August 27 in Tigers and mlb history:
1912: In response to demands for an alternative way to rate pitchers besides wins and losses, the National League will officially keep ERA's for the first time; the Giants' Jeff Tesreau will lead the league at 1.96. Despite an increase in .300 hitters from 22 to 32 this year, there will be 19 pitchers with ERA's under 3.00. The American League will not make ERA part of its official statistics until 1913.
1915: Detroit snaps the Red Sox win streak, stopping Boston, 7 - 6 in 12 innings.
1917: At Detroit, Ty Cobb is 3 for 4 to lead the Tigers to a 5 - 1 win over the Red Sox and lefty Babe Ruth.
1946 - At the Owners' Meeting, a committee formed to study integration, which includes racist Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey, delivers its secretive report defending the covert color barrier which exists in professional baseball. The absurd reasons given why blacks shouldn't be allowed to play in the big leagues include an absence of skills due to inferior training and lack of fundamentals as well as the need to respect existing Negro League contracts, but another lesser known motivation may have been profit, as revealed later in the report: "The Negro leagues rent their parks in many cities from clubs in Organized Baseball (and) Club owners in the major leagues are reluctant to give up revenues amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars every year" and the fear white fans would be driven away if black players attracted more minorities to the ballpark.
1961: Detroit's Rocky Colavito ties an American League record with four home runs - three in the second game with 6 rbi, in a doubleheader pummeling of the Senators 7 - 4 and 10 - 1 at Washington. Tigers pitcher Don Mossi improves to 14-3 in game 1, and Paul Foytack is the complete game winner in game 2.
1971: Detroit's Willie Horton is struck in the eye by a pitch from Chicago's Rich Hinton, sidelining him for 28 games. Hinton, in his first major league start, lasts 2 2/3 innings in taking the loss. Joe Coleman wins.
1972: The Tigers' Willie Horton clouts an 11th-inning 2-run home run to beat Minnesota, 5 - 3, in the opener of 2. In the nightcap, Joe Coleman pitches 11 shutout innings against Minnesota before Aurelio Rodriguez's home run gives him the 1 - 0 win. This is the 3rd win in a row for the Tigers on 11th-inning homers. Rodriguez hit one to start the streak.
2011: Justin Verlander does not pitch one of his better starts, giving up four runs, including a pair of solo homers to Luke Hughes and Jason Repko, and leaves after giving up his second hit of the day to Drew Butera, who is hitting well below the Mendoza Line, with no out in the 6th, but his teammates pick him up and he gets credit for the Tigers' 6 - 4 win over the Twins.
This makes him the major leagues' first 20-game winner this year, the first in the majors to reach the mark in August since Curt Schilling did it with Arizona in 2002, and the first for the Tigers since Bill Gullickson in 1990.
Jose Valverde picks up the save with a perfect 9th inning. He has now converted 40 straight save opportunities over two seasons, tying Dennis Eckersley for the second-longest streak in American League history, but still 14 behind Tom Gordon's record of 54.
Tigers players and managers birthdays:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Buddy_Bell
http://www.baseball-reference.com/managers/bellbu01.shtml
Buddy Bell 1996-1998.
from baseball reference
