Curtis Pride won a spot with the Detroit Tigers in spring training in 1996 and hit .300 for the team that season.

When Curtis Pride did something special on the baseball field he knew the fans were happy because the could feel the ballpark rumbling. He could never really hear the cheers.

Pride was deaf from birth due to the rubella virus. As a child he worked hard at his verbal skills and did well in school. He was also a skilled athlete, especially at basketball and soccer. In college at William & Mary, Pride was the starting point guard. He played for the United States at the FIFA U-16 World Championship in China in 1985, where he scored the winning goal. In 1986, Parade Magazine named him a High School All American in soccer. At 17 years old, Pride was drafted in the 10th round of the 1986 draft by the New York Mets. A fast runner, Pride also had a very strong throwing arm. He never made it to the majors with the Mets, but was in the Montreal organization in 1993 when he was called up to The Show.

When he debuted with the Expos, Pride became one of the few deaf players to appear in the major leagues. Because of his tremendous communication skills (Pride had 5% residual hearing which allowed him to speak effectively, and he was an excellent lip reader), Pride was very capable on the diamond. He played left field for the Expos in 10 games late in ’93. On September 30, he hit a ninth-inning, pinch-hit, two-run homer to win a game for the Expos on Miami. After the 1995 season Pride was a free agent and signed a contract with the Detroit Tigers.

In Detroit, Pride blossomed in his first chance to play regularly in the majors. In 1996 playing under Buddy Bell, Pride hit .300 in 95 games and showed some pop – hitting 10 homers while swiping 11 bases. He was a shining spot in an otherwise dismal season (109 losses for the team). That season, Pride received the Tony Conigliaro Award, given annually to the MLB player who “best overcomes adversity through the attributes of spirit, determination and courage.”

He was back with the Tigers in ’97, but struggled and was given his release in August. The Red Sox snatched him up and in Pride’s first at-bat with his new club, he hit a pinch-hit homer at Fenway Park. It was one of the finest moments of his career. As he rounded the bases, Pride could see the thunderous applause he was receiving, and having it come from such great fans made him feel wonderful.

Unfortunately, the Red Sox let him go after the season, and Pride bounced around after that: from Atlanta, back to the Red Sox, back again to Montreal and the Mets, to the Dodgers and Pirates, then to the Yankees and finally the Angels for three seasons to end his major league career. With the Halos in 2004, Pride achieved a longtime goal to play on the post-season, appearing in one game in the Angels series against the Red Sox. But he wasn’t done playing the game he loved – he made a career as a minor leaguer.

In all, Pride played 23 seasons in professional baseball, finally retiring after the 2008 season in the Independent League. He played for nine organizations, appearing in 421 major league games, and more than 1,400 minor league games. Pride hit 153 homers in the minors and stole more than 300 bases and scored more than 900 runs at that level.

He continued to be associated with the game after retiring as a player, and in 2008 he accepted the head coaching job at Gallaudet University, a federally chartered university for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing located in Washington, D.C. It was the first school for the advanced education of the deaf and hard of hearing in the world, and is still the only higher education institution in which all programs and services are specifically designed to accommodate Deaf and hard of hearing students. Though athletics at the school have rarely ever been successful, Pride has worked hard to field a competitive team at Gallaudet.

It would be difficult to find an athlete who achieved as much as Pride did while being what society calls “handicapped”. But of course, Pride isn’t handicapped at all. He’s just faced with unique challenges. And Pride never let those challenges discourage him.

In 2010, Pride was appointed to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition by President Barack Obama.

Just as players can struggle, so can managers, and Detroit's Jim Leyland is off to a terrible start in 2012.

There’s an old saying that says that every man thinks he can do three things better than any other man: build a fire, make love to a woman, and manage a baseball team.

I’m terrible at building fires.

So, I’m as qualified as any other average joe to critique the managerial skills of Detroit Tigers skipper Jim Leyland. First, to swipe an oft-used phrase from our president, “let me be clear” about one thing. I respect Leyland’s experience and he has certainly proven to be a capable big league manager throughout his career. He has one more World Series ring than I do, and he’s managed more baseball games than I will ever see. His credentials are impressive. However, just because he’s won before and has decades of experience, doesn’t mean Leyland is immune from criticism. And so far in 2012, he deserves a bunch.

In grading Leyland’s performance so far this season, I’m going to examine three specific areas:

• Construction of the active roster
• Lineup selection
• Use of the pitching staff/bullpen

I also think Leyland is open to criticsim for some of his in-game strategy, for example he has been too infatuated with the sacrifice bunt, whether he claims to be using it to “jump start the offense” or not. But I won’t spend any more space on that issue here.

Let’s dive in. The first thing a manager has to do every year is evaluate his players and construct a 25-man active roster to start the season. This spring the Tigers had two major roster questions: finding a fifth starter and solving the second base problem. The latter was more crucial and required more careful examination. It allowed for far less margin for error, too. The team had several good choices for the rotation slot, finally settling on Drew Smyly, which has worked out brilliantly. But even if Smyly hadn’t pitched as well as he has (he’s currently leading the American League in ERA), Detroit has a few backup options who are decent and the nature of that role being an every fifth day means there’s room for experimentation.

The Tigers chose to start the season with three players on their roster who could play second base: Brandon Inge, Ryan Raburn, and Ramon Santiago. Santiago serves as the backup at shortstop and Raburn can also play the outfield (if that’s what you want to call what he does out there). Add Don Kelly, Andy Dirks, and Gerald Laird and you have the “bench”. But two of those six players have to play every day – one at second base and the other at DH or in the outfield. That leaves a four-man bench because Leyland and the Tigers elected to carry 12 pitchers on their roster: five starters and seven relievers. Many MLB teams use seven relievers, so in some sense my criticism is of a league-wide practice, but more narrowly, I’m pointing my finger at Leyland because he has kept two long relievers on the roster all year, and rarely used them. This has come at the expense of the rest of the club.

