Karim Garcia

The Monday Fungo: Jan. 29

Hey, and welcome back to The Daily Fungo. It’s been a while.

If you’re new here, thanks for visiting. This blog launched in March 2006, which was about as good as it gets in terms of the Tigers’ renaissance converging with blogs becoming a viable thing. The blog kept chugging along, with varying degrees of posting and general TLC, until 2014? Or was it 2017?

For a few years there was a podcast too. Yes. In 2006.

Along the way I discovered that as much as I enjoy following the current Tigers, my heart and interest will always be with those clubs from my youth — from 1977, when I attended my first game at Tiger Stadium, to 1994-ish.

That’s the sweet spot for this new incarnation of The Daily Fungo: 1970s and ’80s, with some ’90s and other dark times too. Oh, and with a few exceptions (like this one), I’ll also keep each day’s post short, like 250-words short.

One more thing: I will be restructuring the archives and other stuff over the next few weeks, so apologies if you click on something and it’s not there.

Go Tigers.

New Hall of Famers vs. the Tigers

I was living in Colorado when Todd Helton replaced Andres Galarraga at first base for the Rockies. I didn’t want to see them move on from The Big Cat, but it didn’t take long for me to see Helton had a future.

Adrián Beltré hit only .222 against the Tigers in the 2011 ALCS, but those six games were the only time he wasn’t killing them. Joe Mauer, of course, along with Justin Morneau seemed to own the Tigers … and they did.

This year’s Hall of Famers’ career numbers against the Tigers:

	Games	Average	Hits	HR	OPS
Adrian Beltre	99	.334	127	16	.990
Todd Helton	22	.317	26	2	.900
Joe Mauer	216	.305	246	18	.816

Today’s Random Nugget

Twenty-five years ago last month, the Tigers traded Luis Gonzalez to the Diamondbacks for Karim Garcia. Sigh.

Here’s a nice piece about Gonzalez’s impact on the Diamondbacks and their 2001 World Series run.

Today’s Immaculate Grid

Just one Tiger in this one.

See you tomorrow.

15 Years Ago Today: Luis Gonzalez for Karim Garcia

On this date in 1998, the Tigers signed free agent Gregg Jefferies to a two-year contract and traded outfielder Luis Gonzalez to the Diamondbacks for Karim Garcia.

A lifetime .289 hitter, Jeffries hit just .231 with a .639 OPS in 111 games for the 1999 and 2000 clubs.

In Gonzalez’s lone season with the Tigers he hit .267, 23 homers and 71 RBI with a .816 OPS. So you can understand why the Tigers were eager to deal him. He would become a legend in Arizona over eight seasons, hitting .298, with 224 homers and a .919 OPS.

Garcia? Well, he had less remarkable career in Detroit: in parts of two seasons, 1999 and 2000, he hit .236 with 14 homers and .708 OPS.

Kip Young, It’s Your Birthday

Happy 54th birthday to the pride of Bowling Green State University, Kip Young.

Young made his major-league debut on July 21, 1978 against the Angels at Tiger Stadium. He took the loss in the 11-inning game, surrendering two earned runs in the 11th. For the rest of the ’78 season Young (wearing number 44) was a starter, earning a 6-6 record — with seven complete games — and a 2.81 ERA.

In his sophomore season, Young, now wearing number 37, compiled a 2-2 record with a 6.39 ERA in 13 appearances, seven of them starts. Most notable in an otherwise unremarkable year, Young had a 2-to-1 strikeouts-to-walk ratio.

On Nov. 21, 1979, the Mariners purchased Young’s contract but he never pitched in a game for Seattle…or anyone else for that matter.

Other Tigers birthdays today include:

Darrell Brown, 53
Greg Gohr, 41
Karim Garcia, 33