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Detroit Tigers Team Notes Over 3 Million Views!!! Thankyou!

March 1 in Tigers and mlb history:

1903: Baseball Rules Committee chairman Tom Loftus of the Washington Senators proclaims that the pitcher's mound must not be more than 15 inches higher than the baselines or home plate.

1909: The Pittsburgh Pirates begin construction of their new stadium near Schenley Park near the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. The state-of-the-art stadium will be named Forbes Field in honor of John Forbes, a pre-Revolutionary British general.

1910: The National Commission prohibits giving mementos to players on winning World Series teams. This will later be reversed, making way for the traditional winners' watches, rings, and stickpins.

1919: Philadelphia Athletics owner Connie Mack makes one of his biggest player mistakes, trading third baseman Larry Gardner, outfielder Charlie Jamieson, and pitcher Elmer Myers to the Cleveland Indians for OF Braggo Roth. Veteran writer Ernest Lanigan predicts that Roth will lead the circuit in home runs at Shibe Park, but Roth will be shipped to the Boston Red Sox by midseason. Gardner will put in six more .300 years, and Jamieson will be a top leadoff man and .303 hitter for the next 14 years.

1928: Ty Cobb agrees to return for a second season with the Philadelphia Athletics. It will be the last year of his legendary career. Cobb retires the end of this season and holds 90 ML records.
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1942: Major league owners decide not to allow furloughed players in the military to play for their clubs if based near a game site.

1944: Future Hall of Fame catcher Rick Ferrell is traded by the St. Louis Browns to the Washington Senators for Tony Giuliani and cash. When Giuliani refuses to report to his new team, Washington will send Gene Moore to the Browns to complete the trade.

1947: In anticipation of the signing of the team's first black players, Bill Veeck, a resident of Phoenix, Arizona, sets up a spring training camp there for the Cleveland Indians. Arizona is chosen because of its relatively tolerant racial climate. During the season, Veeck will sign the American League's first black player, Larry Doby, who will train at the camp.
The New York Giants also set up camp in Arizona, while the Brooklyn Dodgers move their training camp from Florida to Havana, Cuba.

1947: New managers in spring training camps are Billy Herman with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Muddy Ruel with the St. Louis Browns, Bucky Harris with the New York Yankees, and Johnny Neun with the Cincinnati Reds. Neun ended 1946 as manager of the Yankees after both Joe McCarthy and Bill Dickey quit.

1951: New York #Yankees manager Casey Stengel talks to the rookies at spring training camp in Phoenix, Arizona - including 19-year-old Mickey Mantle!

1954: Boston Red Sox star Ted Williams fractures his collarbone on the first day of spring training. The injury occurs as Williams dives for a ball hit by teammate Hoot Evers. As a result, the injury will force Williams to miss Opening Day and will keep him out of Boston lineup until May 15th.

1965: Future Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente misses the first day of spring training because of a bout with malaria. The Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder will sit out a full month of training camp with the disease, which he contracted during the off-season. Clemente will recover to bat .329, but will hit only 10 home runs with 65 RBI, his worst totals since 1959.

1967: Commissioner William Eckert approves the Baseball Writers Association of America's plan to select a Cy Young Award recipient from both the National and American Leagues. The honor, which was initiated in 1956, had been given to just one pitcher in the major leagues each season, a position strongly supported by former commissioner Ford Frick.

1968: Mickey Lolich left camp today for a two week stint in the Michigan Air National Guard.

1969: New York Yankees legend Mickey Mantle announces his retirement. Mantle, who slumped to a .237 batting average in 1968, finishes his 18-season career with 536 home runs and a .298 average, numbers that would have certainly been higher if not for persistent knee injuries. "I can't play anymore. I don't hit the ball when I need to, I can't steal when I need to. I can't score from second when I need to.
The Yankees offer Mantle a coaching position on manager Ralph Houk's staff.
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1971: Willie Mays signs a two-year contract with the San Francisco Giants for $165,000 per season.