Because of his insistence on carrying 12 pitchers, that leaves Detroit with four guys on the bench, and the players who Leyland chose for the bench has left him in bad situations so far in 2012. In my opinion it’s cost the Tigers a couple of games.

Second base has been a debacle for the team so far in ’12. The departed Inge, and Raburn, Santiago, and Danny Worth have been used there, none of them effectively. A large part of the blame, if not all of it, lies at the feet of Leyland. Let’s just use his own words, after the team waived Inge in late April:

“We’ve probably handled this wrong,” Leyland said, “in not giving one guy a chance to play [there]. It’s probably been a disservice to not run one guy [out there] on a consistent basis.”

Leyland’s right about that. His insistence on shuffling 2-3 second basemen in and out of his lineup was a huge mistake. But the most damning thing is that Leyland continues to do it even after admitting it was wrong when Inge was cut loose! All the Tigers have done since then is mix Worth into the recipe, shuffling him in along with Raburn and Santiago. None of the three have gotten on track offensively, and that has to be blamed on Leyland, especially considering that he himself admitted it was a mistake.

Often the Tigers bench consists of Kelly, Laird, and the two second basemen not starting. If Santiago (a switch-hitter) is playing second base or giving Peralta a rest (more on that later), that means that Leyland only has one left-handed bat on his bench: Kelly. Don Kelly is a nice ballplayer. He’s well liked and a good teammate. He seems to come up with a healthy number of “hustle plays”, but Don Kelly is not a quality major league pinch-hitter. Not even close. This team should have a decent bat coming off the bench from the left and right side. And more flexibility to use the bench. A few times already this season, Leyland could not get a more favorable matchup because he couldn’t pinch-hit for fear of losing the DH (since the DH: say Santiago or Dirks or Kelly would have to enter the game defensively). Why be so hamstrung, just to keep a Luke Putkonen or Collin Ballester who were used about once every 7-10 days? The Tiger manager gets a big fat “F” for the construction of the bench.

Now let’s move to lineup selection. It’s probable that Leyland uses more lineups than just about any other manager in the league. Every damn game he’s giving another one (or two) of his regulars a day off. Only Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder are exempt from this head-scratching policy. The only thing positive about it is that it makes Leyland’s bench better for that one game. But Smoky often sits players for no apparent reason – to “give them a blow” as he says, or (more annoyingly) because of what he thinks is a poor matchup. You know, like Peralta is 1-for-8 against the Royals’ starting pitcher. Leyland needs to learn what the term “sample size” means.

Given the poor performance of the Tigers offense so far this season, some tinkering is understandable, but only after it became obvious that the team was scuffling. A more proven theory is to start your regulars every day, consistently, so they can find their groove. I’m convinced that Danny Worth won’t learn how to hit in the big leagues until the Tigers give him 4-5 weeks of steady play. But Leyland’s infuriating habit of mixing up his lineups makes that impossible. Grade: D-

Lastly, we come to Leyland’s use of the pitching staff, the area where he deserves the most scrutiny, and the area where he is most second-guessed (and deservedly so). Right here on this blog recently, Christopher Czar pointed out how Leyland has misused his pen. Earlier this year I criticized the Detroit skipper for not allowing his ace to go deeper into games. That’s been a problem, for sure. But it hasn’t only been evident when Justin Verlander is on the hill. By my count there have been six games this season when a starter other than JV has been cruising – absolutely cruising – and Leyland has removed them to use his formulaic late-game bullpen. That means Phil Coke (situational lefty), Octavio Dotel (7th), Joaquin Benoit (8th), and Jose Valverde (9th). This is the push-button strategy made popular by Leyland’s BFF Tony LaRussa. It’s also maddening and it’s cost the Tigers all six of those games.

Instead of handling his staff based on how the pitcher right in front of him is doing, Leyland follows the “safe” approach. As a result, he’s cost the Tigers games. I won’t spend a lot of time on why I think the strategy is a bad way to run a team in general, but it’s obvious it isn’t working for the Tigers in 2012. Valverde and Benoit have ranged from terrible to mediocre so far, Dotel has been so-so, and the long relievers (who take up two roster spots) have thrown 27 innings all season long. Frequently, Verlander and Smyly have been dominating, been removed, and then saw the bullpen come in and get hit around like a piñata. Amazingly, on Monday, Leyland removed Smyly after five innings when the lefty had thrown fewer than 69 pitches, only two of which had been hit hard, though each for homers. Leyland said he removed Smyly because the young pitcher “was leaving his pitches too far up in the strike zone.” So, finally Leyland decides to manage the game with his eyes instead of a bullpen formula, and it’s for the wrong reason! The bullpen blew the game.

There’s a reason that the starters are starters – they’re better than the guys you have in the bullpen. If Smoky let his starters get into the 7th, 8th, and (gasp!) 9th inning of games that they are obviously in control of, they would learn even more how to pitch at this level. Instead, he turns the fate of close games over to a bullpen that is mediocre. Given how difficult it’s been for the team to score runs so far, there might be a lot of close games this season. Leyland earns an F for his use of the pitching staff.

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a manager who has had such a terrible start to a season. I firmly believe that players win games for the large part. But managers can lose games, especially if they over-manage. That’s what Leyland is doing this year with the formulaic way he’s using his bullpen, the silly daily lineup changes, and the rock-headed way he shuffles his bench and never gives one player a shot to show what they can do at second base.

The good news? The Tigers are 18-18 and only a couple games out of first place. That’s due largely to the brilliance of JV, the surprising emergence of Smyly, and the run production from Cabrera. Austin Jackson is having a great season too. But none of those things have a thing to do with Jim Leyland. The Tigers manager has only meddled and stumbled so far this year. Like Ryan Raburn at the plate, Leyland needs to get out of this funk, and fast. There’s no guarantee that the team can overcome a terrible season by their manager.

So far in 2012, Austin Jackson has been getting on base more and striking out less for the Detroit Tigers.

