The rich tradition of Big Fat Righthanded Relievers dates back to Steve Foucault I think, acquired in early 1977. When he arrived in Detroit, at his first meeting with the beat reporters he was wearing number 29 and one of the reporters kidded him about it and he said "yeah, they gave me the fat guy's uniform". When the reporter followed up with an observation that it was odd that the Tigers would always put the 29 number on an extra large shirt every year, Foucault said "no, I really mean this is Lolich's actual uniform". LOL at how cheap Jim Campbell was.
It's possible that the chain has been broken occasionally but the torch has been passed to Franklyn German, and Joba Chamberlain, and Joe Jimenez, and probably several more. I would like to see it continue.