Motor City Legends: Michigan's Sports Legacy

By Robert Reynolds

Motor City Legends explores the rich history of Detroit area and Michigan related competitive sports and individual athletes through the careers of old-time greats as Al Kaline, Doak Walker/Bobby Layne, Gordie Howe, Joe Louis and George Yardley. Also recent legends Barry Sanders, Isiah Thomas, Steve Yzerman, Chauncey Billups, Miquel Cabrera, the Fab Five, defunct teams Michigan Panthers and Detroit Shock, goalie fights, odd Tigers’ trades in the 1959/60 seasons, Benton Harbor’s House of David baseball teams, and Lions Alex Karras squaring off against pro wrestling bad man Dick the Bruiser. The messy results of Gates Browns’ unusual slide into second base. There’s the time a rival ball player stole home against the Tigers twice in a single game. Countless items of trivia are presented in this stroll down Michigan Sports Memory Lane. Much of the book centers on a large Who’s Who section of many athletic personalities who were raised in Michigan, attended a local school, or played on an athletic team

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781365662515

Robert Reynolds

Based in Calgary, Robert is an emerging author who spends his days working in the oil and gas industry but has been a big fan of the spy thriller genre ever since his childhood when he read one of his grandfather's original James Bond paperbacks from the late 50's. He is married with a young daughter and when he's not day dreaming about dangerous adventures in exotic locales he enjoys running and other outdoor pursuits.

Book preview

Motor City Legends: Michigan's Sports Legacy

Motor City Legends: Michigan’s Sports Legacy

Robert Reynolds

Copyright 2017.  Robert Reynolds.  All rights reserved.

ISBN #: 978-1-365-66251-5

Contents

FOREWORD

The settlement of Detroit began as a French fort on the Detroit River in 1701. It was founded by French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac and soon spawned a nearby settlement. The Detroit Strait was often an area of strife and conquest and many years later Odawa Chief Pontiac laid siege to the fort.

In 1805, fire devastated much of town.  A warehouse along the river and some brick chimneys was all that survived.

Seven-years later British forces captured the territory but later ceded it to the Americans. Soon, steamships were operating on the Great Lakes.

During the 1800’s, Detroit became an industrial center and a place to harbor slaves who escaped from their southern masters.

By the early 20th century the automobile industry had begun and soon Henry Ford’s Model Ts were rolling off the assembly line. More than 125 auto related companies existed in Detroit shortly after the turn of the century.  All major auto manufacturers were producing the bulk of their cars in Detroit (Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, plus Packard, Rex, Regal, Hawk Liberty, Hupp, Hudson, Henry J and dozens of others that are mostly now long forgotten). It’s no wonder that Detroit acquired a most fitting moniker of Motor City.

The industry brought affluence to the area and automotive-related factories sprang up across southern Michigan; Flint, Saginaw, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Jackson, Kalamazoo…

Cities grew and flourished. Citizens prospered. Sports-related franchises were introduced to large metropolitan areas. 

***

Motor City Legends looks at Michigan’s rich competitive sports history by providing a brief historical review of the state’s great athletic teams and some of its greatest individual stars. 

Chapter 1 AN EARLY CHAMPIONSHIP

The state of Michigan has experienced many ups and downs; economically, industrially, declining population, changing demographics…even major race riots in Detroit in 1967 and the young city experiencing devastation by the Great Fire of 1805. 

Detroit’s population at that time was a mere 600 citizens.[1]

Two hundred years later, it’s almost impossible to comprehend a scant 600 fans attending practically any sporting event in the city. The seating capacity at Comerica Park where the Tigers play is 41,297; the Lions’ Ford Field seats approximately 65,000; Joe Louis Arena for the Red Wings holds roughly 20,000+ (a new arena is being constructed with a similar seating capacity); and up the road a few miles in Pontiac, the area’s professional basketball team can seat 21,200. (Before moving into their present venue, the Palace of Auburn Hills, Detroit’s pro basketball franchise the Pistons, played before its fans at the Pontiac Silverdome with, on many occasions, almost 62,000 in attendance!) If that seems mindboggling, think about the University of Michigan Wolverines 30-miles to the west, playing before Saturday afternoon crowds of 107,60—and has had more than 115,000 in attendance. Year after year, the Wolverines extend their record of consecutive stadium sell-outs. (Note that arena-seating capacities are somewhat fluid in that a team may squeeze in a few more, or reduce the number of seats, depending on its needs).

