Gates Brown
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William James "Gates" Brown (born in Crestline, Ohio on May 2, 1939) is a former Major League Baseball player who spent his entire career with the Detroit Tigers (1963-1975). He batted left-handed and threw right-handed.
In a 13-season career, Brown was a .257 hitter with 84 home runs and 322 RBI in 1051 games.
Brown divided his major league career as an outfielder, first baseman, pinch hitter and DH. He is best remembered for his contribution to the 1968 World Series champion Detroit Tigers. In his pinch-hitting at bats in the 1968 season, Brown hit for a .450 batting average, the eighth highest single season batting average for a pinch hitter (minimum 30 at bats) in major league history.
On June 19, 1963, coming off the bench, Brown became the American League's 11th player to hit a home run in his first at bat. A popular figure among Tigers' fans, Brown may not have had the defensive skills to make the everyday lineup but he has been considered one of the premier pinch hitters in MLB history.
In his career, Brown collected 107 pinch hits, including 16 pinch homers, and also led twice the AL in pinch hits (1968 and 1974). His most productive season came in 1964, when he posted career-highs in home runs (15), RBI (54), runs (65), hits (116), doubles (22), triples (6), stolen bases (11) and atbats (426) in 123 games.
While 1968 was called the year of the pitcher for most of baseball, overall batting being only .230 for the year, the potent Tigers attack scored 671 runs. That year was the batting high water mark for Gates Brown who, with remarkable regularity, came off the bench with clutch hits to spark dramatic ninth inning come-back victories. Brown's timely hitting was crucial in sealing the Tiger's trip to the World Championship. Starting in only 17 games that season, but Brown appeared in 49 more as a pinch-hitter, banging out a torrid .370 (34-for-92) with a .442 on-base percentage and a .685 slugging average.
On August 7, 1968, Brown made history. He wasn't in the starting lineup, so he decided to grab two hot dogs from the clubhouse. He was ordered by manager Mayo Smith to pinch hit. He stuffed the hot dogs in his jersey to hide them from his manager.
"I always wanted to get a hit every time I went to the plate. But this was one time I didn't want to get a hit. I'll be damned if I didn't smack one in the gap and I had to slide into second -- head first, no less. I was safe with a double. But when I stoop up, I had mustard and ketchup and smashed hot dogs and buns all over me.
"The fielders took one look at me, turned their backs and damned near busted a gut laughing at me. My teammates in the dugout went crazy." After fining Brown $100, Smith said, "What the hell were you doing eating on the bench in the first place?" Brown: "I decided to tell him the truth. I said, 'I was hungry. Besides, where else can you eat a hot dog and have the best seat in the house?'"[1]
From 1971-73 Brown hit 33 home runs with 110 RBI in 571 at-bats, including a .338 average in 1971 (66-for-195). He retired at the end of the 1975 season.
In 1978, Brown returned to the Tigers as their hitting coach, a position he would hold through the championship season of 1984, before giving way to Vada Pinson.
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