September 15, 1973: Gates Brown’s bases-clearing double caps Tigers’ comeback win

“I don’t like [the DH] at all. It’s just a horse$#!* rule. When we win because Gates Brown or Frank Howard or one of our other designated hitters got a big hit, I’m still going to say the same thing: It’s a horse$#!* rule!” — Tigers manager Billy Martin1

In 1973, opposition to the American League’s new designated hitter rule wasn’t limited to National League cities. Joe Falls, sports editor of the Detroit Free Press, was vehemently against it, although he grudgingly admitted that he’d prefer to see Detroit Tigers veteran Gates Brown bat four times in a game instead of the club’s pitchers,2 who had combined to hit a league-worst .116 in 1972.3

Brown had been Detroit’s primary left fielder in 1964, his first full season in the majors. Despite playing well,4 he lost his starting job in 1965 to 22-year-old slugger Willie Horton, and from that point on struggled to find consistent playing time.

Brown’s defense may have been a bit better than Horton’s, but the Tigers wanted the younger man’s booming bat in the lineup.5 A move to first base was out of the question; the position was occupied by former batting champion Norm Cash, and Brown played just two innings there his entire career. Brown settled into a steady role as a backup outfielder and pinch-hitter on an increasingly strong Detroit team.

In 1968 he was a key member of the Tigers’ World Series championship team,6 enjoying one of the greatest seasons ever for a pinch-hitter.7 In 48 pinch-hit plate appearances in the regular season, Brown hit .450, slammed three homers, and posted a .542 on-base percentage and an .850 slugging percentage.8

Brown’s ability to come through in the clutch made him a fan favorite in Detroit. When the Tigers were completely dominated by Bob Gibson in Game One of the 1968 World Series, Tigers manager Mayo Smith was inundated with letters from fans urging him to insert Brown into the starting lineup.9 Despite being the only Tiger with more than three at-bats to have a batting average over .287 − he hit .370 − Brown made only one plate appearance in the seven-game series.10

The introduction of the DH increased Brown’s playing time in 1973, although the 34-year-old was platooned with the right-handed-hitting Frank Howard, who was in his final season in the majors.11

The 1973 Tigers were looking to repeat as AL East champions. In their third season under manager Billy Martin, they led the division by 1½ games on August 13 before the bottom fell out. Detroit lost 13 of its next 18 games to fall well back of the charging Baltimore Orioles, who were back on top after winning the division every season from 1969 through 1971.

The low point came on August 30 when Martin instructed pitchers Joe Coleman and Fred Scherman to throw spitballs and then disclosed his tactics to the press, all because the umpires refused to address Cleveland Indians right-hander Gaylord Perry’s alleged doctoring of the baseball.12 Martin was suspended by the league for three days, and the controversy was the final straw for general manger Jim Campbell. The pugnacious Martin had worn out his welcome as manager for the second – but certainly not the last – time.13 He was fired on September 2 and replaced by third-base coach Joe Schultz.14

The Tigers came into their September 15 game against the Milwaukee Brewers in third place, nine games behind first-place Baltimore. Coleman, who was in search of his 20th win of the season, got the start for Detroit.15

While the Tigers were the oldest team in the majors, the fifth-place Brewers were the American League’s youngest squad. Jim Slaton (12-12, 3.82 ERA), a 23-year-old right-hander, took to the hill for Milwaukee.

After stranding a couple of baserunners in the first inning, Coleman ran into more difficulty in the second. Doubles by designated hitter Joe Lahoud and rookie second baseman Pedro García put the Brewers out front, 1-0.16

Milwaukee’s lead was short-lived, as Detroit shortstop Ed Brinkman led off the bottom of the third with his seventh homer of the year.

Coleman settled down after the second inning. In the third and fourth he allowed only one Milwaukee batter to reach base, a walk to Lahoud.

The Brewers scored an unearned run off Coleman in the fifth on an RBI single by Don Money. They added another one in the sixth on a hit-by-pitch, walk, double steal, and a throwing error by veteran catcher Duke Sims, his second in two innings.17

Slaton limited the Tigers to three hits and four walks through the first seven innings. Heading into the bottom of the eighth, Milwaukee still led, 3-1.

After Dick McAuliffe opened the inning with a bunt single,18 center fielder Mickey Stanley singled on a blooper to right field.19 A sacrifice by Jim Northrup and a walk to Horton loaded the bases for Brown with one out.

The left-handed slugger had walked twice in his three previous plate appearances against Slaton but was much more aggressive this time. To the delight of the 15,410 fans at Tiger Stadium, Brown hit Slaton’s first pitch off the right-center-field wall. The double cleared the bases. Suddenly, the Tigers led, 4-3.