One thing that has generally been consistent about the area’s sports events is the city breeds champions. Multiple championships in baseball, basketball, hockey, football and an array of lesser appreciated/attended sports; at least lesser in popularity, have been celebrated by this area’s devoted faithful.

But let’s be more specific and look at Detroit and its professional sports franchises.

Even while the city’s population has continued to decline, (according to census figures, the population that stood at 1.8m in the 1950s, has now dropped to slightly below 750,000.) It’s a dramatic drop and conceivable that it would seriously impact sporting event attendance. 

During the past ten years, however, attendance for the Detroit Tigers baseball team has been more than 2.5 million through the turnstiles in every year except 2010, when attendance fell a mere 39,000 shy.  Four of the past ten years has seen seasonal attendance at Tigers’ games fill more than 3 million seats—four times the entire population of the city. 

The Detroit Pistons basketball team, although playing their home games in Auburn Hills some thirty-miles north from downtown Detroit, the hoopsters still hold some of the top attendance records for the NBA (holdover attendance marks from their Silverdome years) and the Detroit Lions football team consistently packs its new Ford Field arena, even though they’ve not had consistently successful teams as attendance might suggest. Unlike many athletic franchises where mediocre performing teams generally result in low attendance, Detroit’s fans faithfully support their teams win or lose, do or die.

To validate this we must go back more than a century and a quarter to when the Detroit Wolverines played the first game of professional baseball in the city, at Recreation Park.  It was perhaps no more than an oddity then when a mere 1,286 fans witnessed the Wolverines’ first major league game on May 2, 1881.[2] The team competed for only eight seasons and achieved a degree of infamy before they achieved success. During a game against the Chicago White Stockings in 1883, the Wolverines allowed the startling, and dubious, number of 18 runs during a single inning. Two years later the club’s owner, a Fredrick Stearns, bought the Buffalo Bisons franchise in order to consolidate the two teams, but Stearns was unable to afford the higher payroll and sold off some of the players to other ball clubs. But in 1887, with a record of 79 wins compared to only 45 losses, the Wolverines captured the National League championship and went on to beat the St. Louis Browns of the American Association for what was the precursor to what we’ve come to recognize as the World Series. It was the first professional championship for the city. 

The National League Detroit Wolverines won their matchup with the American League’s Browns by winning ten of the fifteen games the two teams played for the championship—as the World Series as we know it did not begin until 1903. Perhaps with a little twist of irony, the franchises for the two cities flipped leagues with Detroit’s American League franchise, the Tigers, celebrating a World Series triumph in 1968 by beating the National League’s St. Louis Cardinals.

In seems only fair the Detroit Wolverines achieved a notable degree of success. The colorful names of some team members are cause enough to give the team notoriety. Some of these monikers included: Mox McQuery, Pretzels Getzien, Sadie Houck, Dupee Shaw, Chief Zimmer, Lady Baldwin, Deacon White, Deacon McGuire, Hardy Richardson and Stump Weidman.[3]

Also of importance, Charlie Bennett was one of only two players (Ned Hanlon being the other) to play for the Wolverines during the team’s entire existence. Bennett, a superb defensive catcher, is given credit for inventing the first chest protector. Bennett Park, erected at Michigan and Trumbull Avenues near downtown Detroit was named after him. Several years later the Detroit Tigers would play their home games at Bennett Park.

The Wolverines name is important in Detroit sports lore as it was resurrected in 1928 as the name for the city’s National Football League franchise. The few recognizable team names back then were the New York Giants, Chicago Bears, Chicago Cardinals and Green Bay Packers.  Less recognizable were the Frankford Yellow Jackets, Providence Steamroller, Dayton Triangles, Pottsville Maroons and the New York Yankees (not to be confused with the MLB Yankees). The Detroit Wolverines footballers operated for only one season winning 7 games and losing 2, finishing their only season in third place. 

