Sports
Gates Brown
1939–2013 · baseball player, pinch hitter, coach
Beloved pinch hitter who spent his whole playing career with the Tigers (1963–1975), lived in Detroit for more than fifty years and coached the 1984 champions.
- Born
Crestline, Ohio- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 74- Birth name
- William James Brown
- Also known as
- The Gator
- Detroit years
- 1960–2013
- Field
- Sports
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Gates Brown signed with Detroit in 1960, partly, he said, because the Tigers still had few Black players and he expected that to change, and partly because of Tiger Stadium's inviting right-field porch. He moved to Detroit that year and married a Detroiter in 1962. He homered in his first major-league at-bat in 1963 and became the most famous pinch hitter in team history, a left-handed bat manager after manager saved for the late innings. In the championship season of 1968 he hit about .450 as a pinch hitter, winning games again and again, and fans at Tiger Stadium roared whenever he left the bench. He retired after 1975 but returned as the Tigers' hitting coach from 1978 to 1984, earning another World Series ring. He made Detroit his home for the rest of his life and died in the city in 2013.
Highlights
- Played his entire career with the Tigers, 1963–1975
- Homered in his first major-league at-bat
- Hit about .450 as a pinch hitter for the 1968 champions
- Tigers hitting coach 1978–1984, including the 1984 title team
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Played here · 1963–1984
Tiger Stadium (site)
Demolished · 1912–1999
Its short right-field porch drew him to Detroit; he played and coached here. Demolished in 2008–2009.