the game in France.
1927: Judge Landis begins a three-day public hearing to investigate the allegation the Detroit Tigers threw a four-game series to the Chicago White Sox in 1917. The White Sox, Swede Risberg contends, returned the favor for two games in 1919. Near the end of the 1917 season, some Chicago players contributed about $45 each to reward Detroit pitchers for winning their last series against the Boston Red Sox, helping Chicago clinch the pennant. No witnesses confirm any part of the story, although Tigers pitcher Bill James denies ever receiving any money, and the others named deny all charges. A week after the hearing opens, Landis clears all the accused, ruling lack of evidence of anything except the practice of players paying another team for winning.
1931: Mrs. Lucille Thomas becomes the first woman to buy a professional baseball team, purchasing the Class-A Topeka Senators of the Western League.
1934: Fenway Park Is On Fire! Most of the newly constructed LF grandstand and CF bleachers are destroyed. Work crews will have to work fast to rebuild just in time for Boston Red Sox Opening Day in April.
1939: Chicago Cubs pitcher Dizzy Dean shows that his arm is okay by lifting a 50 pound weight over his head.
1943: Teams agree to start the season later than usual and prepare to train in northern areas because of World War II. Resorts, armories, and university facilities are chosen for training sites. The Boston Red Sox go to Tufts University; the Brooklyn Dodgers will train at Bear Mountain, NY, and the New York Yankees try Atlantic City, NJ. In Chicago, the Cubs and White Sox agree to start the season later than usual and prepare to train in areas north of the so-called Eastman-Landis Line, named after Joseph Bartlett Eastman, head of the United States Department of Transportation, and Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis - an area East of the Mississippi river and North of the Ohio and Potomac rivers. Meanwhile, the St. Louis teams, the Browns and Cardinals are excluded, though they will train in Cape Girardeau, MO.
1946: The Detroit Tigers released Chuck Hostetler.
1946: The Detroit Tigers released Hub Walker.
1957: Jackie Robinson retires rather than move across New York City from the Brooklyn Dodgers to the New York Giants, voiding last December's deal between the two teams.
1963: Hall of Fame member Rogers Hornsby dies at age 66 of a heart ailment. His .358 career batting average is the second highest in major league history.
1971: Tigers reliever John Hiller suffers a heart attack at his home. He will make a dramatic comeback in 1973 and set an American League record with 38 saves.
1989: Three weeks after signing a record four-year, $1.1 billion network television contract with CBS, Major League Baseball signs a $400 million contract with ESPN. The deal will put 175 games per year on cable television beginning in 1990.
1993: Reggie Jackson is the lone player elected by the Baseball Writers Association of America to the Hall of Fame. Jackson, whose .262 lifetime batting average is the lowest of any outfielder in the Hall, receives 93.6 percent of the vote. His 563 career home runs make him a hit with voters in his first year of eligibility.
1995: According to players' union chief Donald Fehr, all 835 unsigned major league players are free agents since the owners unilaterally changed the uniform contract.
1998: Don Sutton gets into the Hall of Fame on his fifth try. With 324 wins, Sutton had the most victories of any eligible pitcher not in the Hall. He reached the postseason with three different clubs (the Dodgers, Brewers and Angels), and struck out 3,574 batters in 23 seasons.
Sutton receives 386 votes of the record 473 ballots cast for 81.6 percent. Tony Perez falls short with 355 votes, and Ron Santo, on the ballot for the 15th and final time, gains 204 votes.
1999: In their first year of eligibility, George Brett, Nolan Ryan and Robin Yount are elected to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America. It is the only time since the first inductees were selected in 1939 that more than two first-timers have made it into Cooperstown in the same year.
1999: Yogi Berra receives an apology from New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner about his dismissal as Yankees manager in 1985 after only 16 games. Berra says he will end his self-exile from Yankee Stadium and the organization. He is expected to participate in future Opening Day and old timers ceremonies.
2001: Outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, who has won seven batting titles in the Pacific League, is signed by the Seattle Mariners to a $14,088,000, three-year contract.
2005: The Detroit Tigers signed Ramon Martinez as a free agent.
2005: The New York Mets traded Vance Wilson to the Detroit Tigers for Anderson Hernandez.
2010: Randy Johnson, who won his 300th game with the San Francisco Giants last season, announces his retirement, ending a 22-year career that began with the Montreal Expos in 1988. The 6'10" lefthander amassed 4875 strikeouts, the second-most in major league history after Nolan Ryan, and pitched both a no-hitter and a perfect game while winning five Cy Young Awards.
2011: Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven are voted into the Hall of Fame when the results of the 2011 Hall of Fame Election are announced. Alomar, twice a World Champion with the Toronto Blue Jays and a perennial Gold Glove winner at second base, makes it in his second year on the ballot. For workhorse pitcher Blyleven, it's been harder. He started out at 17.5% in his first year of eligibility, and finally crossed the 75% threshold in his 14th year after a dedicated campaign on his behalf conducted through the internet. Once again, voters express their disgust with avowed steroid users, as Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro, both members of the 500 home run club, finish well down on the ballot.
2014: Veteran player, manager, broadcaster and World War II and Korean War hero Jerry Coleman passes away at age 89. An infielder for the New York Yankees from 1949 to 1957, he spent 71 years in the game, acting as a broadcaster for the San Diego Padres since 1972 - except for one-year hiatus in 1980 when he managed the Friars.
2021: The Detroit Tigers signed Robbie Grossman as a free agent.
Tigers players and coaches birthdays:
Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Bill Laxton. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
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Bill Laxton 1976.
Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Mark Redman. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
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Mark Redman 2001-2002.
Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Kevin Witt. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
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Kevin Witt 2003.
Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Jose Iglesias. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
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Jose Iglesias 2013, 2015-2018.
Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of C.J. Cron. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
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C.J. Cron 2020.
Juan Nieves coach 2021-present.
Tigers players who passed away:
Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Nate Colbert. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
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Nate Colbert 1975.
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