It’s needless to say there is a fair amount of confusion over the many similarly named teams playing in different sports. 

By the end of the 1888 baseball season, following their only pennant and unable to meet heavy financial requirements, baseball’s Detroit Wolverines folded. There were no more championships for the Wolverines nine. The club finished with an overall record of 426 wins against 437 losses. In the team’s memory, however, a historical marker is said to stand in the old left field of Recreation Park near Brady Street and Willis Avenue. The old wooden grandstand was torn down more than a century ago. The city’s Tigers would not appear on local sandlots for another 13 years. 

Chapter 2STRIPES

In 1894 the Tigers arrived on scene as one of the professional baseball’s charter members, as a minor league team of the Western League. The league renamed itself the American League for 1900. The Detroit Tigers played their first major league game in 1901. The team remains today as one of only four original franchises still in its original metropolitan location.  In fact, it’s the oldest one-name American League franchise still in its city of origin.[4] For example: A team named the Baltimore Orioles was founded in 1901, moved and was renamed the New York Highlanders in 1903 and renamed the New York Yankees in 1913.  The current Baltimore Orioles began in 1901 as the Milwaukee Brewers, morphed into the St. Louis Browns in 1902 and eventually evolved into today’s Baltimore Orioles in 1954. The Detroit Tigers of 1901 are the Detroit Tigers of today. The team has never moved to or from another location nor has it changed names. 

Athletic success was scarce in Detroit’s early years.  The Tigers fielded good teams, bad teams, and mediocre teams without striking pay dirt—the World Series (which began in 1903). 

But with the great Ty Cobb leading the way, the Tigers saw sustained success in the early twentieth century, winning consecutive American League pennants in 1907, ‘08 and ‘09, but failed to capture the elusive World Series crown. 

This is not to say the city did not experience at least some championship success during this time; on the contrary. 

Playing home games in Hamtramck Stadium, Cool Papa Bell, Dizzy Dismukes, Mule Suttles and Willie Wells lead the Detroit Wolves to a championship in a new Negro East-West League in 1932. The Detroit team posted the best record in the league, but financial losses throughout the league doomed the alliance.  Cum Posey, the league founder (also the Wolve’s owner) infused cash into the team to keep it afloat, but with poor attendance and dismal finances, by June he shut it down. In fact, Posey shut down the entire league.  It was the only season the Detroit Wolves played.

Although the Negro East-West League floundered, the Detroit Tigers finally clawed their way back to the top.  Since appearing in a World Series in three consecutive seasons (1907-1909)—losing all three championships, however, the Tigers had fielded mostly middle-of-the-pack teams with an occasional second place finish.  But all of that was about to change. 

In 1934, when Major League teams played only 154 games, the Tigers amassed 101 wins and clinched the American League Pennant.  With Charlie Gehringer and Hank Greenberg knocking the lights out, Schoolboy Rowe cutting down opposing players from the mound like an Army machine gunner, the Tigers roared through the season.  Unfortunately the Motor City Felines fell prey to those pesky National League Red Birds from St. Louis, falling in seven games to Dizzy Dean and the Gashouse Gang.   Disappointed at having come so close and missing in ‘34, the Tigers set to work the following year to make sure they didn’t see a repeat. They hoped to get off to a good start, but that didn’t happen. They lost three of their first four, all one run losses, then won game five but lost their next six. A season that began with high hopes had quickly turned sour.  But after a 9 - 2 walloping by the Cleveland Indians, the Bengals began to reverse their fortunes. They took the next game from the Indians then let loose on the St. Louis Browns[5] by winning a two-game series 18-0 and 11-3. 

