Remember A Tiger: Robert Fick

Who: Robert Fick (Catcher / Utility) - Detroit Tigers (1998-2002)

What To Remember: Robert Fick had a breakout season for the Tigers in 2001, when he hit 19 Home Runs. He was named as the sole representative for the Tigers to the 2002 All-Star Game, and scored the tying run for the American League in the now, infamous "All-Star Tie-Game". Fick is most remembered by recording the last hit at Tiger Stadium in September of 1999- a Home Run that hit off of the roof of the famous right field "Short Porch".

What Happened?: Fick signed with the Atlanta Braves following the 2002 season. In a National League playoff game, Fick admitted to purposely trying to slap the catching arm of Cubs First-Baseman Eric Karros as he ran past the base. The "Bush League"-type play infuriated Braves management, who fined and released him shortly after the playoffs. Fick tried catching on with Tampa Bay, San Diego, and Washington but to no avail. He last played professional baseball in 2007.

Where Is He Now?: Fick, a recovered alcoholic and admitted steroid user, has cleaned up his life and is now trying his hand at the Sports Agency business.

Remember A Tiger: Dave Rozema

Who: Dave Rozema (Pitcher) - Detroit Tigers (1977-1984)

What To Remember: Rozema had a promising rookie season in 1977, winning 15 games and placing in both the Rookie of the Year and Cy Young Awards voting. In the following seasons, "Rosey" had mediocre success, but never had a double-digit win total season again.

What Happened?: In a game against the Minnesota Twins in 1982 at Tiger Stadium, a bench clearing brawl was started after a couple of Tigers' batters were brushed backed, and hit by pitches. Rozema, who was not playing that night, ran from the dugout and tried unsuccessfully to deliver a flying karate kick at a Twins player in the middle of the melee. After the missed kick, Rozema knew his knee was damaged and was carried off the field on a stretcher. It was later found that Rosey damaged 8 ligaments in his knee, and would miss the rest of the '82 season. After his knee rehab, he came back to pitch for the Tigers for the 1983 and 1984 seasons, but was clearly not the same pitcher prior to the karate kick. He signed a free agent contract with the Texas Rangers in the 1984 offseason, and last played professionally in 1986.

Where Is He Now?: After baseball, Rozema settled back to his hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan and worked as a salesman. He is still involved with the Detroit Tigers organization, and appears at Alumni Association and Tigers' charity events. Rozema's karate kick was immortalized in the form of a stadium giveaway "Bobble-Leg" figure at Tigers minor league game in 2008.

Remember A Tiger: Chris Pittaro

Who: Chris Pittaro (Infield) - Detroit Tigers (1985)

What To Remember: Pittaro, a minor league Spring Training invite to Lakeland in 1985, made a huge impression on the Tigers' future Hall-of-Fame Manager, Sparky Anderson. Anderson entertained the thought of breaking up arguably the best double-play combination in MLB history (Shortstop Alan Trammel and Second Baseman Lou Whitaker) to insert Pittaro as his starting Second Baseman. Sparky Anderson: "Chris Pittaro has a chance to be the greatest Second Baseman who ever lived."

What Happened?: After making the 1985 Tigers team out of Spring Training, Pittaro had mild immediate success, followed by mediocre play and injuries. He played in a total of 28 games that season, and finished the year back in the Minor Leagues. Before the 1986 season, the Tigers traded Pittaro to the Minnesota Twins. He left professional baseball after the 1987 season.

Where Is He Now?: Pittaro has been a key player in the Billy Beane "Moneyball" movement with the Oakland Athletics since 1991. He has risen through the system from an entry-level scout to his current position as Special Assistant to the General Manager.

Remember A Tiger: Chris Shelton

Who: Chris Shelton (Catcher, First Base) - Detroit Tigers 2004-2006

What To Remember: "Big Red"(nicknamed after the popular Faygo soda because of his bright hair color) opened the 2006 season hitting a blistering 9 Home Runs in the Tigers' first 13 games- the fastest American League player ever to reach the mark. He won the AL Player of the Week honor for April 3, 2006.

What Happened ?: After the hot start, Shelton's power and bat quickly came back down to earth. He was sent down to Toledo by the end of July in 2006. He finished the 2006 season hitting 16 HR's in a 115 games. Shelton failed to make the roster after Spring Training of the 2007 season. After spending the '07 season in Toledo, he was traded to the Texas Rangers. Big Red also played for the Seattle Mariners, Houston Astros, and the New York Mets. He left professional baseball in 2009 at the age of 29.