1982: The Oakland Athletics traded Jeff Cox and Scott Meyer to the Detroit Tigers for Mark Fellows (minors), Jack Smith (minors) and Darrell Brown.

1983: The Detroit Tigers signed Bill Nahorodny as a free agent.

1988: For the first time since 1956, the Special Veterans Committee does not elect anyone to the Hall of Fame. Phil Rizzuto, Leo Durocher, Joe Gordon and Gil Hodges, are among the candidates passed over.

2002: The Boston Red Sox fire general manager Dan Duquette and replace him with Mike Port on an interim basis.

2009: Washington Nationals GM Jim Bowden resigns following allegations of skimming bonuses to Latin American players and the identity fraud scandal surrounding Esmailyn Gonzalez.

2010: The Boston Red Sox selected Casey Fien off waivers from the Detroit Tigers.

2010: SABR announces the first nine winners of the Henry Chadwick Award, created to honor baseball researchers, historians, analysts, and statisticians.

2011: Major League Baseball appoints John Thorn as its official historian. He succeeds Jerome Holtzman, who occupied the office from 1999 until his death in 2008.

2013: SABR announces its 2013 class of Chadwick Award winners, headed by historians Fred Lieb, Francis Richter and John Thorn, the Hall of Fame's official historian.

2015: Minnie Minoso, one of the first black stars of the American League in the 1950s and one of only two men to play in the major leagues in five different decades, dies in Chicago, IL at either 92 or 89, as there is uncertainty over his true date of birth.
He will be posthumously voted into the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee as part of the 2022 Hall of Fame Class.

2016: The Detroit Tigers signed Lucas Harrell as a free agent.

2016: Commissioner Rob Manfred sends a strong message on the issue of domestic violence as he issues a thirty-game suspension to Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman in response to an incident on October 30th. The suspension comes even though police declined to file charges in the case because of inconsistent evidence, however MLB goes ahead based on the severity of the allegations. Chapman announces that he will not appeal.

2022: For the first time since 1995, regular season major league games will be cancelled as a result of a labor dispute as the two sides negotiating a solution to the 2021-2022 lockout fail to come to an agreement before the 5:00 PM deadline. The issue of the luxury tax, which the Players Association contends it acts as a de facto luxury tax, is the biggest issue that prevents a deal.

Tigers players birthdays:

Tim Thompson 1958.

Jimmy Hurst 1997.

Kris Keller 2002.

Doug Creek 2005.

Jose Valdez 2015.

Joe Mantiply 2016.

Tigers players who passed away:

Bob Mavis 1949.

Baseball Reference
 
SATURDAY SURVEY.
Totally Tigers

The Detroit Tigers announced their tv broadcast crew for the 2025 season.
Both Andy Dirks and Dan Petry will be broadcasting the most games as they join Jason Benetti in the booth.
Kirk Gibson, Todd Jones and Carlos Pena will be working occasional games.
Daniella Bruce will be focused on the pre- and post-game shows.
As well, the Tigers are advertising for someone else to join her.

No longer in the conversation are John Keating (retired), Johnny Kane, Natalie Kerwin, Trevor Thompson and Mickey York.

Is this revised crew and strategy better than the one assembled last year?

Is the new Tigers' tv broadcast crew better than the one from last year?

1. Yes, it is better.

2. It's about the same.

3. No, it is worse.

VOTE
 
Parker Meadows on his right upper arm nerve issue: "I have to wait until the nerve wants to wake up, which is very frustrating. ... That could be tomorrow, and that could be three weeks from now. Really just don't know."
 
Tigers 1 - Phillies 0.

Tigers 1 - Phillies 0: Mize and Montero shine.
The Tigers rotation is in pretty great shape.
BYBTB

Gleyber Torres enjoying the relative solitude of his first camp, helps Tigers end skid.
Detnews
 
Kerry Carpenter’s defense could cover some of the Tigers injury issues.
With several injuries to the outfield, playing the Tigers slugger as a full-time outfielder may be the answer.
BYBTB
 
March 2 in Tigers and mlb history:

1874: At the fourth meeting of the National Association of Professional Baseball Players in Boston, the batter's box is officially adopted. It is also decided that expulsion will be the penalty for any player betting on his own team and any player betting on any other team will forfeit his pay.