Schultz brought in his closer, John Hiller, for the ninth. The 30-year-old Toronto native kept the Brewers off the scoresheet, surrendering only a single to catcher Ellie Rodríguez. Hiller picked up his 36th save of the season, setting a new American League record. He finished the season with 38 saves, which remained the AL high-water mark until Dan Quisenberry recorded 45 saves in 1983.20

It was the sixth consecutive defeat for the Brewers. “This losing can get old in a hurry,” muttered Milwaukee manager Del Crandall after the game. “A bunt, a bloop hit, a walk, and wham! It’s over.”21

Brown’s clutch double made Coleman a 20-game winner for the second time in his career.22 He won three more September starts to finish with a 23-15 record and a 3.53 ERA.

The aging Tigers finished the season in third place with an 85-77 record, 12 games back of Baltimore. They finished last in the AL East in the next two seasons before the torch was passed to a new generation of Tigers stars.

The introduction of the designated hitter turned out to be a short-term solution to Brown’s playing-time issues. Al Kaline took over as Detroit’s full-time DH in 1974, the final year of his Hall of Fame career, and in 1975 Horton appeared in 159 games as the Tigers’ designated hitter.

Brown was limited to a paltry 134 at-bats in those two seasons, 88 of which were as a pinch-hitter. He retired after the 1975 season as the American League’s all-time pinch-hit king. As of the start of the 2023 season, Brown still held the league record for most career pinch-hits (106), pinch-hit homers (16), and RBIs as a pinch-hitter (73).23

Brown spent three years as a Tigers scout before becoming the team’s hitting coach in 1978.24 In his first season of coaching, he helped Detroit improve its team batting average from eighth to second in the AL. Brown mentored an exciting crop of young Tigers hitters, including Kirk Gibson, Alan Trammell, and Lou Whitaker.

He grew particularly close to Whitaker, who was grateful for the hitting tips Brown passed on to him. “He’s the only hitting coach I’ve had that I listen to 100 percent of the time,” said Whitaker. “In some ways I’m playing for him, doing some of the things he didn’t get the chance to do [because of a lack of playing time] but could have.”25

The Tigers had a historic season in 1984, setting a franchise record with 104 wins. Powered by the best offense in the majors and the AL’s top pitching staff, Detroit cruised to its fourth World Series championship in franchise history. Brown was one of only two men who were in uniform for both the 1968 and 1984 titles; the other was first-base coach Dick Tracewski.26

After the 1984 season Brown was sent a contract that modestly bumped his yearly pay to around $40,000, which was still at the low end of the salary range for a coach on a top big-league team.27 He considered it an insult. By comparison, pitching coach Roger Craig, who received significant credit for Detroit’s World Series title, was offered nearly twice as much money to return in 1985.28 “I’ve been giving them honest, hard work for years and years while we were finishing fourth and fifth. I didn’t open my mouth then,” Brown explained. “Now that we drew 2.7 million people, I think I deserve a little more than what they’re offering me.”29

“They more or less said, ‘Take it or leave it,’” he disclosed. “I decided to leave it.”30

The ever-popular Brown was allowed to walk away from the Tigers after roughly 25 years of service. The fans, players, and the media were shocked by his sudden departure,31 and the falling-out became a lose-lose situation for both sides. Brown never coached again in the majors and the next season – with a very similar lineup − the Tigers offense fell to sixth best in the league.32

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to using the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. Unless otherwise noted, all play-by-play information for this game was taken from the article “Hiller Sets Save Record; It’s Tigers, 4-3” on page 1-E of the September 16, 1973, edition of the Detroit Free Press.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET197309150.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1973/B09150DET1973.htm

Notes

1 Jim Hawkins, “Billy Blasts DH Rule After Tigers Lose, 5-3,” Detroit Free Press, March 13, 1973: 1-D.

2 Joe Falls, “Designated Hitter? You Can Keep Him,” Detroit Free Press, January 23, 1973: 1-D.

3 The St. Louis Cardinals were tops in the majors with a .181 combined batting average for their pitchers in 1972. The Cincinnati Reds (.113 batting average) had the worst-hitting pitchers in the majors that season. “Team Batting Split Finder,” StatHead.com, https://stathead.com/tiny/4Thei, accessed February 16, 2023.

4 Brown hit .272 with 15 homers and 54 RBIs in 426 at-bats in 1964. He amassed 3.4 Baseball-Reference Wins Above Replacement (bWAR) and posted an OPS+ of 114. His fielding percentage and range factor per nine innings were both above average for a left fielder in the American League.

5 Brown was an average defender compared with other left fielders of his era. His career .976 fielding percentage was slightly below average (.978) for a left fielder, although his career range factor per nine innings (2.00) was slightly above average (1.86). Willie Horton had a career fielding percentage of .970 and a range factor per nine innings of 1.78 in left field.