Where Is He Now?: Shelton has returned to his hometown of Salt Lake City, Utah where he is an Assistant Baseball Coach for his High-School Alma Mater, the Cottonwood Colts. 

"Displaced" in Texas

Being a transplanted Detroit Tigers fan living in Texas is alot easier than one might think. Thanks to social media sites (Twitter, mainly), the MLB TV package, and my adopted hometown's "team" moving to the American League - I often feel like I'm actually more of a fan now than when I lived in Detroit.

I live in Beaumont, Texas (an hour from Houston), a region that considers the Astros "their team". I learned quickly when I moved here from Detroit in 1998 how passive sports fans in this area are. As a baseball fan, I easily got caught up in the successful Astros' seasons of the late '90's, and at least found myself pulling for them around that time (let's face it, Tigers' teams of that period were awful). Season by season though, the Astros were eliminated from the playoffs. The Astros made it to the World Series in 2005 - and were swept. Astros "fans" thought nothing of it, and actually laughed it off - like the teams' recent success was a joke. I thought to myself - no way this would ever fly in Detroit!

I knew right away after the dismantling of the Astros team after the '05 World Series, that I could never be a fan of any other team but the Tigers. Tigers fans show passion, and often wear their heart on their sleeve. As a kid, I witnessed the hysteria of '84 Bless You Boys Season, the '87 Frank Tanana division-clinching masterpiece, and idolized Lou Whitaker. These are moments and times etched into my mind forever.

Before the Astros moved to the AL, the Tigers came to Houston a couple of times for inter-league play. My family would make weekends of these series, catching as many Tigers' games as we could. I proudly wore my Tigers jerseys, and often seen many other possible "displaced" Tigers fans at these games. Nary a word was ever said to me and my family from Astros "fans" when we openly cheered for Brandon Inge after hitting a go ahead Home Run off of the Astros closer, Jose Velverde (Oh, the irony...) Somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought to myself that a road team fan would never get away with openly rooting for their team in the confines of Tiger Stadium or Comerica Park without getting a good, kind ribbing (or worse). Now that the Astros are in the A.L., I'm guaranteed to see the Tigers play in Texas at least once a year.

Watching and listening to Tiger games on TV and radio has also been enhanced for me since moving to Texas. I grew up watching games commentated by George Kell and Al Kaline, and always loved listening to the games that Ernie Harwell called on the radio. Now, with the DirectTV MLB Extra Innings package, I still get to watch almost all the Tiger games that are broadcast. I also get to hear the great, Dan Dickerson call Tiger games through MLB's "At-Bat" app on my smartphone. Twitter also has enhanced my game experience to a whole new level. Watching or listening to a game does not feel complete to me anymore without checking my Twitter feed full of Tiger fans, blog websites, and amateur analysts constantly posting (often hilarious) comments about events that unfold throughout the game. In contrast,  the Houston Astros are currently under a "blackout" restriction, meaning no televised games. I don't even know who the Astros commentators or radio voices are!

I'm known to my Southern friends and co-workers as a die-hard Detroit Tigers fan, and a huge baseball fan. Major League Baseball is not even a mildly popular topic amongst my friends, but it gives me great pride whenever the topic of baseball (and especially the Tigers) comes up, when they all look to me for answers or input.

My Dad: The Remote Control "Closer"

My memories of watching or attending Tigers' games often bring me back to my childhood when my Dad had a weird habit that I could never figure out. Whenever the Tigers faced a tough situation, late in games, my Dad would simply just change the channel, or ask if we were ready to leave. To this day he does the same. I never understood why he did this until I got older: My Dad loved the Tigers so much that it actually irritated him so bad that he couldn't bear to watch when the Tigers did something "stupid". It's a great memory, one that makes me smile every time I'm at a ballgame, when my family asks "After what inning we leaving?"

The Punk Rock Tiger

The Detroit Tigers had a magical season in 1987. They won the Division Title of the AL East on the last day of the regular season, in a dramatic 1-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays. It was the last time that the main-stay Tiger players of my childhood would all have success on the field together- Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Kirk Gibson, and Jack Morris. But one Tiger player always stuck with me from that season, and his name was Jim Walewander.

