Charlie Morton isn't the oldest Detroit Tigers pitcher ever — but he's close
Just how long has new Detroit Tigers right-hander Charlie Morton been pitching in the majors?
Morton made his debut for the Atlanta Braves on June 14, 2008 — a little over six years after the Braves picked him in the third round of the 2002 draft — on a Saturday night in Anaheim, California.
The then-24-year-old retired the first seven Los Angeles Angels he faced en route to picking up the win while giving up three runs on five hits over six innings.
No one else from that game is still in the majors.
One of Morton’s teammates that night — third baseman Chipper Jones — is in the Hall of Fame (and has been for seven years).
One of the Angels that Morton faced — right fielder Vladimir Guerrero — is also in the Hall, also inducted seven years ago. Not only that, but Guerrero’s son, Vladimir Jr., is in his seventh season in the majors. (Vlad Sr. went 1-for-3 that night off Morton, in their only matchup; Vlad Jr. is 7-for-17 in his career. Get ready for a playoff rematch.)
The day after Morton debuted for Atlanta, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won a NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway; Earnhardt has been retired from NASCAR for eight years. The day after that, Tiger Woods won the U.S. Open in a playoff at Torrey Pines; he’s still golfing, at least … but has just two top-three finishes in a major since.
Put simply, no matter how long you think Morton has been pitching in the majors … it’s been a lot longer than that.
Hello, and welcome back to The Purr-fect Game Newsletter, brought to you this week by the letters “O,” “L” and “D” and the number “41.”
A trade deadline pickup from the Baltimore Orioles on July 31 — and one that seemed more “AARP” than “ALCS” — Morton made his first start in the Old English “D” on Sunday, Aug. 3 — at the quite-normal age of 41 years and 264 days. (That last line originally was written as “ripe old age” … but my wife, born 17 days after Morton, didn’t quite appreciate it.)
Back in 2008, the Braves beat writers asked Morton, post-debut, whether he was ready for a second start, and he responded, self-deprecatingly, “I just hope I can keep the ball in the strike zone.”
And now, 399 more big-league starts in the books?
Sunday, Aug. 3 — as he allowed kept the ball in the strike zone again and again, allowing just one run on four hits to the Philadelphia Phillies — brought Morton a semi-hallowed spot in Tigers history: The 11th-oldest player to take the field for the Tigers, he’s also tied for the second-oldest to pitch for the Tigers, behind only lefty Kenny Rogers — who was winding up his final season with the Tigers as Morton was beginning his first with the Braves.
Does that mean, somewhere out there across the majors, that there’s another future Tiger (pitcher, not golfer) on a long path to Detroit?
Maybe. But before he gets here, let’s take a look back at the 10 players to play for the Tigers in the regular season at 41 years and 264 days — the Morton Line, as we’ll call it.
Celebrate 125 seasons of the Tigers with our new book!
RHP Bill Donovan: 41 years, 264 days
A star for the Tigers in the early days of the franchise, Donovan had moved into coaching in 1913 and had a three-year stint managing the New York Yankees (1915-17) before rejoining the Tigers as an assistant to manager Hughie Jennings for the 1918 season. That was also the season of his final two appearances on the mound, throwing an inning in Game 2 of a Fourth of July doubleheader and then starting the season finale — another Game 2, this one on Labor Day (Sept. 2, 1918) with the season ending early due to World War I participation requirements.
Of course, the opposing Chicago White Sox may not have been trying too hard in games the Free Press — describing the scene featuring both teams in home whites with military planes from Selfridge Field buzzing Detroit’s Navin Field — called “mere travesties on the national game.”
To put it in terms of today’s Tigers, though, it would be like A.J. Hinch turning to pitching coach Chris Fetter (an ace at Michigan in his college days 17 years ago) to start the season finale. And yet, for his first MLB start since 1915, Donovan was fairly effective — he held the ChiSox to one run on five hits and a walk over five innings … and went 1-for-2 at the plate.
That game, in case you couldn’t tell, was a weird one; it also featured future Hall of Famer Ty Cobb making his second career pitching appearance (a few hours after the first, in Game 1 of the twinbill) and 30-year-old outfielder Bobby Veach making his only career appearance on the mound — two innings in game No. 892 of an 1,821-game career — and a couple other unusual fielders who we’ll get to in a bit.
C Wally Schang: 41 years, 280 days
Unlike most of the players on this list, Schang played continuously into his 40s, with a 19-season career that ended in 1931 (his only season with the Tigers) with 30 games — eight of which came after he passed the Morton Line. In all, he posted a .273/.429/.364 slash line in those eight appearances, capped by an 0-for-1 game (with a walk) against the Boston Red Sox on June 22, 1931 — his final appearance before being released by the Tigers on June 29.
1B Joe Sugden: 41 years, 292 days
Location, location, location — that was how this first baseman, whose MLB career dated back to the 1890s, played his final big-league game — his only appearance for the Tigers — on May 12, 1912. Sugden had been out of the majors since 1905 (when he hit .173 in 90 games for the St. Louis Browns) and living in Philadelphia when Jennings, the Tigers manager, recruited him to take the field there for the Tigers when their roster of actual pros walked off the field against the Athletics to protest the AL’s 10-day suspension of Ty Cobb for fighting a heckler in the stands.
