Tiger Tuesday – Bobby Higginson

Don’t worry people, this won’t be our weekly feature!  But since I haven’t had the time to really think about what to do on an ongoing basis, the first thing to pop into my head today was Tiger Tuesday.  Ok, so maybe I’m going crazy.  After settling on that idea, the first Tiger that came into my head was Al Kaline.  But he’s already been mentioned in one of my blogs.  Plus, that’s a little earlier than where this blog is supposed to focus.  The second Tiger to pop into my head was Bobby Higginson.  With this, I accomplished two things:  I nailed the epitome of who/what this blog is supposed to focus on, and I also confirmed that I was in fact going crazy.  The Detroit Tigers have played baseball for 120 years, and the second Tiger player to pop into my head is Bobby Higginson.  But what’s done is done, so let’s take a look at Robert Leigh Higginson.

Mike Cameron trucks some fool.

Higginson was originally drafted in the 18^th round of the 1991 Major League Draft by his hometown Philadelphia Phillies, out of Temple University.  The Owls have produced 15 total major leaguers, but only six since 1960, and Higginson is by far the best.  Although only three other players from the 18^th round in 1991 made the majors, those four players combined for 94.3 WAR.  Along with Higginson, there was Ron Mahay, Kirk Rueter and Mike Cameron.  Higginson declined to sign with the Phillies and instead returned to Temple.  The following year, he was taken in the 12^th round by the Tigers.  Five other players from that round made the majors, but other than Higginson, the only other one of note was Doug Mientkiewicz.

The contact will take
care of itself.  Or not.

Upon signing with the Tigers, Higginson was assigned to A- Niagara Falls.  There, he had a pretty decent season, hitting .293 with 17 doubles, four triples, two home runs, 37 RBIs and 12 stolen bases, with 33 walks and 47 strikeouts.  He only made two errors in 67 games in the outfield, good for a .983 fielding percentage, and had five outfield assists.  His on base percentage was .383, a good deal higher than team home run leader Keith Kimsey, who hit 12 home runs, walked nine times, and struck out 106 times.  You have to admire someone that committed to sticking with their process.

In 1993, Higginson would start the season at A+ Lakeland.  In 61 games, he hit .300 with 11 doubles, seven triples, three home runs, 25 RBIs and eight stolen bases, with 40 walks and 31 strikeouts.  He made two errors in the outfield, good for a fielding percentage of .979, and he added seven outfield assists.  All of this earned him a promotion to AA London, where he hit .308 with 15 doubles, four triples, four home runs, 35 RBIs and three stolen bases, with 19 walks and 37 strikeouts.  He only made two errors there as well, good for a fielding percentage of .982, and he added 11 outfield assists.

Higginson would spend his entire 1994 season at AAA Toledo.  For the Mudhens, he hit .275 with 28 doubles, three triples, 23 home runs, 67 RBIs and 16 stolen bases, with 46 walks and 99 strikeouts.  With the increase in strikeouts came the increase in power.  In the outfield, he committed eight errors for a .973 fielding percentage, and he added 10 outfield assists.

The Tigers deemed Higginson ready for the big leagues for the 1995 season.  He would make his Major League debut on April 26^th, pinch hitting for Danny Bautista in a 5-4 win over the California Angels.  He would strike out against Bob Patterson in his first at bat in the sixth, and then pop out to short in the eighth, three batters after Cecil Fielder hit career home run number 220, a two run shot that proved to be the game winner.  Higginson wouldn’t get his first hit until four days later, an RBI single in a 10-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners.  On May 2^nd and 3^rd, he hit his first two career home runs.  On August 20^th, he had his first career two-home run game.  Overall for the 1995 season, he hit .224 with 17 doubles, five triples, 14 home runs, 43 RBIs and six stolen bases, with 62 walks and 107 strikeouts.  In the outfield, he only made four errors for a .983 fielding percentage, and he added 13 outfield assists.

It’s too bad that Higginson exhausted his Rookie of the Year eligibility in 1995, because he very well could have won the award in 1996.  In the third game of the season, he went 4-6 with a three run home run off of the Oakland Athletics former can’t-miss prospect Todd Van Poppel.  In a 10-9 Tigers victory, he added three runs, including what proved to be the game winner, scoring on Melvin Nieves’ sacrifice fly in the top of the 15^th inning.  That was also the first of three straight games in which he hit a home run.  He would add another four hit day on April 24^th, a game which the Tigers lost 24-11 to the Minnesota Vikings Twins.  In that game, Paul Molitor had a career high five runs scored, and he tied a career high with five RBIs.

Higginson was hitting .303 on April 25^th, but in the 12 games after that, his average dropped all the way to .252.  He was placed on the DL, and wouldn’t return until June 7^th.  He came back with a seven game hit streak, and only went hitless in three of 21 games in June, where he hit .394 with seven home runs.  Two of those home runs came on June 20^th, and three days later, he started another streak of three consecutive games where he hit a home run.  In July, he hit three home runs in his first five games, and in the last four games that month, he hit a ridiculous .688 (11 for 16).