Before the 2010 season, the Detroit Tigers traded away Curtis Granderson in a three-way deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks and New York Yankees. A key piece that the Tigers obtained in that deal was Granderson’s eventual replacement in center field: Austin Jackson.

Jackson showed why he was the prize of the Yankees farm system with an excellent rookie season that saw him hit .294 with 103 runs scored and 27 stolen bases. Despite finishing second in the American League Rookie of the Year voting that year, there was plenty to be concerned about with Jackson. He led the league with 170 strikeouts, had a mediocre .345 on-base percentage (OBP) and his BABIP was an abnormally high .396. If you don’t know what a BABIP is, it probably just means you have a life. BABIP is a sabermetric stat — think the movie Moneyball — that measures a players’ batting average when they hit a ball-in play. Jackson’s 2010 number was among the highest in the history of the game. The sabermetric freaks said Jackson’s luck was going to run out and they were right because in 2011 his BABIP dropped all the way down to .340 and his numbers suffered — he hit just .249 and his OBP plummeted to .317, leaving many to forget about Jackson in a 2012 lineup that included Miguel Cabrera, Brennan Boesch, Alex Avila, Jhonny Peralta, and the newly signed Prince Fielder. However, almost a quarter of the way through the season, Cabrera is the only other player that has a claim as the Tigers Offensive MVP besides Jackson.

It’s apparent already in ’12 that Jackson spent the offseason remaking himself as an offensive player. Despite a more reasonable .379 BABIP so far in 2012, Jackson is off to an excellent start – hitting .318 with a tremendous .403 OBP. His walks are way up and his strikeouts are way down which are attributable to his improved plate discipline and shortened swing. He’s a catalyst that leads the Tigers offense and should be commended for his improvement.

The problem is the Tigers much poorer than expected start has completely overshadowed Jackson’s strong one. While nearly every other Tiger hitter not named Miguel Cabrera is struggling and Jim Leyland is deciding to break in Toledo Mudhen relievers late in one-run games and the rest of the bullpen is doing its’ best to ensure it will be able to show improvements the second half of the season, the Tigers’ lead-off hitter isn’t getting the credit he deserves.

For all the criticisms he received last year for his poor season, Jackson should be receiving accolades for his good season thus far. Unfortunately, poor managerial decisions and underproductive teammates aren’t allowing us to talk about his great start very much. It’s a shame because he’s once again looking like a cornerstone in center field for years to come.

Bruce Kimm caught every one of Mark Fidrych's 29 starts in 1976 for the Detroit Tigers.

During the Bicentennial summer of 1976, Bruce Kimm knew he was privileged to be part of something unique.

There was a lot going on during that red-white-and-blue year. Gas was 59 cents a gallon, Dancing Queen was on the top of the charts, and America was turning 200 years old. And there was a tall, lanky, and gloriously goofy “Bird” soaring across the cultural landscape, Mark Fidrych using his great control to win game after game and his untethered joy to capture hearts in one of the most memorable seasons in Tigers history.

Mark Fidrych may be gone, but the vivid memories of that special season live on through the person who was on the receiving end of all those wacky tosses.

“He was a phenomenal pitcher that season,” Kimm says today from his Iowa home. “I was very fortunate to have caught for him the whole season. He was really great that summer and there is no doubt in my mind that he was the best pitcher in baseball that year.”

Fidrych went 19-9 in 1976 with a 2.34 earned run average, best in the majors. He started 29 games that year, completing 24 of them. He tossed 250 innings and only walked 53 batters. He won the American League Rookie of the Year and finished second in the American League Cy Young voting. Fidrych also was only the second rookie since 1962 to start the All-Star Game. His salary was all of $16,500 in 1976, though the Tigers – who benefitted at the gate every time Fidrych pitched – later awarded him a substantial five-figure bonus.

Beyond the numbers, the “Bird” stole fans hearts in Detroit and across the nation. He groomed the mound and talked to the ball, and he didn’t find anything wrong with any of that. “People thought I was strange,” he explained. “I didn’t think anything of it until people starting saying, ‘You know what you’re doing out there?’ Yeah, I’m pitching. What do you want me to do, get the grounds crew out every time?”

“Mark just did what he had always done,” Kimm said. “He was so good and he always reminded himself when he grabbed a baseball to just play like he did when we were kids.”

Playing with Fidrych at Triple-A Evansville gave Kimm the opportunity to catch him every fifth day. His experience, combined with a bit of bad luck for starting Tigers backstop Milt May, paved the way for Kimm to make his major-league debut on May 4, 1976, just a couple of weeks after Fidrych had pitched his first big-league game on April 20.

“I remembered just getting a call telling me to come up to Detroit,” Kimm says. “They told me that Milt had gotten hurt…I was pretty excited.”

The duo teamed as a battery in the big leagues for the first time on May 15. In Fidrych’s first start, the lanky right-hander tossed a gem against the Cleveland Indians in Detroit. He had a perfect game heading in to the sixth inning before he gave up a single to Buddy Bell. Fidrych ended up throwing a complete game, giving up only two hits in a 2-1 victory. Nobody at this point knew the magic would continue through the entire season.

“That first game was a lot of fun,” Kimm says. “Just the control he had and the way he was getting guys out. The fans were great because they made him come out for a curtain call…It had to be my favorite game of the season.”

Fans ate up his antics. “They thought I was talking to the ball,” Fidrych said. “Here I am out on the mound going, ‘OK, I got a guy on first base, now I have this guy coming up’. I was talking to myself. It was like getting some nerves off.”

Fidrych proceeded to win five of his next six starts, to move to 6-1 on the year. The media coverage increased and the ‘Bird’ craziness reached a crescendo in the June 28 game against the New York Yankees.

“The game was in Detroit on Monday Night Baseball,” Kimm recalled. “The game was on national television with media all around the stadium and about 50,000 fans in the stands.”

