January 16 in Tigers and mlb history:
1952 - The U.S. Standardization Board clears the way for Stan Musial to get a salary increase to $85,000. Prior to this relaxation of the rules, there was a wage freeze in effect due to the Korean War. Under the new rules, a team is free to raise individual salaries, as long as they do not exceed a complicated formula, based on total team salaries for any one year, from 1946 to 1950, plus 10 percent.
1970 - Gold Glove outfielder Curt Flood files a lawsuit challenging the reserve clause, which binds major league players to teams perpetually. Flood had been traded by the St. Louis Cardinals to the Philadelphia Phillies on October 7, 1969, but has refused to report to the Phillies. Flood contends that the reserve clause violates antitrust laws. He will lose the suit but the judge will suggest changes to the reserve system, opening the door for salary arbitration and free agency.
1974 - The Baseball Writers Association of America elects former New York Yankees teammates Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford to the Hall of Fame. Mantle becomes only the seventh player to make it in his first try.
1996: Major League Baseball's executive council approves a history-making first: interleague play for the 1997 season. The Players' Association will also give its approval, enabling geographic rivals like New York's Mets and Yankees, Chicago's Cubs and White Sox, and Los Angeles' Angels and Dodgers to play each other during the regular season.
2003: The owners establish the minimum age of 14 for bat boys. The change from not having any age requirement is prompted by a near collision at home plate during Game 5 of last year's World Series involving 4-year old bat boy Darren Baker, the son of Giants manager Dusty Baker.
2003: Trying to restore a competitive edge to the All-Star Game, the owners unanimously approve that the winning league of the Mid-Summer classic will have home-field advantage during the World Series. Approval is needed by the players to change the current rotation between the two leagues, which was put in place since the inception of the World Series in 1903.
Tigers players birthdays:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Johnny_Watson
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/watsojo01.shtml
Johnny Watson 1930.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/castima02.shtml
Marty Castillo 1981-1985.
Tigers players who passed away:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/rossmcl01.shtml
Claude Rossman 1907-1909.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Baby_Doll_Jacobson
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jacobba01.shtml
Baby Doll Jacobson 1915.
from Baseball Reference
