OT: RIP former Detroit Tiger Tony Phillips

Submitted by Magnus on

Former Detroit Tigers utility man Tony Phillips passed away at 56 years old. He was a very, uh, "passionate" player, but Phillips was a fun one to watch. There was rarely a dull moment when he was playing. Mostly an infielder, he hit .266 with 160 home runs and 177 stolen bases during his career.

http://m.athletics.mlb.com/news/article/164936226/tony-phillips-dies

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CoverZero

February 20th, 2016 at 1:47 AM ^

6-3 and you are complaining?  I was the second tallest kid on my 12 year old football team and was tearing it up.  Entered HS at 5.5 and only grew about 4 more inches the rest of the way.  THAT sucked because i was a damned good player and coulda played B1G Ten ball had I had 3 more inches.  God gave me length in other areas though...

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Mgodiscgolfer

February 20th, 2016 at 7:16 AM ^

I happen to remember a Tiger by the name of Dick Mcauliffe.... I challenge anyone to get in a batting cage and hit one pitch with his stance. His HR batting average was remarkable, a feat initself. Tony the Tiger died way to young if you ask me, I turn 57 on April 1st. Yes old enough to remember a few 68 Tigers Horton, Stormin Norm Cash, Kaline, Jim Northrup, Dick Mcauliffe and I think Dick Wertz. There also was a famous pitcher I won't name here because, lets just say he went south.

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EGD

February 19th, 2016 at 10:11 PM ^

Damn. I loved watching Tony Phillips work pitchers. He was on some bad Tiger teams but they could at least score runs, and he was a big part of it.

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LSAClassOf2000

February 19th, 2016 at 10:29 PM ^

56 is way too young. Very sad.

I have a lot of great memories of Tony Phillips' time as a Tiger - I don't think there was a moment usually where there wasn't anticipation of something good happening when he was at bat. He scored over 100 runs in 1992 and 1993, I believe, and drew just as many walks in those years as well. I was admittedly rather sad when we traded him away for Chad Curtis.

A great, versatile player indeed.

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Magnus

February 19th, 2016 at 10:36 PM ^

IIRC, Phillips led the AL in walks a couple times. I remember watching him take so many pitches that I thought were going to be called third strikes, but he somehow waited it out...

Of course, a lot of those pitches WERE called third strikes, and that's when his "passion" showed.

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NittanyFan

February 19th, 2016 at 10:52 PM ^

if you throw out Barry Bonds: only one person (Joey Votto) has had that many walks in a season in the last 13 seasons of MLB.

Those were some uniquely structured offensive teams.  Phillips would get on-base with regularity.  Then he'd wait for Deer/Fielder/Tettleton/Fryman/Incaviglia/et cetera behind him to either strikeout or drive him in with the long ball.  He rarely seemed to walk, steal 2B, then score on an RBI single.

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JamieH

February 19th, 2016 at 11:52 PM ^

long before MLB really paid enough attention to it.  Sparky was WAY ahead of his time leading TP off.  Nowadays it would make sense because people would look at his OBP and get it, but back in the day, people looked at a .266 hitter and didn't understand what the heck Sparky was doing.   No one really listed OBP as a stat back then.

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Prince Lover

February 20th, 2016 at 7:00 AM ^

I took my eventual prom date to a game. We were sitting in the bleachers and Tony came up to bat. I told her, if Tony Hits a homer, it's a sign that means we shouldn't go to prom together. Next thing we know,bye hits a dinger. Neither of us cheer because we wanted to go. We just kind of looked at each other like, are we still going or.... We still went. But it was a moment I'll never forget. I did love Tony the Tiger. Too soon for him. RIP my man.

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