Tax Day Tiger History

April 15, 1983 - On a 43 degree day in Chicago, Milt Wilcox made the White Sox bats feel much colder. The 19,483 White Sox faithful at Comiskey Park (the first one), saw their team send 26 batters to the plate, and saw 26 batters retired. With two outs in the 9th inning, in stepped pinch hitter Jerry Hairston. Hairston was pinch hitting for short stop Jerry Dybzinski, who was 0-2 with a strike out on the day. Hairston would eventually single to center fielder Chet Lemon (3-4 3 RBI) and ruin any chance for a perfect game or a no-hitter. Wilcox (8 K) would get the next hitter Rudy Law (0-4) to groundout to first baseman Rick Leach (1-4) to preserve the complete game shut out. This was only the 3rd time in history a pitcher had a perfect game stopped with one out to go. The win moved Milt's record for the season to 1-1 and moved the Tigers to 5-4 on top of the American League East. Wilcox finished the season with a 11-10 record and an ERA of 3.97. He would pitch 2 more years in Detroit before moving to Seattle for his last season in 1986. The Tigers finished 1983 with record of 92-70, 6 games behind Baltimore in the race for the American League pennant.

April 15, 1993 - On a beautiful spring day at Tiger Stadium, George "Sparky" Anderson would make 3 substitutions that would let him enter the door of an elite managerial club. Tony LaRussa replaced Rich Gossage in the 9th inning with closer Dennis Eckersly to close out a 2-1 game. On the 3rd pitch from Eckersly, Rob Deer (2-4 1 RBI) would line a single to left field. Gary Thurman (1) would pinch run for Deer. Switch hitter Mickey Tettelton (0-3) stepped to the plate. After a called strike on Tettelton, LaRussa called for a pitchout on the 2nd pitch. LaRussa guessed correctly, Thurman was off trying to steal 2nd on the pitch. Thurman was safe at 2nd, and the Tigers had the tying run in scoring position. Tettleton hit the next pitch to on the ground to the second baseman, moving Thurman to 3rd, for the first out of the inning. Without Thurman's swipe, the ground ball would have been the start of a double play. Scott Livingstone (1-4 1 RBI) would then line a single to right field scoring Thurman to tie the game at 2. Sparky would now make the final two moves. He pinch ran for Livingstone with the speedy Skeeter Barnes, and pinch hit Chad Krueter for Milt Cuyler (0-3). On a 1-2 count, Krueter would drive a ball deep into left-center field to score Barnes from 1st base and secure the 2,000th win in Sparky Anderson's career. Sparky would coach through the 1995 season winning another 194 games. His 2,194 wins rank 4th on the all-time list. The Tigers would finish with season with a 85-77 record. This was the last season the Tigers had a winning record until the 2006 campaign.