Umpires: HP – Dave Phillips, 1B – Jerry Neudecker, 2B – John Hirschbeck, 3B – Steve Palermo
Time of Game: 3:51
Attendance: 43,972
Jim Morrison – IF #9 and #17
The Tigers picked up Jim Morrison from the Pirates on Aug. 7, 1987 for a player to be named later* and Darnell Coles.
*Five days later, they sent Morris Madden to Pittsburgh to complete the trade.
Morrison was expected to be another veteran presence for a Tigers team that was, after a dreadful start, in the thick of the American League East race.
On Aug. 7 against the Yankees**, he made his Tigers debut (a game I attended) at third based and batting sixth. He led off the bottom of the sixth with a homer off New York starter Rick Rhoden.
**The Tigers won 8-0 and sat in third place, just a game behind second-place New York and a game and half behind Toronto.
When the Tigers got him, he was hitting .264 with the Pirates with nine home runs and a .726 OPS. Although Morrison became Sparky’s everyday third baseman for the rest of the year, that performance didn’t carry over to Detroit. He hit just .205 — which was still 20+ points higher than what Coles was hitting at the time of the trade.
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