1888: The National League meets in New York and abolishes all discounts from the 50-cent minimum admission price. Despite the demands of the Brotherhood and the fact that the rule is practically a dead letter, the NL refuses to drop its $2,000 salary limit rule. The schedule committee recommends that the season go to 140 games from the current 126.

1899: At the National League meeting in New York, an attempt to expel the St. Louis Browns, who had a 39-111 record in 1898, fails by a 7-4 margin. It is also decided that no club may hold more than 18 players on its reserve list.

1901: Jimmy Collins, the choice of Connie Mack as the best all-time third baseman, switches leagues but not cities. Collins leaves the Boston Beaneaters National League club to manage the new Boston Americans of the American League. The Beaneaters will also lose outfielder Hugh Duffy, who becomes manager of Milwaukee's new AL entry, and catcher Billy Sullivan, who signs with the Chicago White Sox. More than half the AL rosters - a total of 185 - will be filled by former NL players.

1909: Mel Ott is born in Gretna, Louisiana. He will make his major league debut with the New York Giants in 1926.
Over a 22-year career, Ott will hit 511 home runs with 1,860 RBI, 1859 runs, 2876 hits (1,071 extra-base hits) and a .304 batting average.
Ott will receive Hall of Fame honors in 1951.
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1927: Babe Ruth becomes the highest-paid player in major league history when the Yankees announce he will earn $70,000 per season for the next three years. Ruth will sign the historic contract on March 4.

1941: In Havana, Cuba, the Brooklyn Dodgers complete a three-game sweep of their rival New York Giants. During the regular 1940 season the Giants held a 16-6 advantage over Brooklyn.

1949: Joe DiMaggio leaves the Yankees' spring training camp to have an ailing right heel examined at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He is told that no surgery is needed and he returns to Florida, but the heel will continue to bother him.

1966: Commissioner William Eckert voids the contract recently signed by collegiate star Tom Seaver. The Atlanta Braves had signed Seaver to a $50,000 bonus a week earlier, but Eckert cites a rule prohibiting teams from signing players while their college seasons are ongoing. A special draft will be held after the collegiate season to reassign Seaver's rights.

1988: Tigers come to grips with the loss of Kirk Gibson in free agency.

1992: The highest-paid player tag now belongs to Ryne Sandberg of the Chicago Cubs. The All-Star second baseman signs a four-year contract extension worth $7.1 million per season.

1995: At a meeting in Chicago, major league owners accept the players' offer to return to work, bringing an end to the devastating strike which started last August.

1999: Players Orlando Cepeda and Negro Leagues Pitcher Smokey Joe Williams, manager Frank Selee, and umpire Nestor Chylak are elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee.

2005: Thirty-two years after his death, Jackie Robinson receives the Congressional Gold Medal in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, the highest honor Congress can bestow. The medal is accepted by Rachel Robinson, his widow. Robinson joins Roberto Clemente, Joe Louis and Jesse Owens as the only athletes among about 300 Gold Medal recipients.

2007: The Detroit Tigers signed Andres Torres as a free agent.

2012: Major League Baseball confirms that starting this year, the postseason will be expanded from 8 to 10 teams, with an extra wild card team in each league. The two wild card teams in each league will play a one game playoff to determine which one will face the team with the league's best record in the Division Series.

2018: The Cincinnati Reds selected Jairo Labourt off waivers from the Detroit Tigers.

2019: The Phillies introduce their new marquee player in free agent OF Bryce Harper, just signed to a record-breaking 13-year deal worth $330 million.

2020: Travis Demeritte hits two home runs in a spring training game against Boston, including a 3-run home run in the bottom of the 9th to complete the Tigers' comeback from 11-1 to an 11-11 tie.

