Mickey Tettleton carved out an impressive 14-year major league career, slashing .241/.369/.449 with an OPS+ of 122. Over the 14-year span he collected 1,132 hits, 210 doubles, 245 homeruns and 732 RBI. After struggling during the 1987, Mickey found himself released by the Oakland Athletics. He would quickly latch on with the Baltimore Orioles and spend the next 3 seasons with their organization. Come January 1991, Tettleton was dealt to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for Jeff Robinson, who was out of baseball by the end of the 1992 season; it’s safe to say the Tigers won that trade. Then current starting catcher Mike Heath was not happy with how his contract negotiations were going with the club and the acquisition of Tettleton was the end of days for Heath as a Detroit Tiger.
During his tenure as a Detroit Tiger Tettleton put up the best numbers of his career.
*Statistics pulled from Baseball-Reference
While in Detroit he belted nearly half (45%) of his career homeruns. He even became the first person to hit a ball out of Camden Yards onto Eutaw St. in Baltimore.
Tettleton also collected a majority of his accolades while with the Tigers, including, 2 of 3 career Silver Sluggers and 1 of 2 career All Star Game appearances.
He was a fan favorite while wearing the Old English D. He represented hope for a fan base of a struggling organization in the early 1990s. In each of his first three seasons in Detroit he clobbered 30+ homeruns while driving in 80+ RBI. Had it not been for the 1994 MLB Walk Out and the missed opportunity of 40+ games it is quite possible that Tettleton belted 30+ HR and collected 80+ RBI that season as well; after 107 games he was sitting at 17 and 51 respectively.
His quirky batting stance was a favorite of young fans and was regularly imitated on the diamond. When asked about his batting stance Tettleton once said:
“It was ugly, and I certainly wouldn’t teach it to anyone. Laying the bat out started in Lakeland as I was at a batting machine one morning. I felt loose laying it out like that. I started hitting some balls good and just went with it. I first had a routine to look at the bat to make sure the label was facing the pitcher and then would scrape the dirt and dig a little hole. No matter where you start, if you took pictures of hitters side by side, we are all in the same place when you’re starting to launch the bat. It doesn’t matter where you started but where the bat is when your front foot hits the ground.”
Tigers fans also remember the time Mickey crushed 7 homeruns in 7 days; 2 of which left Tiger Stadium completely!
“It’s a crazy part of this game. You get in streaks when it looks like they’re throwing beach balls from second base and other times it looks like they’re throwing golf balls from 20 feet away. When it was four homers in four days, you start thinking if you can do it again in Game 5 but you have to block it out and focus one at-bat at a time. The only time we tried to hit home runs was in batting practice. Other than that, you’re just trying to hit the ball hard somewhere.”
During his career he was one of the best offensive catchers in the game, unfortunately, while his best years came as a Detroit Tiger, he was somewhat overshadowed by teammates like Cecil Fielder, Alan Trammel, Lou Whitaker, Kirk Gibson and Rob Deer. On his days playing in Detroit:
“The Tiger fans were tremendous, and even when we weren’t playing our best, they still came out to old Tiger Stadium. It was so intimate and they were right there with you. The Ilitch family and the fans were great to us.”
What are some of your favorite Mickey Tettleton stories? Are there any other players you think were under appreciated during their Tiger tenure?
*Statistics pulled from both Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs
**Quotes from “Mickey Tettleton had a blast playing for the Detroit Tigers” by Bill Dow of the Detroit Free Press