Though the Tigers were walloped by the A’s — 24-2 as 20-year-old Allan Travers, a student at Philly’s St. Joseph’s University, allowed 14 earned runs on 26 hits and seven walks (with one strikeout, of relief pitcher Carroll Brown) — Sugden was one of two ersatz Tigers to cross the plate, going 1-for-4 with an error and 13 putouts at first.
[ ENJOYING THIS READ? Sign up for a weekly email delivery of The Purr-fect Game, a dose of Tigers news, numbers and analysis for Freep subscribers. ]
OF Chuck Hostetler: 42 years, 1 day
World War II left big-league rosters severely depleted in 1944 and ’45, and so the Tigers turned to this career minor leaguer (among others) for 132 games in those seasons, including 31 regular-season appearances after Hostetler passed the Morton Line. The Pennsylvania native had four hits, four walks and six strikeouts in limited action, with a slash line of .261/.353/.335 before his regular-season finale on Sept. 23, 1945.
He also had three pinch-hit appearances against the Chicago Cubs in the World Series, reaching base on an error then gaining a bit of baseball notoriety when he tripped rounding third with a chance to score in the seventh inning of Game 6, a play later dubbed “The Hostetler Flop.” As Hostetler attempted to crawl toward home, he was tagged out on a rare 7-2-6 putout. The Tigers lost that game but came back to win Game 7 two days later.
3B/OF Bobby Lowe: 42 years, 88 days
Another 1890s NL vet, Lowe crossed over to the Junior Circuit — then in its fourth season — in joining the Tigers in 1904. His big-league career appeared over, though, following a 1906 season in which he suffered malaria, a torn fingernail, a sprained ankle and, finally, a broken nose on a botched bunt attempt, ending his season on Aug. 25. He started 1907 as the baseball coach at Michigan before Jennings, needing a veteran utilityman, lured him back in late June. He appeared in 17 games in all after the Morton Line, with a slash line of .243/.263/.297 capped by a 3-for-8 doubleheader on Oct. 6, 1907.
C Oscar Stanage: 42 years, 92 days
Stanage’s 13-season big-league career seemingly came to an end in 1920, but Cobb, now the Tigers’ manager, lured him back as a coach for the 1925 season. And sure enough, Stanage wound up playing three games in June, going 1-for-5 with a single in his final game, on June 17, 1925.
OF Doc Cramer: 42 years, 295 days
A five-time All-Star before joining the Tigers during World War II in 1942, Cramer is arguably the most successful 40-something Tiger; his career continued for parts of three seasons after WWII, and Cramer posted a .689 OPS in 77 games in the 1947 and ’48 seasons after passing the Morton Line in ’47. He wrapped up his career on May 12, 1948, with a pinch-hit appearance in which he walked with the bases loaded and came around to score.
LHP Kenny Rogers: 43 years, 309 days
Rogers, who signed with the Tigers before the 2006 season, passed the Morton Line on Aug. 5 of that season, giving up three runs over seven innings in a no-decision against Cleveland at 41 years, 268 days. In all, he threw 310⅓ innings beyond the Morton Line, posting a 4.67 ERA with 141 strikeouts and 120 walks. The lefty’s finale came ignominiously on Sept. 14, 2008, when he allowed seven runs to the White Sox in 4⅔ innings (with the final runs scoring on a double by future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr.) in Game 2 of a doubleheader. Sounds familiar.
OF Sam Thompson: 46 years, 189 days
A Detroit Wolverine in the National League from 1885-88, “Big Sam” — he stood 6 feet 2 and 207 pounds as the Wolverines struggled to find pants that would fit him in his Detroit debut — retired in 1898 and became a U.S. Marshal in Detroit. Shorthanded after star Matty McIntyre bailed on the team, the Tigers lured Thompson back for eight games — giving them an outfield with three future Hall of Famers: Thompson, Ty Cobb and Sam Crawford. Thompson didn’t quite live up to his 19th-century Hall of Fame pedigree — posting a .540 OPS in 31 plate appearances — but he did finish with a single in four at-bats in his finale, Sept. 10, 1906.
C Deacon McGuire: 48 years, 182 days
McGuire’s ties to baseball in Detroit dated all the way back to 1885, when he also played for the Wolverines. Nearly three decades later, he was called back to action for the Tigers in Philly for the Cobb protest game, 19 months after his previous big-league appearance (in October 1910 with Cleveland) and six years after he’d had a full-time big-league job. Still, McGuire acquitted himself well: 1-for-2 with a walk, a run scored and a caught stealing (when he was picked off at second base).
Also appearing in the Cobb protest game was the (eventual) oldest Tiger to appear in a game. Who was it? We’ll get to him in a bit. But first …
Odds and evens
Morton’s start Sunday — and the lack of offense by his teammates — dropped the Tigers into a tie for the Best Record In The … American League™ at 65-48. OK, the BRITAL isn’t so trademark-worthy — but it would still get the Tigers a wild-card bye. But how are the algorithms feeling about this week’s 4-2 run through the National League?