2021: In one of these bizarre twists only seen in spring training games in pandemic times, pitcher John Means of the Orioles is pulled out of a Grapefruit League game after two outs in the 1st inning for having reached his pitch count limit, and then re-enters the game to pitch the 2nd. He needs 29 pitches in the 1st, but after his rest, retires the side on just 10 offerings. This is possible thanks to the special Coronavirus rules that have seen these games be limited to 7 innings, and teams only suit up a small number of players to avoid crowding the dugouts; conversely, players are allowed to re-enter games, something that has been prohibited in meaningful games since the demise of the courtesy runner.

Tigers players birthdays:

Jim Brady 1956.

Chico Fernandez 1960-1963.

Jim Nettles 1974.

Dave Tobik 1978-1982.

Tigers players who passed away:

Dale Alexander 1929-1932.

Scat Metha 1940.

Clem Labine 1960.

Baseball Reference
 
DEEPER DISCUSSIONS.
Totally Tigers

The talk has started again about Comerica Park’s size after Alex Bregman signed with the Red Sox instead of the Tigers. Many believe his decision boiled down to the ability to hit more HRs in Fenway Park that would boost his chances for a better contract next year when he is presumed to declare free agency once again.
A number of articles have been written speculating that the best power hitters out there don’t want to come to Detroit because it is not a hitter-friendly park. And when HRs are king, they want a stadium in which they can hit more of them.
The Tigers have now altered Comerica’s dimensions twice and lowered some outfield walls to help players hit more HRs. Their centerfield measures 412 ‘ which is the 5th longest in MLB. Ironically, Fenway Park has the largest distance to CF at 420’.
But it’s the outfield expanse that is often the concern. Too much of it to be exact. And it favors players with speed and multi-base hits as well as elite defensive players.
Additionally, the gaps create issues. It is 370′ to left center and 365′ to right center.
Some stats show that Comerica ranks 6th or 7th in which it is hardest to hit HRs for RH pull hitters. Potentially that would mean that Alex Bregman would hit 5-7 fewer HRs. (Note: Those rebuilding Tigers have half their games there so this figure may be skewed.)
On the other hand, Comerica is a pitcher’s ballpark which has its own benefits.
But the Tigers are in definite need of offense. How are they going to get it? How will they sign proven power hitters? Or will they have to wait for their own players to develop to that level?
Should they change the dimensions once again which may help attract power hitters but will weaken their pitching capability?
Today’s blog addresses this question and allows readers to share their thoughts in more detail. And hopefully, to actively engage with others by responding to their posts and creating back-and-forth discussion threads. The more the merrier!
For this one blog only, you’ve got 6 sentences max to share your thoughts. Of course, you can also respond to other readers.
TT will supply the ammunition. One thought-provoking question. Several options provided. One hard choice to be selected. One vote.
Ready?

Should the Tigers change Comerica Park's dimensions once again?

1. Yes, change them.

2. No, keep them. Two changes are enough.

VOTE
 
TMLR talks to Lael Lockhart Jr. 24 minutes.
Chris and Rogelio sit down with LHP Lael Lockhart Jr on his evolution of his splitter, the adjustment from Double-A to Triple-A and his journey between the Dodgers system and the Tigers.
 
Tiger's Pitching:
Monday: Tarik Skubal (SP), Ty Madden vs. Blue Jays.
Tuesday: Kenta Maeda at Rays (Jack Flaherty in intrasquad game on backfields).
Wednesday: Reese Olson (SP), Matt Manning vs. Phillies.
Thursday: Off day.
Friday: Keider Montero (SP), Casey Mize vs. Orioles.
 
The Detroit Tigers' Matt Vierling and Parker Meadows are injured. Both have unknown return dates. It throws a wrench into who will play outfield and third base. Vierling was expected to be a major factor at 3B. There is more depth in the OF.
Who does this situation benefit? Andy Ibanez, Justyn-Henry Malloy, Wenceel Perez, Zach McKinstry and Jace Jung. And who doesn't it help? Spencer Torkelson.
 
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