On the mound, Fidrych took over and did not disappoint. He threw another complete game, this time in one hour and 51 minutes, and the Tigers won, 5-1. Fidrych gave up a home run to Elrod Hendricks, but scattered six other hits to increase his record to 7-1 on the season. It was the excitement in the stadium that Kimm remembers best. “I remember all the fans just loving the ‘Bird.’ He had such a great connection with them and it was a great atmosphere. The fans didn’t leave after the game they waited and cheered until he came back out for a standing ovation. I think it was great for the city and it was fun for us to play too.”

For the 1976 Detroit Tigers, the only bright spot seemed to be when Fidrych was on the mound. The team finished fifth in the six-league American League East. But the connection between Kimm and Fidrych made the season a memorable one for both men.

Steve Grilli, a good friend of Kimm’s from the ’76 team, believes what took place every fifth day was special. “Just being able to see the two together out there every fifth day was magical,” Grilli says today. “Even though we had a so-so team, it was like opening day for us whenever the ‘Bird’ pitched for us.”

“Mark was great to work with on the field,” Kimm says. “He had some of the best control that I have ever seen. So, combined with what I offered – [providing a] good low target – things just really clicked for us that season.”

Kimm hit what would be his only major league home run on August 17, 1976, in the bottom of the eighth inning off the Angels’ Frank Tanana, a Detroit sandlot legend. “Well, it was the first pitch that I saw from Frank,” Kimm recalls. “I was actually thinking about drag bunting before I got up to the plate, but instead I just hit it out. The fans were great as they give me a curtain call and the hit came in front of the largest home crowd of the season. It was an all-around great moment for me. It was unbelievable and it felt really good.”

The batterymates’ careers turned quite ordinary after that enchanted year. In 1977, Fidrych tore the cartilage in his knee during spring training. He returned in May, dropping his first two starts before reeling off six straight complete-game victories victories. It seemed that the magic was back. However, he hurt his right shoulder in the first inning of a July start, causing him to miss the rest of the season. The doctors could not diagnose the injury at the time. His ailing right arm continued to plague him over the next several summers.

Meanwhile, Kimm, a classic no-hit, good-field backstop (he hit .237 in 186 big-league games), returned to the minors after the 1977 season. He resurfaced briefly with the Chicago Cubs in 1979, then signed with the White Sox for one last big-league campaign. His last game in the majors was on September 19, 1980. A few days later, on October 1, Fidrych pitched his last major-league game, beating Toronto to close out his career with a 29-19 record. The Bird attempted a couple of comebacks, the last with a Boston Red Sox farm team, before calling it quits in July 1983. In 1985, he finally got a diagnosis on his shoulder, finding out he had a torn rotator cuff.

Fidrych went back to his home state of Massachusetts, working odd jobs and living on his farm with his wife and daughter. Kimm stayed in the game as a coach. In 1997, he was the bench coach for the Florida Marlins when they won the World Series under manager Jim Leyland. “I spent 17 years coaching or managing in both the majors and minors,” Kimm says. “But wining the World Series in 1997 was a great thrill and we had a fantastic year that year.” In 2001, Kimm was the manager of the Chicago Cubs’ Triple-A team, the Iowa Cubs. He led them to an 83-60 record, and was named interim manager of the Chicago Cubs on July 5, 2002. The team went 33-46 under Kimm and he was replaced by Dusty Baker the following year.

“I look back on it as a positive experience, no question,” Kimm says. “How many people can actually say that they managed a big league team? Yes, I believe there was something I could have done better, but overall I look at it as a positive.”

After his stint with the Cubs was over, he coached third base for the White Sox in 2003. After that, he retired from baseball. “I was very fortunate to have spent all the years has a player and a manager for so long,” Kimm says. “However, the season of 1976 was a very special time for me. The ‘Bird’ was so good that year and it was great to be a part of that.”

Fidrych died on April 13, 2009, in a strange accident at his farm. A friend found him underneath the 10-wheel dump truck that he drove for his gravel business. Fidrych had been working on something beneath the truck when his clothes became entangled in the vehicle’s spinning driveshaft, suffocating him. He was 54.

Kimm recalls that sad day.

“When my sister called me and told me that, my first reaction was: ‘Only the good die young.’ He was such a good guy to the fans and his family. He would always be signing autographs for them and he loved them as much as they loved him. It was a very sad day but I’m proud of the fact I got to have such a great on-the-field relationship with him.”

Les Moss managed the Tigers for just 53 games in 1979 before being replaced by Sparky Anderson.

When you have a chance to get a manager who’s won multiple World Series titles and seems destined for the Hall of Fame, you can’t afford to hesitate. Even if it means you have to shove aside a loyal employee.

That was the scenario for Detroit Tigers General Manager Jim Campbell in June of 1979. Sparky Anderson, fired unceremoniously the previous off-season by the Cincinnati Reds, was on the open market. The California Angels and San Diego Padres were hot in pursuit, but when Campbell got a whiff of that, he jumped into action. Quickly, Campbell was able to get Sparky to agree to come to Detroit, under one condition: the grey-haired manager wanted a long-term deal. It came in the form of a five-year contract. But first, Campbell would have to get rid of his current manager, a proud baseball man with more than 35 years in the game, but who had been skipper of the Tigers for just two months.

Les Moss had earned his shot at a big league job. In 1978 he had been named the Manager of the Year in the American Association, and The Sporting News also named him Minor League Manager of the Year. In seven years as a manager in the minor leagues (all with the Angels and Tigers organizations), Moss had never finished lower than third and had won a pair of pennants. He’d also managed for 12 seasons in the winter leagues in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela, managing eight championship clubs.

In September of 1978, when Ralph Houk announced he would retire in the off-season, Moss was Campbell’s top choice to fill the vacancy. He’d paid his dues, proved he was a winner, and was a loyal organization man. One scribe called Moss “a faithful soldier.” Moss was brought in to take over a young and emerging Tigers team that featured young players like Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Jason Thompson, Dave Rozema, Steve Kemp, Jack Morris, and Lance Parrish. This was the core of what would become a championship club in the 1980s.

