Hank Aguirre was a darn good major league pitcher, but ...

... was Hank Aguirre the worst hitter in Detroit Tigers history?

.... many pitchers were known as terrible hitters. Of all the position players very few would ever take that dreaded 9th spot in the batting order. The reason- pitchers were always (well almost always) dad-gummed lousy hitters.

Dean Chance, who pitched in Detroit for a bit in the '70s might have been the worst, but he didn't play here long enough. My vote goes out to a great pitcher and a great guy....

Hank Aguirre... was a pretty darn good pitcher, at least for a few years in the mid '60s- led the league in ERA in 1962 after the Tigers picked him up from the Tribe, but High Henry really was known for scuffling with the lumber....

...a switch-misser, Hank's lifetime Average was .085 ... a robust 33 hits in 447 at bats! Seven doubles and 1 triple turned that into a slugging percentage of .117!

...Hank's biggest hit ever had to be that bases-loaded triple!!!-on a Sunday at Yankee Stadium in 1967... Poor Fritz Peterson... during the play-by-play, Ernie Harwell said that they had to call time to give Henry a minute to recover from the shock... ironically, the Yankees had walked Ray Oyler, perhaps the weakest hitting regular the Bengals ever had in order to pitch to High Henry!

A few quotes about Hank Aguirre's hitting:
"He has a nice smooth miss," -Bill Freehan...
"Some guys have no-hit games. Hank has no-hit seasons," -Jim Murray, Los Angeles Times...
"When Aguirre says he went 1 for 3, he means 1 hit in 3 years," -Watson Spoelstra, Detroit News.

...Hank claims to have hit a homer once... We found it!!- April 7, 1955 while hurling for Cleveland in an exhibition game against OMAHA!!

But don't get me wrong about Hank... he was a very good pitcher and one of the most popular guys in the majors. After he left the Tigers, he spent a little time with the Dodgers and Cubs and then managed for awhile... but "Mex" really made it big... mortgaged his home, borrowed some more dough and started Mexican Industries in Detroit... he employed over a thousand folks and did a lot of good for his people... named Mexican business owner of the year in '88... His name was pronounced "Ah-gary" rather than "Ah-Gwire" like the former Piston star, Mark.

Hank Aguirre died too young- he passed away from prostate cancer in 1994. Unfortunately, his successors botched things up with the business and it eventually went under. I bet ol' Mex would have kept it together.

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