A 14-year AL catcher, Swift was a smart handler of pitchers. But, behind the plate for the Tigers on August 18, 1951, he couldn’t crouch low enough to frame a strike zone when the Browns sent midget Eddie Gaedel to bat. A skilled instructor, he was a winning minor league manager, a major league coach, and an interim manager for the Tigers in 1965 and 1966, filling in for the ailing Chuck Dressen.
