Series for the ages

DETROIT – Even now, the images still blaze in their hearts and minds like reassuring hues from a perfect fall day. They cherish the magic that unfolded on the field. But they treasure other things, too, the large and small moments that became part of the collective soul that defined the Tigers team that won the 1968 World Series.

They remember the sight of 30-game winner Denny McLain as he played the keyboard in the hotel lounge the night before Game 1 against the St. Louis Cardinals.

And the sound of Norm Cash’s voice as he dialed up teammates in their rooms, telling them he couldn’t sleep.

And the clutch moment in Game 7 when Mickey Lolich, who would win the MVP award, said to manager Mayo Smith after a three-run seventh inning gave the Tigers the lead: “I’ll finish it out for you, now.”

Here are the recollections from the winners from that different time, a story that played out on the stage for the world to see, and behind the scenes for a team to remember for the rest of its lives.

Come together

Jim Northrup: “Mayo Smith (Tigers manager) really didn’t have a style. He knew he had a good ballclub, and he’d just put his lineup on the board and said, ‘Go get ‘em,’ Never had any hollering or screaming matches of any kind, or throwing food all over like a lot of these idiots – blaming the players for everything, like, ‘I managed good, but they played bad.’ We had to hear that crap from Billy Martin, the worst manager I ever played for. … But Mayo didn’t have a bad bone in his body. He sat there in the dugout and watched us play.”

Denny, Mickey and Norm

Willie Horton: “I call (the late) Norm Cash the John Wayne of baseball – a Marlboro and a Budweiser. Norm used to sit in a tub of hot water before a game, then take a cold shower and put his uniform on. He was a leader, but a wild leader.”

Northrup: “What it was, was jealousy. I mean, how would you like to be Mickey Lolich, winning all those ballgames, doing what he did, and here comes a guy winning 31 games and so the press is all over Denny McLain’s locker, talking to McLain? He (McLain) was kind of a flake, but he was one hell of a pitcher. He was nothing like anything I had ever seen. He could turn it off, and turn it on – he was a battler. And so was Mickey Lolich. Mickey Lolich resented it a little bit, he didn’t think he got his, but he was the MVP of the World Series.”

World Series highlights

Game 1: St. Louis 4, Detroit 0. Winning pitcher: Bob Gibson (record 17 strikeouts). Losing pitcher: Denny McLain.

Game 2: Detroit 8, St. Louis 1. Winning pitcher: Mickey Lolich. Losing pitcher: Nelson Briles.

Lolich: “The only thing I remember about the second game of the World Series is that I hit a home run. I had never hit one in my whole professional career. That Nelson Briles, who was pitching for the Cardinals, just had the best control in the world to be able to hit my bat dead center.”

Game 3: St. Louis 7, Detroit 3. Winning pitcher: Ray Washburn. Losing pitcher: Earl Wilson.

Game 4: St. Louis 10, Detroit 1. Winning pitcher: Gibson. Losing pitcher: McLain.

Al Kaline: “A slaughter. I remember everybody chanting, `Rain! Rain! Rain!” so they would call the game off because we were getting beat, 6-1, I believe, in the fourth inning.”

Game 5: Detroit 5, St. Louis, 3. Winning pitcher: Lolich. Losing pitcher: Joel Hoerner.

Lolich: “I’m scheduled to pitch it, and I had my little problem with Jose Feliciano, which, when I look back at it, still bothers me to this day that someone of higher authority, and when I say higher authority, I’m not saying my pitching coach, but NBC or somebody, should have told me – not me in particular, but it’s like, I had this regimented thing that I did when I was pitching a ballgame. I would leave the dugout 20 minutes before game time. I’d walk down to the bullpen, I’d take my jacket off, I’d putz around. Then I would start throwing 15 minutes before the game. I would warm up for 10 to 11 minutes, and I would be done, and then I’d walk back to the dugout.

“Well, I’d been warming up for like five minutes or so when all of a sudden we go into the national anthem. So I’m standing there, in the shadows of Tiger Stadium, and it’s a little cool, even though it’s a day game. And I mean, I’m standing down there and Jose decided to do a 15-minute rendition of the national anthem, and I’m starting to sort of shiver a little bit because I had broken a sweat. So when he finally gets done with his act, I start to throw again, and all of a sudden an umpire comes out and says, “Come on, Mick, let’s go.” He caught me off guard.

“So I had a very bad first inning; I gave up three runs. I didn’t know what was slowly building. I pitched a complete game for the second time (of the series) and even got a couple of hits in Game 5, which is not normal for me.

“There’s a point in that seventh inning that I’m coming up to bat, and Gates (Brown) should be pinch-hitting for me. He should be. And I look back, and Mayo is, ‘Get up there. Get up there.’ I end up getting a base hit, so I made a hero out of him.”

Game 6: Detroit 13, St. Louis 1. Winning pitcher: McLain. Losing pitcher: Washburn.

Lolich: “In the third inning, as soon as we scored a ton of runs, Mayo Smith came to me and said, ‘Can you pitch tomorrow?’

“I said, ‘Yeah. I always throw in the bullpen. If you need me for a couple of innings – relief – that’s fine.”

“Smith said: ‘No, you’re starting.’

“I said, ‘What?’ It was Earl Wilson’s turn. He was supposed to pitch. Mayo said, ‘I only want you to pitch five innings. That’s all – five innings.’

“I said, ‘I can do that.’ “

Game 7: Detroit 4, St. Louis 1. Winning pitcher: Lolich. Losing pitcher: Gibson.

Horton: “I remember we ran out of coffee in the clubhouse before the game. But the clubhouse was really loose that morning. Norm Cash was a locker-room rah-rah leader.” Lolich: “So five innings was what I was supposed to pitch, except it was 0-0 at the end of five. I walk back into the dugout, and Mayo says, ‘Can you pitch one more?’

“So I went out and pitched the sixth, and when I walked off the field, I thought, ‘I wonder who they’re going to bring in,’ because you couldn’t see down into the bullpen. But when I got to the dugout he said, ‘Can you give me one more?’

“Well, then we turn around and score three runs, and I walk over to Mayo, tap him on the shoulder, and said, ‘I’ll finish it out for you, now.’