Detroit Tigers players

Harvey Donald "Hank" Riebe (October 10, 1921 – April 16, 2001) was a Major League Baseball catcher for four seasons with the Detroit Tigers (1942, 1947–1949). He also received a Bronze Star and two Purple Heart medals while serving in the United States Army during World War II. He was a survivor of the sinking of the troopship SS Leopoldville off the coast of France on December 24, 1944, in which 763 soldiers lost their lives.Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Riebe signed with the Detroit Tigers after graduating from Euclid Shore High School in Cleveland. Riebe played in the minor leagues in Beaumont, Texas, Alexandria, Louisiana, Muskegon, Michigan, Henderson, Texas, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Rieber later recalled: "Detroit really moved players around a lot."
In August 1942, the Tigers called Riebe up to the big leagues. He played his first major league game in Philadelphia on August 26, 1942, in the second game of a Sunday double-header. Riebe hit a two-run double down the left field line. He went 2-for-4 in his major league debut and 4-for-4 a week later in his first game at Briggs Stadium. In all, Riebe hit .314 in 11 games for the Tigers in 1942.
After a promising start to his baseball career, Riebe was drafted into the U.S. Army after the 1942 season ended. He served in the 66th Infantry Division in Europe. On Christmas Eve 1944, Riebe was aboard the SS Leopoldville headed for Cherbourg, France, when it was sunk by torpedoes fired by a German U-boat. Riebe floated in the icy water of the English Channel and a Coast Guard cutter pulled him out. Over 750 American troops lost their lives in the sinking of the Leopoldville. Riebe was awarded a Purple Heart medal for injuries suffered in the Leopoldville sinking and later served with the 66th Infantry as it moved across Europe. In the spring of 1945, Riebe was injured by shrapnel from German artillery, earning his second Purple Heart award.
Riebe recalled listening on the radio from a tent in France as his teammates on the Detroit Tigers won the 1945 World Series.
Released from the military in early 1946, Riebe returned to the Tigers for spring training in 1946, but he did not make the team. He played the 1946 season in the minor leagues with Buffalo and Dallas.
In 1947, Riebe was elevated back to the major leagues but was the Tigers' third catcher behind Bob Swift and Birdie Tebbetts. Riebe played in only 8 games in 1946 and went hitless in 7 at-bats. When the Tigers acquired yet another catcher, Hal Wagner, Riebe was sent to Memphis in the minor leagues.
Riebe played briefly for the Tigers in 1948 and 1949, but he never came close to his .314 batting average of 1942. He hit .194 in 25 games in 1948 and .182 in 17 games in 1949. He played his last major league game for the Tigers on September 17, 1949.
Riebe played in a total of 61 major league games and had a career batting average of .212 and 11 RBIs.
Riebe also played for the Toledo Mud Hens in 1950 before retiring from baseball at age 28.
From 1951 to 1977, Riebe worked for a brass and copper company in Cleveland. He died of cancer in 2001 at age 79. He was born and died in Cleveland.
Riebe's brothers Mel Riebe and Bill Riebe played professional basketball in the National Basketball Association from 1944 to 1949.

Albert Julius Aber (July 31, 1927 – May 20, 1993) was an American professional baseball pitcher. He appeared in 168 games in Major League Baseball with the Cleveland Indians (1950, 1953), Detroit Tigers (1953–1957) and Kansas City Athletics (1957). Born in Cleveland, he threw and batted left-handed and was listed as 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall and 195 pounds (88 kg).
Aber graduated from West Technical High School and was signed as by the Indians at age 19 in 1946. He made his major league debut on September 15, 1950, pitching a complete-game victory, allowing two runs. He did not play another game in the big leagues until 1953, spending the 1951 and 1952 seasons performing military service during the Korean War. He appeared in six games for the Indians in 1953, winning one and losing one, before being traded on June 15 to the Tigers with Steve Gromek, Ray Boone and Dick Weik for Art Houtteman, Owen Friend, Bill Wight, and Joe Ginsberg. Aber spent the next five years with the Tigers, where he compiled a 22–24 record. His best statistical season was 1955, in which Aber appeared in 39 games and won six, lost three, and had an earned run average of 3.38. He was then waived by the Tigers, and was picked up by the Kansas City Athletics, for whom he pitched in three games, his final appearance coming on September 11, 1957.In an interview in SPORT magazine in June 1956, Tigers catcher Frank House noted that Aber threw a "heavy" ball: "I could catch Billy (Hoeft) with a fielder's glove. Although he's fast, he throws a 'light' ball that makes it easy on the catcher. Al Aber, another leftie on our staff, is tough to catch because he throws a 'heavy' ball."
Aber became a sales representative after retiring. He died in 1993 at age 65 in Garfield Heights, Ohio.

