Major League Baseball Player. The right-hander, often accused of throwing the illegal spitball, was a three-time 20-game winner who spent his entire 16-year career with the Detroit Tigers from 1930 to 1946. He missed part of 1943 and all of 1944 because of military service. He was 22-11 with a 3.67 earned run average for 275 innings and 23 complete games in 35 starts in 1934. On July 13 of that year, he gave up Babe Ruth's 700th career home run. The following year he had a 21-10 record with a 3.51 ERA, completed 23 of 34 starts while logging 274 innings and led the American League in strikeouts with 163. In 1936 he led the AL in wins as he went 23-11, completed 26 of 38 starts, worked 294 innings and led the league again with 175 strikeouts. He was chosen to the All-Star team six times but did not pitch in 1934, 1935, 1936 and 1940. In 1937, he pitched three innings, giving up single runs in the middle innings as the AL won 8-3 at Griffith Stadium. In 1939, he hurled 2 1/3 innings of shutout ball and was the winning pitcher in a 3-1 victory at Yankee Stadium. He also pitched in four World Series (1934, 1935, 1940 and 1945). In the 1934 Fall Classic against St. Louis, he lost 4-1 in Game 3 to Paul Dean but outdueled Dizzy Dean 3-1 in Game 5. The Redbirds won the Series in seven. Bridges won Games 2 and 6 as the Tigers closed out the Chicago Cubs in six in 1935. He spaced 12 hits in Game 6. With the score tied 3-3, the Cubs' Stan Hack opened the top of the ninth with a triple, but Bridges struck out Bill Jurges, retired Larry French on a bouncer to the mound and got Augie Galan on a fly ball. The Tigers won in the bottom of the inning on Goose Goslin's RBI single. In 1940, he beat Cincinnati 7-4 in Game 3, but the Reds prevailed in seven. He made one relief appearance in 1945 as the Tigers edged the Cubs in seven. He had a perfect game spoiled with two out in the ninth on August 5, 1932, when Washington pinch-hitter Dave Harris singled to left. He came close again on May 24, 1933, when he stopped the Senators 3-1, the only hit being Joe Kuhel's home run. For his career, the 5-foot 11, 160-pound graduate of the University of Tennessee was 194-138 with a 3.57 ERA, 207 complete games in 362 starts and 33 shutouts. He was a scout for the Reds in 1951, the Tigers from 1958 to 1960 and the New York Mets from 1963 to 1968.