But Moss would not be there to see the young Tigers win, in fact he’d only preside over 27 Detroit victories in his nine weeks at the helm. The club was 27-26 on June 12 when Campbell made the stunning announcement that Sparky was coming to Detroit. The news shocked the baseball world: few experts thought Anderson would be back on the bench in 1979, thinking he’d sit out one year to weigh his options, ultimately taking a high profile job. The Tigers, though young and promising, were not the big market that most thought Sparky would want to go to.

But Anderson liked what he saw on the Detroit roster and he liked Jim Campbell. He also liked the five-year guaranteed deal. Sparky was still stinging from his firing at the hands of the Reds. “I’ll never make the mistake of finishing second again,” he’d said sarcastically after he was exiled from Cincinnati, where he’d won four pennants and World Series titles in 1975 and 1976 during a nine-year run.

By all accounts, Moss took his firing like the professional that he was. A no-nonsense disciplinarian, in his short stint with Detroit his players had given him the nickname “Sieg Heil” behind his back. Moss ran a tight ship, and the Tigers would soon learn that Sparky did too. But they hardly got to know Moss in Detroit before he was gone. He’d managed many of the young Tigers in the minors, but only for a year or so before they moved on. Now, Moss was out of a job in baseball for the first time since he signed his first contract as a heralded 17-year old catcher out of Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1941. He spent 13 seasons in the big leagues as a useful catcher, known for his defense, though he did hit as many as 14 homers in a season. He spent most of his career with the St. Louis Browns.

With his successful record as a minor league manager and pitching coach, Moss wasn’t unemployed for long. In July he was hired to be the minor league pitching coordinator for the Chicago Cubs, serving with that organization for three seasons. He then spent nine years with the Houston Astros, most of them as the pitching coach at the major league level. He worked his final season in baseball as a minor league instructor for the San Francisco Giants in 1995 – it was his 55th season in baseball. Moss turns 87 tomorrow.

As a rookie in 1992, Phil Clark hit .407 for the Detroit Tigers in limited action, but was waived the following year and latched on with the Padres.

The 1992 Tigers were an aging team.

Nearly every important piece of the team was on the wrong side of 30: their opening day starter Bill Gullickson; catcher Mickey Tettleton; double play combo Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell; jack-of-all-trades Tony Phillips; outfielders Dan Gladden, Gary Pettis, and Rob Deer;  bench players Dave Bergman and Skeeter Barnes; and after Gullickson in the rotation there was the almost fossilized Frank Tanana and Walt Terrell. No doubt, skipper Sparky Anderson loved veteran players. But the ’92 Tigers stumbled from the gate (as the geriatric often do) and fell apart early.

The Tigers lost their first six games – three each to the Blue Jays and Yankees – and found themselves six games out of first place after six games! The old adage “The sooner you fall behind the longer you have to catch up,” was all they had to cling to.

Few seasons have been so over so quickly, unfortunately, and despite some decent performances (most notably by Fielder, Deer, Tettleton, and Sweet Lou) the Tigers never got closer than 5 1/2 games of first place after the 0-6 start. The rotation was abysmal after Gully and Tanana: youngsters Kevin Ritz and Scott Aldred proved they weren’t ready for prime time, combining to post an ERA over 6.20 in 24 starts. With an explosive offense, the Tigers won their share of high-scoring games, but were 15-25 in one-run games. Sparky must have went through five pipes that season.

In such circumstances is the opportunity to take a look at some young players, and the Tigers did that as the season wore on (and on). One of the rookies who debuted in ’92 was a hard-hitting catcher named Phil Clark. Clark wasn’t exactly a fresh-faced newbie – he had been in the Detroit organization for six seasons, having been the overall 18th pick in the ’86 amateur draft. The muscular Clark was a high school star out of Texas who ignored college offers to ink a deal with the Tigers. In his first pro season, with Bristol in the Appalachian League, he hit .332 in 66 games against other 18 and 19 year old kids who had just graduated from high school and signed pro deals.

Clark was a catcher but was quickly converted to the outfield and third base in his first few seasons as a Tiger farmhand. He had a strong throwing arm, but Detroit had many catching prospects (and Matt Nokes at the big league level). Everywhere he went as he climbed the organizational ladder, Clark hit well. he batted over .290 in each of his 2nd, 3rd and 4th seasons. In his first year at Triple-A Toledo, the right-handed batter struggled. In his second try, in 1991, he batted .254 with little power. And that was the knock on Clark – he didn’t hit for enough power as a third baseman or corner outfielder. Even as he continued to catch some as well, he was never given a chance to show what he could do at the big league level. The Tigers acquired catcher Tettleton (with his powerful switch-hitting bat) prior to the ’91 campaign.

In 1992 at Toledo, Clark (now 24 years old) showed some power for the first time. He hit 20 doubles and 10 homers in 79 games and posted his highest slugging average as a professional (.465). The Tigers first called him up in late May, and he stayed with the team for about seven weeks, serving as an occasional right fielder, left fielder, and DH off Sparky’s bench. Clark homered against the Twins in his first start, on May 30. Playing mostly at Tiger Stadium, the rookie had his best series against the Red Sox in mid-June, banging out five hits in consecutive games. That lifted his average to .423, but Sparky still used Clark sparingly. Despite a .378 average and .451 on-base percentage, Clark was optioned back to the Mud Hens just after the All-Star break.

