Posted by David Wade on Sunday, October 4, 2009 at 5:00 pm

He had one of the most distinctive batting stances in MLB history, hit two home runs completely out of Tiger Stadium over the course of a five day period, and had three consecutive 30 home run seasons as a catcher.  He also had a game early on in his career in which he went 1-1 with 5 RBI.  But, the thing he’s probably known for most is Froot Loops. 

Mickey Tettleton stood out to many fans because of the way he stood straight up at the plate.  The switch-hitter’s stance was a mirror-image from either side, holding his bat laid off at his side and pointed horizontally away from the pitcher.  It was a nonchalant pose that really gave no indication of a powerful swing that would often follow.  At 6-4 and around 215 pounds, he was an imposing figure up there, despite his relaxed pose.  He had shoulders about as wide as an axe handle.  He was tough looking and inspired a lot of backyard players to mimic his stance.

Tettleton starred in baseball and football for Southeast High School in Oklahoma City and went on to play center-field in college for Oklahoma State.  There, he won All-CWS honors for a team that finished 2nd in the 1981 College World Series.  In contrast to his lumbering stride as a pro, he was a speed threat in college ball and often hit 2nd in the lineup.  Oakland drafted him in the summer of ‘81 and immediately moved him to the catcher position. 

For three years Tettleton learned to play backstop in the California League for Oakland’s Class A affiliate in Modesto.  He never seemed to miss playing the outfield and didn’t mind the bumps and bruises one gets from learning to play behind the plate.  Unfortunately, once he got the call to the big leagues, injuries beyond the norm derailed him every time he got a chance to finally secure a starting spot for the Athletics, including a foot infection that was equal parts embarassing and debilitating.  He was an off and on player for the big club in ‘86 and ‘87 and finally, in the spring of ‘88, the organization cut him in favor of Terry Steinbach. 

At this point, it may be interesting to note that Tettleton had always carried a low batting average in both the majors and minors that was kept that way in part thanks to his very high strikeout rate.  However, in the two years right before Oakland let him go, he had a BABIP (batting average on balls in play) of 50-80 points or so below league average.  Many baseball statisticians feel that balls put in play will even out over time and players with low BABIPs will often bounce back to the MLB average of .290 or so.  Those low BABIP numbers from 1986-7 turned him from a consistent .240-.250 hitter into a .200 hitter.  That brutally low average helped convice Oakland G.M. Sandy Alderson to go with Steinbach, a guy that in 1987 had hit .287 with a lot fewer strikeouts. 

This will illustrate the how many fewer Ks we’re talking about- Steinbach struck out one more time than Tettleton did during the ’87 season (66 to 65), but it took him 190 additional plate appearances to do so. 

None of this hindsight nit-picking sabremetric mumbojumbo matters though, as Tettleton was still out of a job and not very optimistic that much would change on that front.  He really only let himself hope he’d maybe get a triple-A contract with a club at some point.  However, a team finally called him nearly a week after Oakland had let him go.  The Baltimore Orioles signed Tettleton and he split the catching duties during the 1988 season.  As BABIP is inclined to do, given its love of regressing to the mean, it shot back up to around league average and that translated into a far more palatable .261 batting average for Tettleton in ‘88.  Good enough to let him go into his first off-season expecting to start the next spring. 

The 1989 Orioles, still red in their organizational face from the embarrassment of the previous year’s historically bad 0-21 start, were ready for any good news from their baseball team and  they would get it.  The team fared much better in ‘89 and would go on to stay in the hunt for the playoffs throughout the year.  However, that wasn’t the end of their feel-good comeback story.  Amidst their big turnaround, their catcher was hitting home runs at an astounding rate and making his own headlines coming back from being nearly out of the game.  Taking advantage of his first full-time gig, the burly switch-hitter bombed his way to an All-Star selection.

It was around that time in early summer, when All-Star voting was underway, that the real fun started.  The local press, looking for an explanation for Tettleton’s power increase were not blown away by answers he gave.  His additional weightlifting, finally getting consistent at-bats, and the coaching staff’s acceptance of the high percentage of strikeouts sounded fine, but a great story broke when Tettleton’s wife told the local news that her husband’s fine start to the season was because he ate Froot Loops for breakfast every morning.

It seems that particular sugary cereal was on the menu during Baltimore’s spring training.  Tettleton, having enjoyed his first camp as the incumbent starter and being superstitious (as it is almost a rule to be for baseball players), wanted to carry his springtime morning ritual with him into the regular season. 

So, Froot Loops for breakfast every day. 

Subsequently, he became a hit for kids everywhere and something fans loves to hear about- the underdog that was wasn’t good enough to start a year before charging back to play with the best. 

All thanks to eating Froot Loops.

Fans threw Froot Loops on the field when he hit homers, chanted “Loops” when he came to bat, and branded him with several nicknames such as “Babe Loops”.  It was a lot of loopla. 

As good as things were in Baltimore that year, Tettleton didn’t do his best work until the Orioles traded him to Detroit in early 1991.  In Detroit, Tettleton found a team that not only looked past his strikeouts, but looked way past his strikeouts.  Teammates Cecil Fielder and Rob Deer K’d at astounding rates, but hit tons of homers as well.  While those players also took their share of walks, Tettleton was even better, averaging 107 BBs per season in his 4 years with the Tigers.  During that span he hit 30 or more homers three straight years, won two Silver Slugger awards and had terrific OPS numbers, the latter especially impressive given his position at catcher.  In short, he had four seasons with Detroit that were some of the best offensive seasons a catcher has ever had. 

Tettleton finished his career with the Texas Rangers, hitting 32 and 24 homers in his last two seasons.  He went out with his team’s needs in mind after an injury in his third season there when he announced his retirement and opened up a roster spot for the Rangers when he could have stayed on the DL and drawn a paycheck.  He ended his career in 1997 with 245 career home runs.  He lives on a ranch now and plays golf on a celebrity tour, where he has held his own, winning one tournament.  I don’t know if people still call him “Loops”, but his story is a good one.