Higginson had a decent August that season, and then in September, he only went hitless in five of 23 games, hitting .352 to end the season.  His average hit a season high two days before the end of the season, which is something many people can’t say.  Overall for 1995, he hit .320 (.342 after the DL stint) with 35 doubles, 26 home runs, 81 RBIs and six stolen bases, with 65 walks and 66 strikeouts.  His rediscovered patience at the plate helped him set a career highs in on base percentage (.404) and OPS (.982).  He committed nine errors in the outfield for a .963.  I assumed that at least some of those errors had to do with a less-than-optimum Higginson earlier in the season, and my suspicions were correct.  In 29 games played before the injury, he had five errors.  In 94 games after he came back, he had four errors.  Overall for the season, he also added nine outfield assists.

Halladay reacts to Higginson's
hit just before he realized how
it was going to go. 

Higginson’s numbers remained pretty consistent for the next two seasons, as he hit a combined .291 with 67 doubles, nine triples, 52 home runs, 186 RBIs and 15 stolen bases, with 133 walks and 186 strikeouts.  In the outfield, he only had 18 errors for a .977 fielding percentage, and he added 38 outfield assists.  Highlights include his first four career grand slams and his first three-home run game where he added seven RBIs in a 14-0 beat down of the New York Mets on 6/30/97.  He would add a home run the following day, tying a major league record with home runs in four consecutive at bats.  On 9/27/98, he hit a pinch hit home run with two outs in the ninth inning in a 2-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.  The significance?  Up to that point, the Tigers did not have a hit in what was Roy Halladay’s second career appearance.

Higginson was never quite right in 1999, only playing in 13 games after July 23^rd.  For the season, he only hit .239 with 18 doubles, 12 home runs, 46 RBIs and four stolen bases, with 64 walks and 66 strikeouts.  He only made three errors in the outfield for a .983 fielding percentage, but he only added two outfield assists.  He would bounce back strong the following season, hitting .300 with 44 doubles, four triples, 30 home runs, 102 RBIs and 15 stolen bases, with 74 walks and 99 strikeouts.  He made seven errors in the outfield for a .979 fielding percentage, and he added 19 outfield assists.  He was AL Player of the Week for the weeks of June 18^th (.545 with five home runs and 12 RBIs) and October 1^st (.500 with three home runs and 10 RBIs).

Over the next two years, Higginson continued to be a fairly consistent player.  He hit a combined .279 with 52 doubles, nine triples, 27 home runs, 134 RBIs and 32 stolen bases, with 121 walks and 110 strikeouts.  In the outfield, he committed 15 errors for a .973 fielding percentage, adding 25 outfield assists.  He was again AL Player of the week for July 15^th, 2001 (.500 with two home runs and seven RBIs; short All Star week).

The next two seasons were the decline phase for Higginson.  In the 2003 and 2004 seasons, he combined to hit .240 with 37 doubles, six triples, 26 home runs, 116 RBIs and 13 stolen bases, with 129 walks and 157 strikeouts.  He was still solid in the outfield, committing 11 errors for a .978 fielding percentage, and he added 17 outfield assists.  He would earn his final AL Player of the Week award for the week of August 22^nd, 2004 (.556 with four home runs and 12 RBIs, including two-two home run games).

2005 was the end of the road for Higginson.  He only played in 10 games, with his last coming on May 5^th.  His last career hit came on April 7^th, an RBI single off of Shawn Camp in a 7-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals.  He still managed to play seven errorless games that season, and even earned his last outfield assist on April 20^th, nailing Jermaine Dye at second base in a 9-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox.

To me, it seemed like Higginson was on the Tigers forever, but it was actually only 11 seasons, if you include his very brief 2005.  For his career, he hit .272 with 270 doubles, 33 triples, 187 home runs, 709 RBIs and 91 stolen bases, with 649 walks and 796 strikeouts.  His overall fielding percentage was .977, with 64 errors in 1274 games in the outfield, adding 124 assists.  That outfield assist total is actually good for 205^th all time, one behind Jose Cruz, Bug Holliday, Willard Marshall and Bobby Murcer, and one ahead of Rocky Colavito, Torii Hunter, Mark Kotsay and Duke Snider.  While he never led the league in any offensive category, he did lead the AL in outfield assists in 1995, 1997, 2000, and 2004, and finished second in 1998 and 2002.

While he certainly isn’t a Hall of Fame caliber player, and voters agreed, not casting a single vote for him in 2011, he is the type of player built for a team Hall of Fame.  It appears the Tigers are pretty stingy with that though, as they only have elected 22 members for a team that has played for 120 years.  Maybe one day, they’ll open the doors for Higginson.  And Alan Trammell.  And Lou Whitaker.