FanPost

Unsung Tigers Heroes: Dick McAuliffe

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The 113 year existence of the Detroit Tigers has produced many heroes and legends that we still hear about today. Many of them, like Ty Cobb, Al Kaline, Hank Greenberg, and Charlie Gehringer to name a few, are enshrined in Cooperstown where their names are echoed among the entire greats of baseball. Even outside of those honored few, names such as Willie Horton, Alan Trammell, and Lou Whitaker are often spoken with reverence in the scope of Tiger's history.

But with every great that Detroit is synonymous with, there are players who come along that, for whatever reason, don't receive the fanfare they deserve. Whether it's because they're surrounded by teammates who were superstars, that time has eroded the memories of what they've done, or that they're contributions are simply under appreciated, these players are not heralded the same way as others. So for the next couple of weeks, I'm going to attempt to chronicle the endeavors of some of these unsung Tiger's heroes.

And leading off is Dick McAuliffe.

Dick McAuliffe was born November 29, 1939 in Hartford, Connecticut. He made his first appearance in the Major Leagues for the Tigers in late September of 1960 as a pinch hitter. When he was recalled mid-season in 1961, he was there to stay and, with the exception a few injury hampered seasons, was a regular in Detroit's infield until 1973.

McAuliffe was an awkward, yet efficient player in everything he did. Imagine if Hunter Pence was an infielder in the 60's. The first thing anyone will remember about him was his peculiar batting stance. Bill James probably has the best description I've heard of it in his book, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. "[I]t's been 30 years and I can find no photograph, but as best I remember he tucked his right wrist under his chin and held his bat over his head, so it looked as if he were dodging the sword of Damocles in mid-descent. He pointed his left knee at the catcher and his right knee at the pitcher and spread the two as far apart as humanly possible, his right foot balanced on the toes so that to have lowered his heel two inches would have pulled his knee inward by a foot. He whipped the bat in sort of a violent pinwheel which produced line drives, strikeouts, and fly balls, few ground balls and not a lot of pop outs."

I've actually had the same problem as James did in that I couldn't really find a decent photo of him in the batters box. This odd stance, however, was actually developed by the Tiger's minor league hitting instructor to get his hips out of the way so he could get around on professional grade fastballs. That being said, his quirkiness was not limited to hitting. James also extrapolates on his fielding: "He was as odd in the field as he was at the plate. 'As a second baseman,' wrote Chris Stern in Where Have They Gone, 'he looked like a miner trying to take a shovelful of coal out of the ground.'" His awkward style of fielding led to him being inconsistent on defense, having seasons anywhere between having cost his team 18 runs, to having saved 8 runs (based on UZR).

It was his offense, though, where his true value was. As a middle-infielder in the second dead-ball era of the 1960's, offensive expectations were exceedingly low. The average line for shortstops and second basemen between 1961 and 1968 was .248/.307/.338, while McAuliffe's line through that same time frame was .255/.346/.420. He averaged 21 doubles, 9 triples, and 20 home runs per 162 games in that span, which is good extra base ability for an up-the-middle position in any era, but for that particular time it was phenomenal.

But where he was truly great at was drawing walks. For the entirety of his 16 year career, he averaged 81 walks per 162 games a year, and eclipsed the 100 base on balls mark twice. McAuliffe wasn't a burner on the base-paths, and he never hit for an exceptional batting average (he topped out at .274 in 1966 and in 1973), but his ability to take ball four allowed him to get on base and score some runs. In terms of creating runs Bill James estimates that McAuliffe was responsible for creating more runs than any other second baseman of his era.

For fans of WAR, he averaged between 1964 and 1970 a bWAR of 4.2 and in 1966 posted a bWAR of 6.0, all with a very comparable fWAR as well. He also was a member of three straight all-star teams between 1964 and 1967 and was a key member of the 1968 World Series champion team, posting a regular season bWAR of 5.6, even though his postseason performance that year was slightly lackluster.

There are many reasons why Dick McAuliffe isn't as renown in Detroit's baseball lore as well as others. First of all, he played on teams that had talent and personalities such as Al Kaline, Willie Horton, Norm Cash, Bill Freehan, Denny McLain, and Mickey Lolich. Those are the names that first come to mind when thinking about the 1960's Tigers. Another reason is that, while he started out as a shortstop, he spent most of his playing time at second base, and that pantheon of Tiger's history is already seated by two greats in Charlie Gehringer and Lou Whitaker. And despite being a quirky player, McAuliffe's skill sets weren't overly flashy, even if they were very efficient.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the <em>Bless You Boys</em> writing staff.