Baseball Reference: The bbref math believes again (or at least it did without adding in Sunday’s loss) — the Tigers are the pick for the AL’s top seed with 92.4 wins, ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays at 90.3, to go with 98.9% odds for the postseason (up from 96.8%). Likewise, the Tigers’ World Series title odds jumped to 9.6% (from 8.3%).
Baseball Prospectus: BP, meanwhile, has the Tigers as the No. 2 team in the AL — with 91.3 projected wins to the Jays’ 92.2 — but with the top playoff odds (rising from 93% to 97.6%, compared to the Jays’ 97.3%) … playing in the AL Central means something after all. And yes, the Tigers are the AL favorites to win the World Series, with a 9.8% chance (from 9.4% last week) that barely edges the Jays’ 9.7%. (The Dodgers and Cubs, at 17.6% and 12.7% are still pacing the NL.)
FanGraphs: The Tigers’ postseason odds are rebounding here as well, up to 98.4% (from 95.9%) with a 96.4% chance of an AL Central title (up from 92.5% last week). Still, the Tigers’ World Series title odds dropped to 8%, down from 8.1% last week. Maybe the algorithms dig Jhoan Durán’s entrance ritual, too?
The good thing for the Tigers: They get to face Durán’s former team this week, which means it’s time to …
Mark your calendars!
Yes, the Minnesota Twins vist Comerica Park for a trio of games on Aug. 4-6, after they traded, well <cue Count.gif> 1 player … 2 players … 3 players … 10! 10 former Twins (sorry, we didn’t have time for the full count, as it were) went on their way elsewhere in the 24 hours leading up to July 31’s MLB trade deadline. And that’s not counting right-hander Chris Paddack, the former Twin acquired by the Tigers on July 28 who’ll be starting vs. his old team on Tuesday, Aug. 5. And after that? The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California, 92806, hit Comerica Park (48226) for a three-game set on Aug. 8-10; their big deadline move — 1½ games ahead of the Twins on July 31 — was adding former Tiger lefty Andrew Chafin, who will get at least a few days closer to his family farm near Massillon, Ohio. (That’s also close(ish) to the Freep’s new printing plant. Beginning this week, the Freep will be printed in Canton, Ohio, necessitating early deadlines that will have the print edition focused on looking forward to upcoming games, while full coverage of every game will be available, like always, at freep.com.)
This week’s Tigers birthdays: Jahmai Jones (28 on Aug. 4), Johnny Grubb (77 on Aug. 4), Dave Rozema (69 on Aug. 5), Tommy Kahnle (36 on Aug. 7), Édgar Rentería (49 on Aug. 7), Steve Kemp (71 on Aug. 7), Frank Howard (would have been 89 on Aug. 8; died in 2023) and Rocky Colavito (would have been 92 on Aug. 10; died in 2024).
Kahnle, who, yes, turns 36 on Thursday, is the second-oldest Tiger on the 26-man roster. But neither he nor Morton hold a candle — or 49 or them — to the oldest player in Tigers history …
Closing time
1B Hughie Jennings: 49 years, 153 days
Entering the Tigers’ 1918 season finale, Jennings was the Tigers’ manager — and had been since 1907. He spent his first 5½ seasons as a player-manager before making his next-to-last appearance as a player at 43 years, 46 days — at the time, the third-oldest Tiger ever to take the field — in the Cobb protest game. That is, until the final game of 1918 — again, the second game of a doubleheader — in which Jennings let his crew run wild.
In addition to the 41-year-old Donovan starting on the mound (and relieved by Cobb and Veach, giving us the stellar turn of phrase from the Freep of, “in turn, the Peach gave way to Veach”), the Tigers <deep breath> had Cobb take a turn at third base for the only time in his 3,034-game career, giving outfield responsibilities to Davy Jones (a 38-year-old who hadn’t played in the majors since 1915 and was originally at the park as a fan) and Stanage (remember him?) playing shortstop for — yep, you guessed it — the only time in nearly 1,100 MLB games. <exhale….>
And amid all that, Jennings decided he could play first as well as anyone else and subbed in for Art Griggs (who’d earned an inning off, going 4-for-5 with a pair of doubles). And sure enough, Jennings did just enough at first, with a pair of putouts at the cold corner. The game was capped by, who else, Jones making the final out in left field.
Again, in today’s terms, this would be like Hinch, having watched Chris Fetter twirl a gem followed by Javier Báez throwing two innings on the mound in relief, deciding to call on Riley Greene to finish it out, and then sending Jake Rogers to short, grabbing Curtis Granderson out of the stands to play outfield and then sending Báez to third base while grabbing Tork’s first baseman’s mitt for an inning of work.
Which, come to think of it, might all happen in September if the Tigers keep mixing things up the way they have so far.
And you thought starting a 41-year-old on the mound was weird.
Ryan Ford is deputy sports editor for the Free Press and has been with Freep Sports since January 2006 — before Charlie Morton had even made it to High-A ball.
Contact him at rford@freepress.com or follow him on X (which used to be Twitter, y’know?) @theford and on BlueSky at @theford.bsky.social.