The Tigers made Clark one of their September callups, and Clark again performed well at the plate: 5-for-9 with a pair of doubles. But that was it for the youngster, and he ended his first big league trial having appeared in 23 games but producing 22 hits and a .407 batting average. On a disappointing team that won just 75 games and was out of the race all season, Clark was barely noticed. The following spring when he was sent packing, he was barely missed, either. The Tigers invited Clark to the big league camp at Lakeland, but cut him on the eve of opening day. In his eighth pro season and out of options, he was put on the waiver wire. The San Diego Padres snatched him up and added Clark to their 25-man roster. In ’93 with the Padres, Clark hit .313, excelling after he was placed in the regular lineup in June. He spent two more seasons with San Diego as a teammate of his younger brother Jerald Clark, playing first base, the corner outfield, third, and even catching a few games. The Red Sox gave him a brief shot, but by 1996 Clark’s major league career was over. He went to Japan, where he played on the same team as Tuffy Rhodes, who would become a short-lived Wrigley Field legend with the Cubs. Clark finished second in the Japan League in batting in his first season overseas, and was runner-up in homers the next season. Still, no big league clubs came calling. The record shows a .276 average for Clark in 264 games, with 17 homers, and 65 RBI. He’s now a coach in the Pirates’ minor league organization.

Clark’s career .407 batting average with the Tigers is the highest of any player who went to the plate at least 25 times for Detroit – higher than Ty Cobb, Harry Heilmann, Charlie Gehringer, and all the rest. For that, he might be remembered, just a little.

Tigers manager Jim Leyland has had his share of second-guessing moments so far in 2012.

While the Tigers offense deserves the Lions’ share of the blame for their early mediocre start, the bullpen has been among the worst in baseball, but they’re not alone among the presumed top teams in baseball.

Heading into this season there were thought to be an elite eight in MLB. The Phillies, Cards and D-Backs in the NL and the Tigers, Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, and Rangers in the AL were among the believed title contenders. So far only the Rangers (who use their bullpen a lot differently than most teams) and Cards are living up to their billing. The Yankees have had awful luck with injuries so they get a pass—but the other five teams have ranged from disappointing to downright awful. Right now the Tigers, D-Backs, Red Sox, Angels and Phillies are a combined 70-88 between them and a commonality among each of them has a bullpen ERA that ranks among the worst nine in baseball.

The Detroit Tigers have blown five saves and boast an embarrassing 4.47 ERA. Closer Jose Valverde had just his second 1-2-3 appearance of the season last night. Octavio Dotel had but unhittable, before having two appearances within the last week that have blown leads. Joaquin Benoit blew some early saves and Phil Coke had a bad appearance Thursday against the A’s.

Those four guys represent the core of Jim Leyland’s bullpen roles. In addition to long relief, Leyland loves to implement a 7th inning guy (Dotel in this case), a lefty specialist (Coke), a set-up man (Benoit) and a closer (Valverde). Not exactly rare in baseball, however Leyland hardly ever strays from those roles and it has cost the Tigers as seldom have these guys all been pitching well on the same night.

Last Saturday, Benoit mowed down the White Sox in the 8th inning of a one-run game. A struggling, over-worked Valverde was brought in to close the game despite the effectiveness of Benoit. Rumor has it that Valverde still owes Duty on Adam Dunn’s two-run game winning home run that landed in Canada. Monday—after a brilliant start by Doug Fister—Phil Coke dominated the Mariners in the 8th with Benoit and Valverde unavailable. Dotel—the next man on Leyland’s totem pole—had a relief appearance that would have made Jason Grilli proud. He failed to record an out, leading to an ugly loss in a game the Tigers dominated.

So while yes, Jim Leyland has more managerial knowledge in his baby toe than any of us have in our entire bodies, it doesn’t take a professional to recognize when someone is on—and the other guy isn’t. Leyland’s bullpen philosophy ignores this and his inability to adapt could lead to a wasted opportunity this season by an extremely talented Tiger team.

Al Kaline, Ted Williams, and Harvey Kuenn together at the 1957 All-Star Game in St. Louis.

When Al Kaline arrived at Shibe Park in Philadelphia for his first major league game on June 25, 1953, he was 18 years old and just a few weeks removed from his high school graduation. He was about 155 pounds – a scrawny, fresh-faced kid – when he crept into the visitor’s clubhouse escorted by scout Ed Katalinas to meet his new teammates. He couldn’t possibly have imagined that he was beginning a career in baseball that would last nearly six decades with the Detroit Tigers, and as of 2012, still going strong.

Kaline was greeted in the clubhouse by his manager, Fred Hutchinson, who also pitched for the club. “Hutch” was a tough guy, with a  reputation as a sore loser, but fair with his players. He had made his major league debut in the game at Briggs Stadium in 1939 when Lou Gehrig’s record 2,130 game streak had come to end. Also in the clubhouse was Hal Newhouser, who would pitch just one more game in a Detroit uniform before being given his release.

Kaline was entering the major leagues at an intersection in history. Many of his teammates (including Hutchinson) were winding up careers that had been interrupted by service in World War II. Now, the great National Pastime was moving forward: every week there were games broadcast live on television; black players were integrating the game and becoming stars; Joe DiMaggio had retired two years earlier; nearly every team was playing night baseball.

At that time the rules of baseball dictated that a young player like Kaline who had received a bonus, was required to be kept on the active major league roster for two years or be lost to another team. The 18-year old Kaline watched and learned a lot in ’53 before playing regularly in right field in ’54. He hit .276 with little power and was frequently overmatched in that first full season. Then, in ’55 the 20-year old led the league in batting with a .340 mark, becoming the youngest player (by one day to Ty Cobb) to win a batting title.

At the All-Star break in ’55, Kaline was hitting .371 with 19 homers and 67 RBI in 81 games. He was selected to start in right field for the American League, batting sixth behind Yogi Berra of the New York Yankees. Boston slugger Ted Williams hit third in the lineup for that game in Milwaukee. Prior to the game, Williams sought out young Kaline at the batting cage. The four-time batting champ (he would win two more later in his Hall of Fame career) counseled the young Tiger on the art of hitting, no doubt explaining his most important philosophy – hit the right pitch. If there was one thing that the hard-headed Williams refused to do, it was swing at a bad pitch. Williams also stressed the importance of physical conditioning, recognizing that the young Kaline had a quick bat but was not physically mature. He advised Kaline to develop his wrist and arm strength by squeezing rubber balls and doing modest weight lifting.