Ronald Lawrence Woods (born February 1, 1943) is an American former professional baseball player who appeared in all or part of six seasons in Major League Baseball from 1969 to 1974, primarily as an outfielder, for the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees and Montreal Expos. He also played two seasons in Japan for the Chunichi Dragons in 1975–1976. Born in Hamilton, Ohio, Woods threw and batted right-handed, stood 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) tall and weighed 168 pounds (76 kg).
Woods graduated from Compton High School in Southern California, and entered pro baseball in the Pittsburgh Pirates' organization in June 1961. However, after five years in the Pittsburgh farm system, he had risen only as high as the Double-A level. Early in 1966, the Detroit Tigers acquired his contract. After a strong 1968 season with the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens, Woods made the 1969 roster of the defending World Series champion Tigers out of spring training. He appeared in 17 early-season games for Detroit, largely as a pinch hitter, pinch runner and defensive replacement, before being traded June 14 to the New York Yankees for veteran outfielder Tom Tresh.
Although he struggled offensively, Woods was able to solidify his hold on a major league job with the Yankees, appearing in 192 games (starting 147) from June 1969 to June 1971. On June 25 of the latter year, the Yankees sent Woods to the Montreal Expos for former New York Mets outfielder Ron Swoboda. Despite a brief detour to Triple-A Winnipeg in 1971, Woods spent the next 31⁄2 years on the Expo roster, appearing in 373 games and batting a cumulative .245. In 1973, he was Montreal's most-used center fielder, starting 72 games and platooning with left-handed hitters Boots Day and Jim Lyttle, as the Expos, a fifth-year expansion team, battled for the National League East Division title before falling short by 31⁄2 games.
That off-season, however, the Expos traded for veteran center fielder Willie Davis of the Los Angeles Dodgers, relegating Woods to part-time status in 1974. He started 21 games all season, batted .205 in 127 at bats, and departed for the Chunichi Dragons of Nippon Professional Baseball. He played the 1975 and 1976 seasons in Japan, appearing in 192 total games and hitting .263 with 160 hits and 19 home runs.
Doing Woods' six seasons in the major leagues, Woods batted .233. His 290 hits in 1,247 at bats included 34 doubles, 12 triples, and 26 career home runs. He compiled 130 RBIs, and 27 stolen bases.

Kip Lane Young (born October 29, 1954) is a former baseball player. A right-handed pitcher, Young played Major League Baseball with the Detroit Tigers in 1978 and 1979. As a rookie in 1978, he pitched complete-game victories in his first four starts and compiled a 2.81 earned run average (ERA) for the season.
Before his professional career began, Young played college baseball at Bowling Green State University where he won 37 games to set a Mid-American Conference record.

Jon Warden (born October 1, 1946) is an American baseball player originally from Columbus, Ohio. A left-handed pitcher, he was selected by the Detroit Tigers in the fourth round of the 1966 amateur draft. In the 1968 season, he played 28 games and 37+1⁄3 innings for the Tigers, ending with a 4-1 record, 3 saves, 11 games finished, and an ERA of 3.62. After the conclusion of the 1968 season, he was selected in the expansion draft by the Kansas City Royals, but did not play any games for that team.

David Vance Tobik (born March 2, 1953) is an American former right-handed professional baseball relief pitcher. After attending Ohio University, Tobik played eight seasons in the Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Detroit Tigers (1978–1982), Texas Rangers (1983–1984), and Seattle Mariners (1985).

