Taking umbrage here with Mr. Holmes:
The Tigers signed Evans to a three-year contract after the 1983 season: he was the first notable free agent the franchise ever signed. Under humorless general manager Jim Campbell, Detroit had been one of the cheapest teams for more than two decades, and signing a veteran free agent was a very un-Tigers thing to do.
All MLB teams were "frugal" prior to free agency in 1976, so this statement is inaccurate. Having met and talked with Mr. Campbell, "humorless" is not an adjective I'd associate with him. I found him polite and friendly.
Also, FA signings initially were relatively sparse and many teams besides the Tigers were not signing players. The number of signings from 1976 to 83 ranged from 35 to 63 players (in 1983). And the Tigers also signed Milt Wilcox and Rupert Jones to FA contracts in 1983, which I consider as a crucial omission on the part of the writer.
The man writing the check, Detroit?s new owner, was a man named Tom Monaghan, who made his money selling pizzas. Monaghan deserves to be remembered, because he was one of the biggest dolts to ever own a professional sports team. He once called Kirk Gibson a ?disgrace to the Old English D? because Gibby liked to go a few days without shaving.
"Kirk Gibson is a disgrace to the Tiger uniform because of his half-beard," said Tiger owner Tom Monaghan.
Link
That's the actual quote. How Dan put quotes around something Monaghan did not say is, for a writer, scandalous.
Dan needs to conduct some basic research. Because context is important. And so are the after-effects. Monaghan called Gibson and apologized for that comment, calling it "out of line." And Gibson did not help his standing with Monaghan when he doused Monaghan with a bottle of champagne in the 1984 post-series-winning celebration. As for the comment itself, Gibson commented "he's half right."
Monaghan hired football coach Bo Schembechler and fired popular broadcaster Ernie Harwell. That?s about all you need to know about his baseball intellect.
Geez, Dan Holmes, everyone knows that neither Bo nor Monaghan was the primary decision maker in letting Ernie go. That's been common-knowledge for 30 years now.
The guy behind the firing was WJR radio exec Jim Long.
And, finally, the entire Evans-to-NY story was also well-known at the time.
