MH:The Mike Holtzclaws

Infield: Miller Huggins (1904-16) is known to most fans as a manager, but he was a very good second baseman, too. A little guy (“The Mighty Mite”), he would draw 90-100 walks per year, pushing his career on-base percentage up over .380. He was a slap hitter, a good bunter and a fine defensive player. First baseman Mike Hargrove (1974-85) would also draw 90-100 walks, and he had a bit more power. He was a .290 hitter who walked almost twice as often as he struck out. Hargrove used to step out of the batter’s box between pitches to fiddle around with his gloves, his hat, his sleeves. They called him The Human Rain Delay because his at-bats took so long, and he was the only one who did this on a regular basis at that time. Today, everyone does it, which is one of the reasons the games take so much longer to play. Third baseman Mike Higgins (1930-46) batted .290 and was good for 30 doubles and a dozen homers per year. Also known as “Pinky,” he drove in 1,000 runs in his career and later managed (and general managed) the Red Sox. Once did two months in prison for negligent homicide when he ran over and killed a highway worker while driving drunk. Shortstop Mike Hollimon (2008- ) is a guy who doesn’t hit much but draws some walks. In the minors. In his only big-league action to date, he batted .261 for the Tigers in 23 at-bats, with one walk. But four of his six hits went for extra-base hits, which one has to assume is an anomaly. He’s not much, but he’s the best shortstop that MH has to offer.

Outfield: Right fielder Matt Holliday (2004- ) put up some huge numbers in his first five seasons, but a lot of people just assumed it was because he was playing in Colorado. Then he spent 2009 split between Oakland and St. Louis, and he still batted .313, drove in 100 runs, and was close to .400 on-base and over .500 slugging. He's been hitting ever since, and folks are convinced that he's the real deal. Left fielder Mel Hall (1981-96) was a lefty hitter who spent much of his career as a platoon player. He was a productive .270 hitter, and when he did get opportunities to play every day, he did fine. A good player, but apparently not a very good person – he is currently in prison after being convicted of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl who had played on a basketball team that he coached. (Hall continues to protest his innocence and says he can't explain why several previous players came forward during the trial with similar claims.) Center fielder Mickey Hatcher (1979-90) was a .280 hitter who didn’t do anything with it. He didn’t draw enough walks to get on base much, and when he did, he wasn’t a very good baserunner (11 career steals in 26 attempts), and he didn’t have any power, though he would hit the occasional double. Best suited, really, as a fourth outfielder and utility type player, but on this team he’s a starter. Batted .368 in the 1988 World Series with two home runs in five games (after hitting just one in 88 games during the regular season).

Catcher: Mike Heath (1978-91) was a .250 hitter who could reach double-digits in home runs, and he did a good job cutting off the running game.

Rotation: Mel Harder (1928-47) held several Cleveland Indians pitching records, including career victories (223) until Bob Feller broke them. He was a soft-spoken gentleman and a fine pitcher who pitched in four straight all-star games, working 13 consecutive shutout innings. After he retired, he worked as the pitching coach for the great Indians rotations of the 1950s. Mike Hampton (1993-2010) signed a huge contract with the Rockies (long-term, about $14 million per year), and that contract was passed on via trade to Atlanta in 2003. He pitched two decent seasons, then had injuries that required multiple surgeries and collected tens of millions of dollars without ever pitching. To his credit, he never stopped working, and he eventually made it back to the majors near the end of 2008. He was a good pitcher when healthy, with 148 career victories, and the best hitting pitcher of his era (.246 career with 16 home runs, and four seasons over .300). Moose Haas (1976-87) won 100 games in his career, and he did it by winning about 9-11 games per year for the Brewers. Lefty Mickey Harris (1940-52) missed four key years, between the ages of 25-28, during World War II. When he came back, he went 17-9 for the Red Sox in ’46, so it’s a fair question to ask how many victories he may have lost to military service. He finished his career 59-71, and obviously almost 30 percent of his wins came in one season, as injuries forced his move to the bullpen in the late 1940s. Mickey Haefner (1943-50), another lefty, was the opposite of Harris. Haefner was a successful minor-league pitcher who did not get drafted and who got the chance, in his 30s, to pitch in the majors (for the Senators) during World War II. He won 53 games during those first four seasons and stuck around long enough for a 78-91 career record.

Bullpen: Closer Mike Henneman (1987-96) is second in Detroit Tigers history in saves. He was an effective closer in Detroit for several years but never piled up big save totals because of Sparky Anderson’s unorthodox use of the bullpen. Ironically, Henneman finally saved 30 games in 1996 for the Rangers, but he pitched awful that year, compiling an 0-7 record with a 5.79 ERA. Matt Herges (1992-99) was a big, heavyset guy who put a lot of runners on base but was generally successful as a set-up man and occasional closer for eight teams in 11 seasons. Lefty Mike Holtz (1996-2006) was a dependable reliever for the Angels for several years. Mark Henderickson (2002- ) is a 6-foot-9 lefty who also played more than 100 games in the NBA. Mike Hedlund (1965-72) was a swingman whose career was derailed by injuries just as it seemed to be taking shape (15-8, 2.71 ERA for Kansas City in 1971 at age 24). Mark Huismann (1983-91) was a decent pitcher in 152 major-league games, and in between call-ups he would go down and put up great numbers in the minors until his mid-30s. Mike Hartley (1989-95) pitched pretty well in 202 major-league games, going 19-13 with a 3.70 ERA, and he is currently managing (and occasionally pitching) in a professional league in Germany.

Bench: Mule Haas (1925-38) is no relation to Moose Haas, despite the fact that they have the same last name and they both are nicknamed after large, slow-moving quadrupeds. He was a slow-moving outfielder who could hit a bit, one of the lesser lights on the great Philadelphia A’s teams that won three pennants and two World Series titles from 1929-31. He was a lefty hitter, and he’ll get some playing time, especially if Hall shifts to center. Myril Hoag (1931-45) wasn’t as good as the Mule, but he also played on great teams – the Yankees of the 1930s, so he won three World Series titles (and batted .320 in 20 World Series at-bats). First baseman Mike Hegan (1964-77) was a slick fielder and a decent lefty hitter who was a spare part on the pennant-winning Yankees of 1964 and the world champion A’s of 1972. Mel Hoderlein (1951-54) was a light-hitting middle infielder. Backup catcher Marc Hill (1973-86) was a big, quick catcher who was a good enough fielder to stick around for 14 seasons despite hitting .223. Later a successful manager in the minors, and one of the all-time nice guys in the sport.

Manager: Miller Huggins, the team’s player-manager, won 1,400 games, six pennants and three World Series titles and is most famous as the manager of the Murderers’ Row Yankees of the 1920s. He’ll be assisted by Mike Hargrove, who won 1,188 games and two pennants.