On September 16th, 1960, catcher Mickey “Fruit Loops” Tettleton was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Mickey Tettleton came up with the OAKLAND Athletics in 1984. He is primarily remembered though as a Detroit Tiger. In his 14 year career he also played for the Baltimore Orioles and the Texas Rangers.

Tettleton’s nickname was “Fruit Loops.” because he was known for eating Fruit Loops every day. Teammates and fans picked up on it, and the nickname stuck throughout his career.

Despite the moniker, Tettleton was respected as a powerful switch-hitter with great plate discipline. He led the league in bases-on-balls in 1992 and won 3 Silver Slugger Awards as the best hitter at his position in 1989, 1991, and 1992.

As a Twins fan, Tettleton was a player that you loved to hate. It seemed like he was always hitting homers off of Twins pitching. But looking now at Baseball Reference it looks like he only hit 13 of his 245 homers off Twins. He did go deep on Kevin Tapani 4 times though.

Here is a great quote I found about Tettleton, a player who is another player that deserves to be remembered:

“There have been players who hold their bats precariously horizontal. There have been players who stood straight up. There have been players who unbuttoned their jerseys one button too many like a guest star on Miami Vice. There have been players with an inordinate amount of chaw in their mouths. There have been players who featured an all-business steely glare at the pitcher. There have even been players who appeared to be able to bench-press 400 points. There is only one player who put all that together and formed a company called Mickey Tettleon. That company was about one thing: cool. Badass cool. You are toast cool. Check me out cool. I’m tougher than you cool.”

~ Ryness, Gar. Author. Batting Stance Guy: A Love Letter to Baseball. Scribner Publishing. 11 May 2010. Page 65.