6 Dave Gagnon, “Gates Brown,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Gates-Brown/, accessed February 14, 2023.

7 Brown appeared in only 17 games in left field and another at first base in 1968.

8 Forty-six percent of Brown’s plate appearances in 1968 were as a pinch-hitter.

9 Gagnon, “Gates Brown.”

10 For Tigers with more than three regular-season at-bats in 1968, Al Kaline came the closest to Brown’s .370 batting average. He hit .287.

11 Gates Brown was the Tigers’ first designated hitter when he batted in the first inning of Detroit’s season opener on April 7, 1973, against the Cleveland Indians. He went 0-for-4 in a 2-1 Tigers loss.

12 Jimmy Keenan and Frank Russo, “Billy Martin,” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/billy-martin/, accessed February 14, 2023; Gregory H. Wolf, “Joe Coleman (the Younger),” SABR BioProject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/joe-coleman-the-younger/, accessed February 14, 2023.

13 Martin was fired in 1969 after only one season as manager of the Minnesota Twins. He clashed with Twins owner Calvin Griffith. During spring training in 1973, Martin was arrested by police; several days later he resigned after a disagreement with Tigers general manager Jim Campbell. He returned to the team the next day. Keenan and Russo, “Billy Martin.”

14 Schultz managed for the remainder of the season and returned to his role as Detroit’s third-base coach in 1974 under new Tigers manager Ralph Houk.

15 Coleman came into the game with a 19-15 record and a 3.93 ERA. He won 15 games before the All-Star break, but lost seven consecutive starts from August 9 to September 3.

16 According to Jim Hawkins of the Detroit Free Press, right fielder Jim Northrup should have caught Lahoud’s fly ball. García finished the season tied with Sal Bando of the Oakland Athletics for the league lead in doubles (32).

17 Nine days later the Tigers waived Sims and he was picked up by the New York Yankees.

18 As of February 2023, both Retrosheet and Baseball Reference had McAuliffe’s hit as a single to right field, but the game story in the Milwaukee Journal called it a bunt single. The Detroit Free Press called it an infield single.

19 Larry Whiteside, “Late Failure Hits Brewers Once Again,” Milwaukee Journal, September 16, 1973: 35.

20 As of the start of the 2023 season, the major-league record for saves was 62 by Francisco Rodríguez of the Los Angeles Angels in 2008. The NL record was 55 by Eric Gagné of the 2003 Los Angeles Dodgers and John Smoltz of the 2002 Atlanta Braves.

21 Whiteside, “Late Failure Hits Brewers Once Again.”

22 Coleman went 20-9 with the Tigers in 1971.

23 Brown’s first major-league at-bat was a pinch-hit homer, which was a sign of things to come. He was a career .251 batter as a pinch-hitter. As of the start of the 2023 season, Jerry Hairston of the Chicago White Sox (1973-77, 1981-89) was second in the AL with 87 career pinch-hits. He also played for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1977. “Player Batting Split Finder,” StatHead.com, https://stathead.com/tiny/0IW4s, accessed February 15, 2023.

24 Gagnon, “Gates Brown.”

25 Gene Guidi, “The Gater Won’t Be Back; Gates Brown Quits in Contract Dispute,” Detroit Free Press, November 15, 1984: 1-F.

26 Tracewski was a backup infielder on the 1968 Detroit Tigers.

27 Gene Guidi, “‘A Slap in the Face’; Gater Calls Tigers’ Offer an ‘Insult,’ Says He’ll Never Return,” Detroit Free Press, November 16, 1984: 1-D.

28 Roger Craig wasn’t happy with his contract offer from the Tigers even though it was for almost twice as much money as Brown’s offer. When the Tigers refused to increase their offer to Craig, he decided to retire from coaching. He was eventually hired as manager of the San Francisco Giants in September 1985. Craig managed the Giants until 1992 and led them to the 1989 pennant. Guidi, “‘A Slap in the Face’; Gater Calls Tigers’ Offer an ‘Insult,’ Says He’ll Never Return”; Gene Guidi, “Tigers Corner,” Detroit Free Press, November 21, 1984: 3-D.

29 Guidi, “‘A Slap in the Face’; Gater Calls Tigers’ Offer an ‘Insult,’ Says He’ll Never Return.”

30 Guidi, “‘A Slap in the Face’; Gater Calls Tigers’ Offer an ‘Insult,’ Says He’ll Never Return.”

31 Guidi, “The Gater Won’t Be Back; Gates Brown Quits in Contract Dispute.”

32 The Tigers averaged 5.1 runs per game in 1984 with Brown as the hitting coach. In 1985 that figure fell to 4.5 runs per game.