In 1987, I was 12 years old. I grew up in a baseball family- playing baseball, talking baseball, collecting baseball cards, and always watching the Tigers games on TV. I also was becoming an avid fan of all types of music at the time. Alot of new music was bieng introduced to me by my brother and my friends. Bands and Groups like Run DMC, Metallica, Prince, and Van Halen to name a few. I also was just getting into another type of music that I had just recently discovered- Punk Rock. My friends and I were lucky to live real close to a great record store where you could find used records and tapes for just a few dollars. We discovered and got into bands like Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, The Circle Jerks, and Suicidal Tendencies.

MLB Baseball, in my mind at that age, was a wholesome game that was played by only the best ball players in the world- great athletes who lived their lifestyles very much "with" the grain. In 1987, the Tigers called up a very normal looking player with a weird last name- Jim Walewander. As with any new player on the Tigers, I took note but usually didn't scratch the beneath the surface. The only thing at first that stuck out to me was Walewander's fielding position - second base. I knowingly thought to myself that this new guy was not here to challenge my favorite Tiger,  second-baseman Lou Whitaker for his job. Not long after the 26 year old Walewander was called up, I began to hear from game broadcasts and read articles in the newspaper certain things about him that normally wasn't associated with regular ballplayers. I learned that when he was playing for the Mud Hens in Toledo, Walewander lived contently in a gritty apartment that had no furniture, he used aluminum foil for window curtains, and lived off of only basic needs. Writers and baseball game analysts used words like "eccentric", "flaky", "free-spirited", "zany"- to descibe Walewander- words that reminded older Tiger fans of another Detroit player who often times fit those same descriptions- Mark "The Bird" Fidrych. I then read that Walewander was also into punk rock music, and I realized that this player was bringing my two worlds together- Tigers Baseball and Punk Rock music! Walewander also dressed like a punk rocker, favoring leather jackets and combat boots when not wearing a Tigers uniform. 

Walewander soon became synonmous with a Punk Rock group called "The Dead Milkmen", after members of the band heard that he was a fan. When the group played a gig in Detroit, the band arranged passes for Walewander so he could attend the concert. The day after the show, Walewander returned the favor to the band by showing them around Tiger Stadium, and also introducing them to his manager at the time, Sparky Anderson. Sparky had taken a liking to his new misfit ballplayer- "Wales", as Anderson called him, because of Walewander's solid work ethic towards the game. The Dead Milkmen posed for pictures in the Tigers dugout with both Walewander and Sparky, then soon left to move on to the next gig in the next city. Walewander would end up hitting his only Major League homerun that day. Having not yet heard of the Dead Milkmen, I soon rushed up to my local record store and picked up the band's debut album "Big Lizard In My Backyard" on cassette tape. Although the Milkmen did not sound as aggressive as some of the other bands that I was into, I enjoyed the album with it's satirical lyrics, and folksy type of punk rock music that they played. I still have that album, and consider it a essential part of my music collection.

On the field, Walewander was not much more than a pinch-runner or a role player for the Tigers that year. He spot-started at shortstop or second base whenever the veterans needed a day off. Some Tigers fans did cherish his minimal playing time, however, forming the "Jim Walewander Fan Club" and hanging banners and signs supporting him in the cheap-seat, outfield bleacher section. Some of Detroit's resident punk rockers also came out to Tiger Stadium to show support for Walewander. His most memorable contribution to the Tigers in 1987 was when he was a pinch-runner in the bottom of the 12th inning, in a season-ending series against the first-place Toronto Blue Jays. The Tigers were one game behind in the standings, and needed the win to move into a tie for first-place, with one game remaining the following day against the Jays. Shortstop Alan Trammell came through with a clutch base hit and Walewander scored the winning run. The next day, the Tigers shutout the Jays 1-0 to capture the Division Title. Walewander was left off of the Tigers playoff roster, and his folk hero-like 1987 season was over.

Walewander played one more year for the Tigers, then played a year of professional baseball in Japan. He returned to MLB in 1990 for the New York Yankees, was in minor league ball for the 1991-92 seasons, and had one final big league stint with the California Angels in 1993. His career statistics tell no tale of Walewander's off-beat ways: 162 games, 242 at-bats,1 home run, 14 RBI, to go with a .215 lifetime batting average.

I still hold the Detroit Tigers and even Punk Rock music near to my heart as they both give me fond memories from my childhood. For one year, 1987, there was a special player who brought these odd worlds together for me, and his name was Jim Walewander...Thanks Wales!!!

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