From there the Tigers were off to the races, winning 14 of 18, with one of the games being a 16-6 drubbing of the Washington Senators.  The cats continued to pile up wins at a steady rate, having only two three-game losing streaks and a four-gamer during the last week of the season.  Two nine-game winning streaks coupled with several four and five-game streaks, led them to their second consecutive league title.  They almost matched their big win over the Browns early in the season with an 18-1 shellacking of the Browns at the end of July.  In the months of July and August, the Tigers rolled up a record of 43 wins against only 15 losses.  They especially took out their wrath on the Browns (17 wins-5 losses), the Philadelphia Athletics (14-5) and the Indians (15-7.)

The ‘35 team lost eight more games than the year before, but with the likes of seldom-equaled sluggers Greenberg and Gehringer, along with Goose Goslin and Mickey Cochran, (all would become future Hall of Fame members) there was too much talent on the team to let another season go to waste.  Greenberg led the league in home runs, RBIs, and extra-base hits while hitting .328, earning him the American League Most Valuable Player award.  His RBI total of 170 was 51 more than the man with the second highest total, Lou Gehrig.  The Tigers won the pennant by three games over the Yankees.  If anything, the Tigers were slight underdogs to National League Champs the Chicago Cubs which had won 100 games and had an amazing 21-game winning streak that ran almost the entire month of September.  With players such as National League MVP Gabby Hartnett (.344), Billy Herman (.341) and Stan Hack (.311), the Cubs fielded a formidable lineup, too.  Their pitching, Bill Lee (20-6) and Lon Warneke (20-13) equaled the Tigers aces Tommy Bridges (21-10) and Eldon Auker (18-7).  

The Cubs took the first game with Warneke tossing a 3-0 shutout, but the Tigers won the next three.   Warneke again bested Schoolboy Rowe, winning game five 3-1.  But then Tommy Bridges won his second game of the series in game six. Ironically, the Cubs sluggers out-homered the winning Tigers 6-1 for the series. With the exception of game two which the Tigers won by five runs, their other three victories were by a single run. Total hits for the series by both teams were almost equal with the Tigers collecting 51 to the Cub’s 48.  Regardless of the closeness of the outcomes and production, the Tigers won their first World Series, and thus the first major championship for the city.

The Detroiters won the American League title again in 1940, barely posting one game better than the Cleveland Indians, but they lost the series to the Cincinnati Reds in seven games.

During the war years and with slugger Hank Greenberg serving in the U.S. Army as a captain in the China-Burma-India Theater, the Tigers were mostly mediocre.  Greenberg served 47-months, longer than any other major league player. The home team had missed his absence, but he belting a home run in his first game back.  He helped lead the Tigers to a come-from-behind finish for the American League pennant by powering a grand slam in the 9th inning of the season’s final game. 

The Tigers won it all in 1945 with a trio of pitching aces, Trucks, Trout and Newhouser, mowing down the Cubs and taking the series in seven games. 

The team came in second place three out of the next five-years but couldn’t edge their way past the mighty New York Yankees, which had undeniably been the dominating force in the major leagues for many years. The Yankees, which won their first American League pennant in 1921, proceeded to win the flag an astounding twenty-nine times by 1964—twenty times winning the World Series.  Between 1949 and 1953, under manager Casey Stengel, the Bronx Bombers won five successive Series 1952.

Although excellent ball players in their own right, the Tigers’ Johnny Groth, Vic Wertz, Hal Newhouser and George Kell were no match for the New Yorkers of Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Allie Reynolds and an up-and-coming superstar in Mickey Mantle.

The early-fifties saw the Tigers sign 18-year old Bonus Baby Al Kaline straight out of a Baltimore high school for $35,000.  It may have been the best $35K the team ever spent.  At the age of 20, Kaline won the American League batting title with a .340 average—the youngest player to ever win the title.  But the team generally lacked sufficient talent to compete with stronger teams in the league. 

A winner of many personal awards and achievements during his career, Kaline could not carry the team to the top of the ladder without a better core of players.  Even in their best years, there always seemed to be a team that was better.

The ’61 Tigers won 101 games, but finished a distant second to the New York Yankees, that won 108 games.  As future Hall of Famer Kaline aged, it did not appear that he would ever wear