Kaline took Williams’ advice and worked on his strength conditioning in the off-season. He hit .300 again in 1956 and increased his extra-base hits and runs batted in with a career-high 128. He was once again an All-Star, where he met with Williams again to discuss hitting. The two remained friends until Williams passed away in 2002. In 1999, Kaline was inducted into the Ted Williams Museum Hitters Hall of Fame, a validation from Williams himself that the Red Sox legend respected Kaline as a hitter.

Mariano Rivera writhes in pain after injuring his knee in Kansas City while shagging flies.

Last week the Yankees lost their legendary closer Mariano Rivera when he injured himself chasing down a flyball in the outfield prior to a game against the Royals in Kansas City.

The sight of Rivera crumpled on the ground in agony on the warning track was a gruesome reminder of how fragile the career of an athlete can be. And though Rivera has vowed to return, stating that he doesn’t want “to go out like this,” the odds are against him returning to the same level after tearing his ACL and meniscus.

The injury and the ensuing controversy over whether or not Rivera should have been in the outfield shagging flies immediately reminded me of another pitcher who hurt himself 35 years ago in a somewhat similar fashion. A heralded young pitcher who never returned to his form and whose career was famously shortened.

Mark “The Bird” Fidrych captured the baseball world in 1976 like few others ever have. He bounced out to the mound with his curly locks peeking out from under his Tigers cap. He pitched complete games that took less than two hours, firing strike after strike at the knees of opposing batters. He spoke to the ball, gesticulating and pointing to the spot where he wanted the sphere to go. He galloped over and congratulated his teammates after they made spectacular defensive plays behind him. From his knees he groomed the mound with his bare hands, patting away the spike marks. He packed fans into the ballpark, both at home and on the road, to the point where opposing teams begged the Tigers to pitch him against their club. After he dispatched of the opposing team in complete game fashion, he hopped out of the dugout and took a curtain a call. A curtain call!

“I never saw anything like it,” Fidrych teammate Rusty Staub told me in an interview a few years ago. “I had never seen anyone get a curtain call in baseball.”

19 wins and a league low ERA earned The Bird the Rookie of the Year award for the Tigers, and when he reported to spring camp in Lakeland for the 1977 season he was flapping his wings to do more. The sky (literally) seemed to be the limit for The Bird.

Then he hurt his knee.

According to Staub, who was there the day it happened, Fidrych was in the outfield shagging flies in spring training when he hurtled himself through the air to get at a hard hit ball. He landed on his left leg and twisted it in an odd manner. The Bird bounced on it and limped a little, but he still continued to stand out there for a few minutes. Staub knew immediately that Fidrych had injured himself.

“He had this big grin on his face, like he always did. He was goofing around out there and he [landed] wrong.”

There’s no record whether or not Fidrych told the trainers about the injury, and he didn’t stop throwing. That was the problem. The Bird kept throwing even though he’d damaged his knee. As a result, he started to throw the ball differently to compensate for the injury to his left (landing knee). Within a week he reported soreness in his famous right wing. The Tigers took some precaution, but back then there wasn’t the sort of medical attention that is paid today to pitching arms. Fidrych threw later in spring and after a few days again felt some pain.  As a result he started the ’77 season on the disabled list. He returned in late May after a rehab stint in the minor leagues, and tossed a complete game in his first start. After two losses, he fired six straight complete game victories, even three-hitting the Yankees at Tiger Stadium in June. The Bird was back! Or so it seemed.

In July, just before the All-Star break, Fidrych reported more pain in his right shoulder. He was shut down and didn’t pitch the rest of the year. The Tigers sent him to specialists but no one found any source for the pain. The common tactic at that time was to rest the shoulder and then slowly build back up to throwing again after several months. Cortisone shots were also frequently administered.

Fidrych reported that he was pain-free in the spring of ’78 and he opened the Tigers season on the mound, hurling a five-hit complete game win over the Blue Jays at The Corner. The 23-year old righty won his next start too, but in his third outing he felt a “pop” in his shoulder in the fifth inning and left the game. He was done for the year and though he (and the Tigers) didn’t know it, he had completely torn his rotator cuff, an injury that would have required surgery had it been diagnosed.

The next year The Bird came back in May, and by this time Tigers fans were skeptical that they’d ever see Fidrych pitch a full season again. The Tigers were cautious with him this time, and he didn’t go beyond the sixth inning in any of his four starts. But he was ineffective, losing three games before he left his last start on May 22, 1979, with shoulder pain. He attempted yet another comeback in 1980, even pitching one last complete game in September, but on October 1 he made his final big league start, going five innings against the Blue Jays in the season’s final week.

Later, Fidrych tried to make a comeback with the Boston Red Sox, but never made it past the AAA level. It was with that organization that The Bird found out his rotator cuff was torn clean through. He had been pitching with that injury for years, probably since the ’77 season when he hurt his knee shagging flies and then altered his pitching motion. Surgery could repair the tear, but at that point Fidrych was done pursuing a baseball career and he returned to Massachusetts and his farm where he launched a trucking company.

Should Fidrych or Rivera been shagging flies? Of course. It’s something that pitchers have been doing since the early days of the game when pitchers were still “ballplayers” who were expected to hit and catch pop flies. Back then, rosters were 15-20 guys and everyone pitched in, so to speak. Just because we’re in an era of specialization, it shouldn’t stop Rivera and others from being part of the club. Mo had been shagging glies for two decades without incident. It was a freak injury. How many other pitchers have you heard that have suffered an injury doing it? Not many, though now you’ve been reminded of one who happened to be one of the most popular players in the game 35 years ago when he was injured.

Starter Doug Fister has been allowed to pitch more than seven innings just three times in 13 starts for the Tigers dating back to 2011.

In a season that has provided too many “yikes!” moments, Monday night was a “YIKES!” moment for Tigers fans.

