Third in an occasional series. Collect ’em all!
Ike Brown was a utility infielder and outfielder for the Tigers in the early seventies. He was the kind of player who wouldn’t embarrass you wherever you put him, hit well enough that you could consider using him as an occasional pinch hitter (though with Gates Brown – no relation – also on the team, those opportunities didn’t happen often), and always seemed like a nice teammate. He wore the stylish wireframe glasses you see on both his 1972 and 1974 cards before they became commonplace, not to mention that few ballplayers wore glasses during games at all, and along with his linebacker build, he was a recognizable and popular Tiger each of his seasons with the club.
Ike came up about the time the Tigers put last names on the back of their uniforms, and he wore “I. BROWN” while Gates wore “G. BROWN,” which I somehow thought was pretty sophisticated. Now we have a plethora of SRs, JRs, IIIs, and IVs it feels a little out of control, but Ike and Gates were trendsetters in the uni nameplate world.
Other than being the Don Kelly or Andrew Romine of his day in Detroit, Ike has two other interesting distinctions:
- He hit a home run in his first major league at bat on June 17, 1969 at Yankee Stadium. Considering he only hit 19 more in 536 total big league at bats, the trend was definitely downhill from there.
- Ike was the last player who had played in the Negro Leagues to debut in the majors. The Tigers signed him from the Kansas City Monarchs in 1961.
Ike died in 2001 in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, at the age of 59.
Bill Bruton was a very fast outfielder for the Milwaukee Braves (1953-1960) and the Tigers (1961-64). A good hitter and an above-average fielder with good range due to his speed, he led the National League in stolen bases for three consecutive years from his rookie season of 1953 through 1955, racking up totals of 26, 34, and 25 swipes, which should give you an idea how often NL teams were running in the early fifties. Bill played for the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association in 1952 when the team was the top farm club for the Boston Braves. The next year he was promoted to the bigs but didn’t have to move as the Braves moved to Milwaukee. When fans think of western expansion of the major leagues they usually think of the Dodgers and Giants moving to California in 1958, but the Braves were the first to head west, though they only went as far as Wisconsin. Bill had the game-winning home run in the bottom of the 10th inning in the transplanted Milwaukee Braves’ first game on April 14, 1953, as they beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2.
Bill hit two bases loaded triples in the same game in 1959, something that had only been done once before (Elmer Valo in 1949) and once since (Duane Kuiper in 1978). That may not seem like much of a record to share, but it probably got Bill a beer or two.
Bill died in a car crash that was caused by an apparent heart attack outside of Wilmington, Delaware, in 1995. He was 70 years old.
Nate Colbert was a power hitter. He hit 173 home runs in his ten-year major league career with the Astros, Padres, Tigers, Expos, and A’s. Mostly remembered for his years in San Diego, he was a National League All-Star three times from 1971 to 1973, years in which he hit 27, 38, and 22 home runs and racked up 84, 111, and 80 RBI. Plagued with back problems, he was traded to Detroit after a down 1974 season in the three-team deal involving Eddie Brinkman that I mentioned the other day. Nate only played 45 games for the Tigers before being sold to Montreal in June. He played 52 games for the Expos in 1975 and 1976 before they also let him go. He spent the rest of the bicentennial year in the minors before making one last brief appearance with Oakland at the end of the season, going 0 for 6 with one walk in two games. He retired at the age of 30.
I love Nate’s smile in this 1975 Topps card. This is a classic baseball card photographer’s trick: get at least one shot from underneath the ball cap, so if the player is traded you won’t have to airbrush the new team’s colors and logo onto the crown of the hat. This explains Nate’s snappy jersey piping in the photo, which appears to have been done with a chisel-tip Sharpie marker, but does not at all explain why the upper deck of Jack Murphy Stadium is visible behind him.
Nate had the bad luck to play with nine last-place teams in a row from 1968 to 1976. He had a brief cup of coffee with the Astros in 1966 (they finished eighth in the then-ten-team National League) and, as mentioned above, finished with the A’s in 1976 (they finished second in the AL West that year). In 1975, he played with two last-place teams: the Tigers and the Expos.
He deserved better, yet somehow he was able to keep smiling. Unlike many of the players we’ve met so far in this series, Nate is still alive at the age of 74.
UPDATE (January 6, 2023): Nate died in January, 2023. His death was announced by the Padres on January 5, though this may not have been his actual date of death. He was 76 years old.
Joe Coleman was always one of the American League’s leaders in the “Largest Lump of Chaw” competition. And he only got better with age. I mean, look at the 1974 card: only a small bump showing through his left cheek. By the next year, though, as seen below, Joe really was getting good, with a wad of chewing tobacco so big he couldn’t even close his mouth anymore. By 1976, the chaw was threatening to take over his face and maybe petition to get its own zip code, and he appears to have been drooling tobacco onto his left knee as well.
I don’t understand the poses on Joe’s cards. He seems to be getting ready to pitch or has just delivered a killer curveball despite appearing to be standing nowhere near a pitcher’s mound but instead somewhere along the first base stands. That is not how you play baseball, Joe. At least he has his glove in position, ready to spear a hot liner through the box.
Joe’s father was also a major league pitcher for ten seasons from 1942 to 1955, interrupted for three years by World War Two. He played mostly for the Philadelphia Athletics before finishing two short stints with Baltimore (as shown in this special 1976 card with son Joe, Jr.) and finally with the Tigers, where he went 2-1 with a 3.20 ERA and three saves in 17 games at the end of the 1955 season. If you look closely, Joe Sr. seems to have a wad of chewing tobacco in his left cheek as well, right down to the crooked grimace. Pass the tradition along, Joe! (Incidentally, Joe Jr.’s son Casey pitched for the Cubs in 2010-12 and briefly for the Royals in 2014, making the Colemans one of the few three-generation big league families.)
Joe was a very good starting pitcher for the Senators (1965-70) and the Tigers (1971-76), and then a succession of other teams over the next four seasons before hanging ’em up. With the Tigers in 1972, he was part of an excellent starting rotation that led the team, which wasn’t exactly an offensive juggernaut, to the American League East division championship. The staff was led by Mickey Lolich (22-14, 2.50 ERA, 250 Ks), Coleman (19-14, 2.80 ERA, 222 Ks), and August pickup Woodie Fryman (10-3, 2.06 ERA, 72 Ks), plus a solid bullpen of Chuck Seelbach (14 saves, 2.89 ERA), Fred Scherman (12 saves, 3.64 ERA), and John Hiller (3 saves, 2.03 ERA)
The Tigers lost to Oakland in the 1972 ALCS, 3 games to 2, with the most memorable moment coming in the seventh inning of Game 2, when Tiger reliever Lerrin LaGrow hit A’s shortstop Bert Campaneris in the foot with a pitch, causing Campy to hurl his bat at LaGrow, who was wise enough to duck as the bat sailed by. The benches cleared, Billy Martin had to be restrained by several Tigers and the umpiring crew to keep him from fighting Campaneris. Here’s a clip of the incident, with George Kell and Larry Osterman of WWJ-TV (Channel 4) with the call:
Joe was later a pitching coach and minor league manager, finishing his over 50 year career in baseball with the Jupiter Hammerheads of the Florida State League. He’s retired now at the age of 74, and reportedly spends his time in Florida and Tennessee.