George Elwell Spencer (July 7, 1926 – September 10, 2014) was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball. A right-hander, he was primarily a relief pitcher for the New York Giants and the Detroit Tigers. Spencer stood 6 feet 0 inches (1.83 m) tall and weighed 200 pounds (91 kg).
A graduate of Bexley High School and Ohio State University, where he played quarterback on the OSU varsity football team, Spencer was a key member of the 1951 Giants' pitching staff, leading the club in saves and winning ten of 14 decisions, including a key August start over the front-running Brooklyn Dodgers. The Giants would famously overcome a 131⁄2-game, mid-August deficit to tie Brooklyn on the season's final day, then defeated the Dodgers for the National League pennant on Bobby Thomson's historic Game 3 home run.

Roman Anthony Semproch (born January 7, 1931), also known as Baby and Ray, is a retired right-handed Major League Baseball pitcher who played from 1958 to 1961 for the Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Angels.
He was signed by the Phillies as an amateur free agent in 1951, but he did not make his big league debut until many years later – on April 15, 1958, against the Cincinnati Reds. The year prior, he'd gone 12–4 with a 2.64 ERA for the Triple-A Miami Marlins. In his first major league game, he gave up a hit and a walk, struck out two, and earned the win in a three inning relief appearance. Overall, he went 13–11 with a 3.92 ERA in 36 big league games (30 starts) that season. Although he was leading the league in wins at mid-season, his success tapered off and he finished with a winning percentage slightly higher than .500.
Asthmatic, Semproch never lived up to his rookie season's success. In 1959, he went only 3–10 with a 5.40 ERA in 30 games (18 starts). He was traded to the Tigers on December 5, 1959 with Chico Fernandez for Ken Walters, Ted Lepcio, and minor leaguer Alex Cosmidis. In 17 relief appearances for the Tigers in 1960, he had an ERA of 4.00 and a record of 3–0. Despite that moderate success, he was traded on June 15, 1960 to the Los Angeles Dodgers with cash for Clem Labine. He would never play in a Dodgers uniform.
On November 28, 1960, he was drafted by the Washington Senators in the Rule 5 draft (he and John Gabler were the first two player acquired by the "new" Washington Senators of 1961). On April 7, 1961, the Angels purchased him from the Senators. He'd appear in only two games for the Angels, posting a 9.00 ERA. He played his final major league game on May 2, 1961.
Overall, Semproch went 19–21 with a 4.42 ERA in 85 games (48 starts). In 344 innings, he walked 136 batters and struck out 156. He hit .116 at the plate and had a .965 fielding percentage.
Following his big league career, he worked as a bar manager at his brother's Italian restaurant.

Frederick John Scherman, Jr. (born July 25, 1944) is a former left-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball from 1969 to 1976. He compiled a 33-26 record in eight major league seasons with a 3.66 earned run average (ERA), 39 saves, and 297 strikeouts.
A native of Dayton, Ohio, Scherman signed with the Minnesota Twins in 1963, but was traded to the Detroit Tigers in 1964. After five years in the Tigers' farm system, Scherman made his major league debut in 1969 and spent five years with the club from 1969 to 1973. His best season was 1971 when he set a Detroit Tigers record with 69 pitching appearances (second most in the American League during the 1971 season) and compiled an 11-6 record with a 2.71 ERA, 20 saves, and 40 games finished.
Scherman was traded to the Houston Astros in December 1973 and compiled a 2-6 record and 4.29 ERA for the Astros during the 1974 and 1975 seasons. He was sold to the Montreal Expos in June 1975 and compiled a 6-5 record and 4.02 ERA for Montreal in 1975 and 1976. Scherman concluded his career pitching in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system in 1977 and in Japan during the 1978 season.

Donald Lee Leshnock (November 25, 1946 – May 5, 2012), was an American professional baseball left-handed pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Detroit Tigers, in 1972.Leshnock’s entire big league career consisted of one inning of relief, for Detroit, on June 7, 1972, when the Tigers hosted the California Angels. He did not allow an earned run, giving up two hits, and no walks, while striking out two of the five batters he faced.
Leshnock attended Youngstown State University, where he played college baseball for the Penguins, (1965, Junior Varsity) and (1966–1968, Varsity) and was inducted into the Youngstown State Athletic Hall of Fame, in 1986.
Besides Leshnock‘s brief MLB stint, he pitched eight seasons of Minor League Baseball, from 1968 to 1975.