Hall of Scrubs

The second Iorg brother is being inducted into the Hall of Scrubs. Like his brother Dane, Garth was a valuable utility infielder in the 80’s. He was a right-handed third base platoon partner to Rance Mulliniks for Toronto Blue Jays. Garth spent his entire career in Toronto after being drafted from the Yankees organization as te 46th pick in the 1976 expansion draft.

Garth’s best year was in 1985 when he helped the Blue Jays win a division title with a .313 average and 7 homers in 288 at bats. He fell to a .210 average in his last year in 1987.

Even though Garth spent his entire career with one of the Tiger’s biggest rivals, he is getting a lot of attention recently in Detroit due to the rise of his son, Cale, as the Tigers’ top shortstop prospect. Unlike his father and uncle Dane, Cale projects as a superstar shortstop in the mold of Alan Trammell.

Garth’s oldest son, Isaac, played in the minors and reached AA in the Braves organization before ending his career in 2004. His second son, Eli, is currently playing in AA for the Astros organization.

With Cale emerging as a future Tigers’ star, the talk of the Iorg family should continue for a long time in Detroit and should remain positive. That was not the case in the 80’s when Garth often led the Blue Jays to victory over the Tigers with several clutch hits. He always came in to face the Tiger’s weak left handed pitching and he usually delivered .. except in 1987.

In his last major league at bat that year, Garth faced the Tigers’ lefty Frank Tanana. With the tying run in scoring position and a division title at stake, Garth grounded to Frank for the final out of the game. The Tigers won the division but fell to the Twins in the playoffs.

Hopefully Garth’s son will soon help the Tigers win many more division titles and a World Series or two.

You can view Garth’s stats at www.baseball-refernce.com:

Garth’s stats

Image courtesy of CheckOutMyCards.com

Scrubs beget scrubs.  Such is the case in the Grilli family.  Steve Grilli, former scrubby middle reliever, is the father of Jason Grilli, current scrubby middle reliever.  Steve enjoyed four years in the major leagues.  Three with the Tigers, one for the Blue Jays.  He kept his ERA around 4.50 for most of his career.  But like his son, he probably let in his fair share of inherited runners.

I sometimes try to imagine Tigers fans in the late seventies trying to predict that, some day, the son of the scrubby middle reliever they were currently watching would become an even scrubbier reliever on a future Tigers team. 

Steve did have good pitches and he threw hard, but he struggled with his control.  He ended his career in 1981 after struggling in the minors for the AAA teams in the Blue Jays and Orioles organizations.  He had a 6.26 ERA that year.

 You can view Steve’s major league stats at www.baseball-reference.com:

Steve’s stats

De Wayne paid his dues in the minors.  He spent 10 years there for three different organizations before finally get a shot in the majors in 1987.  In the year of the “Rabbit Ball”, this career minor leaguer shocked everyone by becoming a closer for the Angels.  He struck out 109 batters with a nasty forkball and managed to save 17 games.   Buice was the story of the year as his years of determination in the minors finally paid off.

Unfortunately, Buice was a one year wonder.  His ERA jumperd to 5.88 the next year and he was shipped off to Toronto where he had an equally atrocious season with a 5.82 ERA in his last year in the majors.

Buice had a short career, but he managed to become a millionaire.  He made his money getting the Upper Deck card company in touch with the MLBPA to sign a card deal in 1989.  De Wayne turned out to be a very shrewd business man as he made 17 million dollars as a part owner of the company.

You can view De Waynes’ stats as www.baseball-reference.com

De Wayne’s stats