According to Baseball Reference, 54 players have worn the number 12 in Tigers franchise history. Casey Mize currently wears it. Let’s look at a few Tigers that wore number 12 during the Fungo’s focus, 1977 through 1994:
There are many candidates for this distinction, but I think Mike Moore was the quintessential Dave Duncan reclamation project in the late 1980s.
He went from a so-so starter in Seattle to a 19-game winner in Oakland.
By the time he signed a three-year, $10 million contract with the Tigers in 1993, most of that Duncan magic had vanished … much like the benefit of the spacious foul territory in the Oakland-Alameda County Stadium.
But we wouldn’t find out right away. Soon, but not right away.
As it seems to often happen in baseball, if not all sports, Moore made his Tigers debut on Opening Day 1993, April 5, against his former team in Oakland. It was a start to forget and a sign of things to come — again, we didn’t know it yet! — 42/3 innings, six hits, three walks and four earned runs. The Tigers lost 9-4.
Four days later, he started against the Angels in Anaheim and got only four outs. In 11/3 innings, he gave up six hits and five runs.
To recap: In his first two Tigers starts, he pitched six innings and allowed nine runs on 12 hits.
Although Moore’s ERA dipped below five once all year — 4.99, after his two-hit shutout of the White Sox on Sept. 10 — he did have a couple of incredible starts:
Moore was certainly durable* in his first season in Detroit: 36 starts and 223 innings. His final line: 13-9, 5.91 ERA, with three shutouts.
*In nine of his 14 seasons, he finished with more than 200 innings pitched — and in 1990 he threw 1991/3.
Well, 1994 and 1995 went about as well for Moore as it did for his Tigers teams. Still, the man did take the ball every fifth day (maybe fourth day back then?), pitching 25 starts both years.
In 1994, he could’ve reached 30+ starts again if not for the player’s strike, but anyway …
The third and final year of his Tigers contract, 1995, was a disaster: 25 starts, 5-15 and a 7.53 ERA.
Looking back 30 years, it wasn’t fair to expect Mike Moore, at 33, to be a top-of-the-rotation starter. After the mirage of 1993, the Tigers were not good in 1994 and ’95, so it wasn’t going to make a difference whether Moore was the staff’s ace, the fifth starter or a long reliever.
Oh and just looping back to the benefits of pitching home games in Oakland versus Detroit: Tiger Stadium’s cozy dimensions not only hurt him in the no-foul-territory fashion but also in surrendering the long ball: He made 86 starts and gave up 86 homers. Not all of them at The Corner, of course, but enough of them.
The Tigers likely savored the off day after all the doubleheaders. Let’s look ahead 10 years to a markedly different brand of Tigers baseball played in 1994. 😬
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