A certain Detroit reliever, whose official name may actually be “Well Traveled Octavio Dotel”, blew a save opportunity in the ninth inning when he mysteriously forgot how to throw strikes. As a result, the Tigers lost another game to the Seattle Mariners, a team that Detroit makes look like the ’27 Yankees.

The agonizing loss was the latest in a series of bullpen calamities for Jim Leyland’s club. But does it have to be this way?

Last season the Tigers were 77-0 when they led after seven innings. It was, according to the folks who keep track of such things, the best record in such situations since the Harding Administration. Those were the days. Predictably, the Tigers returned their backend relief combo of Joaquin Benoit (Mr. Eighth Inning) and Jose Valverde (Mr. Ninth Inning). Valverde was a perfect 49-for-49 in save opportunities last season, despite making many of them very interesting. But, as I wrote quite prophetically in spring training, the odds that Valverde would have another season like that were very low. Nostradamus I am not, I was just hedging the odds. Also, let’s face it – relievers are unpredictable, few are good year in and year out, except the guy in New York.

GM Dave Dombrowski brought in Dotel to serve as a bridge to Mr. Eighth Inning. The veteran won a ring with the St. Louis Cardinals, and if there’s one thing Leyland loves is players who come with seals of approval from BFF Tony LaRussa. See Gerald Laird’s return for further proof of the “Ring-tested, Mother LaRussa approved” program.

Yet several times already in 2012, the Tigers skipper has pulled his starters after they’ve been cruising, only to see one (or more) of his relievers blow it. To be fair, Dotel started out brilliantly, racking up 8+ scoreless innings as a Tiger before allowing a game-tying home run in a loss last week. Then Monday night’s performance reminiscent of “The Wild Thing”.

The proof that Benoit has been miserable this season can be seen by the fact that Tigers fans go to the concession stand when he enters the game. Not only because they can’t bear to watch, but because they know that “Slowpoke” will afford them plenty of time to order their nachos with extra cheese without missing one of his (errant) pitches. Benoit is pitching like a man with zero confidence in his stuff. He hems and haws and then hems again before tugging at his cap, kicking at the dirt, wiping his brow, and then hawing and hemming some more before finally delivering his pitches. His first strike percentage is one of the lowest in the league for a reliever.

Valverde has entered that phase that almost every reliever (except for the robot in NYC, Mo) reaches – where he is no longer trusted and admired, but is vilified and bemoaned. No matter how many games he might save, Papa Grande is now destined to be judged by every hit he surrenders, every baserunner he allows, every blown game. He’s in the dominion that Tigers fans previously reserved for Mike Hennemann, Todd Jones, and even Willie Hernandez, who even after his magical ’84 season heard boos later in his career when he had the audacity to be human.

But Valverde has been less than human so far in 2012. Like Benoit, he looks like a man who doesn’t trust his stuff. Is he hiding an injury ala Daniel Schlereth? Has Papa Grande lost a few miles on his heater? Or maybe he’s just forgotten how to finish games. Whatever it is, The Big Potato has been mashed way too many times this season. He’s blown two saves this year and been roughed up in a few others that he managed to convert. Overall, Leyland’s seven-man bullpen (do we really need that many relievers?) has managed to blow five of their 10 save opportunities.

But does it have to be this way? One need not look too far to find examples of teams that are doing things a little differently. The Texas Rangers, leaders of the West, and the Tampa Bay Rays, co-leaders of the East at 19-10, are relying on their starting pitchers to get them deep into games. The Rangers organization, led by President of Baseball Operations Nolan Ryan, is committed to teaching young pitchers the art of completing games. Egads. Rays manager Joe Maddon subscribes to an age-old baseball theory that it’s far easier to find four good starting pitchers than it is to find five. Update that for 2012: it’s easier to find five good starters than it is to find 4,5,6, or 7! relievers. There’s a reason relievers are in the bullpen – they don’t have good enough stuff to be starters.

The Rangers and Rays have their starters pitch more innings than most other clubs (the White Sox under new manager Robin Ventura are also employing a more aggressive approach with their starters too). Meanwhile the Tigers under Leyland rank 11th in the league in innings by their starters. And it’s not because the Tigers pitchers have been knocked out early: Detroit starters are getting into the fifth and sixth innings frequently, but Ol’ Smoky is more likely to yank them for Dotel or Phil Coke or one of his least effective relievers than allow the starter to go deep. Monday night in Seattle, Doug Fister was on cruise control and had thrown about 70 pitches when he was removed from the game. Pitch counts are something the Rangers and Rays, for example, are paying far less attention to than in the past. The Tigers are still a slave to the pitch count. Notwithstanding a few games this year when Leyland allowed Verlander to throw deep into the game, the skipper is still hesitant to let even his ace toe the rubber in the ninth inning.

By my count, there have been seven games this season in which a Tigers starter has been dealing just fine, thank you, but was pulled by Leyland to follow the “LaRussa late-inning strategy” of one-inning or match-up bullpen use. Not only does it make for a slow game but it doesn’t really make a lot of sense. Especially when the 7th, 8th, and 9th inning guys are pitching poorly.

As I wrote earlier this spring, starters won’t ever learn how to finish a game unless they are allowed to finish games. Verlander has been given a little longer leash, but Leyland continues to trust the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings of one-run games to pitchers who are having troubles throwing strikes. You can almost see the opposing team salivating when the starter (who has frustrated them all game up to that point) is pulled. Advantage enemy batters.

Drew Smyly has been an unexpected treat so far in 2012. JV is JV – simply the best pitcher in baseball. Fister looks like he hasn’t lost a thing after missing a month with a rib injury. That gives the Tigers three excellent starters to build a rotation on. Rick Porcello and Max Scherzer are frustratingly inconsistent, but if they get it together, the Detroit rotation will be a strength. A strength the team will need if the offense continues to sputter. It’s becoming apparent that Leyland should revisit his use of the bullpen. He may find the results are similar to those the Rangers and Rays are getting. First place teams are good clubs to imitate.