My 68 Tigers – Al Kaline is not a battery and Willie can throw

By Guest Blogger James Edwards

My age was 12. Baseball ruled. It was 1968 and the Detroit Tigers were going to win it all. Yeah, that is what needs to be told to today’s baseball fan.

Hi, my name is James, sometimes known as the Squibster. Normally you would find me writing for Squibkick or NBAObsessed. You see baseball used to be my favorite sport and now football and basketball have taken baseball’s place. That needs some explaining, so we have to go back in time.

Baseball in 1968 was so different from today. Nobody had computers or the internet. Most of the games were on the radio. Don’t worry, there will be no reference to the good old days, because today is the good old days.

The Squibster was 12 years old and baseball was everything. My occupation upon growing up was to be shortstop for the Detroit Tigers.

The Tigers were coming from behind in the late innings and winning game after game. Dennis Dale McClain won 31 games that year and then kind of wore out his arm and rubber arm Mickey Lolich took over in the World Series to win 3 games.

It was so cool to a baseball obsessed youngster in the days before even the VCR or DVR, because our teachers rolled in the TV’s to our class rooms and allowed us to watch a couple World Series games on TV. The games were even played in the day time back then!

Now we need a good story to complete this story; kind of the story within the story, so here goes.
The Tigers were facing one of the all time great teams in the 68 St. Louis Cardinals with Bob Gibson pitching. Hmm, think his ERA was around 2.95 and he had a blazing fastball. Bob struck out 17 batters in the first game, a record at the time. His ERA in the Series was well below 2.00.

In the 60’s it was a pitchers game and bunting and stealing were very important. Hardly anyone hit over .300. Al Kaline was one of the best hitters in the league and only batted .287 that year. (keep in mind this is all from memory, so don’t bet your paycheck on any of these facts.) In fact, only Carl Yaztrzemski hit over .300 that year and he hit .301.

The Tigers had four outfielders, Mickey Stanley, Jim “the Grey Fox” Northrup, Al Kaline, and Willie Horton. The manager, Mayo Smith, decided to move Mickey Stanley to shortstop for the World Series to get one more bat in the lineup. Ray Oyler was the regular shortstop and hit less than .200. That left Al Kaline in right field, Jim Northrup in center and Willie Horton in left field.

Stanley (2 gold gloves), Northrup, and Kaline (9 gold gloves) were all great fielders. Stanley’s fielding percentage used to be the all time high. Willie Horton was an average fielder with an average arm, but he was bulging with muscles back when players were small. Willie Mays was 5′ 11″ as was Mickey Mantle and they were not big. Oh, the Yaz was also 5′ 11″ tall.

Enough prep, lets get to the story. The word got out that Willie Horton would not try to throw anyone out at home from left field on a runner on second when someone hit a single to left. Willie would just throw it to Don Wert at third.

St. Louis had one of the all time base stealers in Lou Brock. He had speed to burn. Brock was so fast that he would go into home standing up from second, because outfielders rarely challenged him with a throw to home.

Lou Brock – the one of the greatest base stealers of all time

So, sure enough, Bill Freehan, the catcher, signaled Don Wert, the third baseman, to let Willie Horton’s throw through to the plate and they caught Lou Brock at the plate standing up for an out. The momentum had changed.

The Tigers were losing the game 3 – 2 at the time and were down 3 -1 in the series. They went on to win the game and the series. Mickey Lolich became the star.

This was more than a World Series. It was a team holding a town together. This was the year of civil rights and riots and marching in the city of Detroit. The Newspapers were on strike and few games were on TV. The Tigers were on the radio all summer and kind of gave the city something else to think about, something to rally around, to believe in.

The Squibster was 12 years old and Detroit was going to win it all. My world was perfect.