A Grip on Sports: The posters on the walls may become torn and tattered, but the memories of the heroes of our youth never end
A GRIP ON SPORTS • It seems we’ve been running a lot of appreciations of great athletes who have died recently. Today is different. Today is more personal.
•••••••
• The Detroit Tigers were baseball royalty in the 1930s. If the Yankees weren’t winning the American League title, the Tigers were. But it was 1934 and 1935 that were special years for my father.
Under manager Mickey Cochrane (pictured), also a Hall of Fame catcher for the Tigers, Detroit won back-to-back American League crowns. The second year, they won the World Series over the Cubs.
Each day a 10-year-old boy in the Los Angeles area would pore through a discarded sports section on his neighbor’s LA Times, looking for the Tiger box score. The Tigers were his team – they had spent a couple of years in the early 1930s training in California and Cochrane had talked with him once – and he wanted to see how Hank Greenberg, Charlie Gehringer and Schoolboy Rowe had done.
It was the middle of The Depression. Baseball – and the Tigers – was a big part of my dad’s escape from the poverty endemic to a family of six headed by a single mom.
Fast forward to the mid-1960s. Baseball was still a huge part of the Grippi family’s escape, though not from poverty. It was a 25-minute drive, most of the time, to Dodger Stadium. Every kid in the neighborhood was a Dodger fan – except that one guy who loved the Giants and, appropriately, ended up in Folsom.
The Grippi house was different. Yes, we enjoyed the Dodgers but if push came to who-we-are-going-to-root-for, Detroit won out. As a compliant son, I went along. And had our favorite Tiger.
No, it wasn’t Mickey Lolich, who used to own a doughnut shop in the offseason – and, as my dad correctly predicted, starred in the 1968 World Series. And no, it wasn’t Denny McLain, who dad took me to see win his 29th game in ’68, as we observed the historic event from Anaheim Stadium’s upper deck.
It was Al Kaline. The Tigers’ elder statesman. The right fielder who had won a battle title in 1955 at age 20 and had been Mr. Consistent ever since. The man who died yesterday at age 85.
By 1968 Kaline’s best years were behind him. But at that point in my life, 12-year-old Vince wanted to be him. I imitated his batting stance. I read books about him. I checked the box score every morning to see how he did. And, most importantly, I would argue with my dad, holding the opinion Kaline was good enough to have played on those 1930s Tiger teams.
Remember how Ken Griffey Jr. broke his wrist in May of 1995 and returned just in time to lead the Mariners to the most exciting stretch run in their history? Something similar happened to Kaline and the Tigers in 1968.
A pitch broke Kaline’s arm in May of that year. He missed some 70 games. When he returned, backup Jim Northrup had played so well in rightfield, the Tigers were overstocked with outfielders. Willie Horton held down left, Gold Glove winner Mickey Stanley was in center and Kaline, seemingly past his prime, was moved between right and first base.
The Tigers, who had finished behind the “Impossible Dream” Red Sox the year before, had the best starting pitching the American League with McLain (31-6, 1.96 earned run average), Lolich (17-9), Earl Wilson (13-12, 2.85) and Joe Sparma. Bill Freehan, my first catching hero, was behind the plate.
They won 103 games. Reading the box score almost every morning was a joy. Detroit won the pennant by 12 games over the Orioles.
But the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals waited in the World Series. Bob Gibson. Lou Brock. Great uniforms. It would be, for my dad, a flashback to 1934, when the Cardinals had defeated the Tigers in seven games.
The difference in this one? Lolich won three times – as I said my dad called it before the Series began. And Tiger manager Mayo Smith gambled.
Smith moved Stanley from centerfield to shortstop, replacing the light-hitting Ray Oyler in the lineup. Can you imagine someone doing that today? Twitter would explode. The talking heads would tell everyone it was a mistake. Every ground ball Stanley took in practice would be dissected, his form criticized.
But the move allowed Kaline to play, without benching Norm Cash at first. Northrup moved to center where he was more than passable. Cash, the A.L. batting champion seven years earlier, hit .385 in the World Series. And Kaline? The “old man” came through.
His base-loaded single in the fifth game – St. Louis won three of the first four – turned the series around. He ended up hitting .379 with two home runs and seven RBIs.
It would be, basically, his last hurrah. By the time I finished high school, he had retired. The poster – it showed his swing’s beautiful finish – had been replaced on my wall by one of Johnny Bench.
But I never forgot what No. 6 meant to me when I was young.
I’ve met a lot of my childhood heroes in my life, but it is a regret I never had a chance to talk with Kaline. Maybe I would have been disappointed with Mr. Tiger, but I doubt it.
I would have asked him if it was really true that he played in three different summer leagues in high school, as his biography said. That he loved baseball so much he would play a game, hop into his mom’s car and change uniforms en route to the next game.
I did that too, though it was only two leagues and it was only one summer. But I wanted to do it because I had read Kaline had done it.
A few years back, Kim and I remodeled our house. I decided to make one room a bit of a baseball shrine. Toward that end, I bought three baseball photos from the Hall of Fame and framed them myself. Hung them on the walls.
There is one of Ty Cobb, whose mantra of “keep your eye on the ball, swing level and run like hell” informed my early days in baseball. There is one of Mickey Cochrane, a visual reminder every day of love I shared for baseball with my dad.
And there is one more.
A color photo. The only color one. It’s of a young man in a Tiger uniform, taken some time in the early 1950s. The pants are baggy, the shirt loose. He’s standing in his batting stance, though the posed photo was taken just outside the third-base coaching box at some unrecognizable major league park. There is a look of determination – and an underlying current of disdain – on his face.
It’s of Al Kaline. It’s of my one-time hero. It’s a connection to a past that is never returning – but will never be forgotten.
•••
Gonzaga: It’s really early, but ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has the Zags listed as a top-seed in his first bracket for 2021’s NCAA Tournament. Jim Meehan has more in this story. … Dan Thompson talked with a few former Gonzaga basketball coaches in an attempt to understand why no one has been able to duplicate GU’s success in other schools of like-size, like-conference and like-financial backgrounds. … Elsewhere in the WCC, Jake Toolson looks back on BYU’s season.
WSU: Today’s Cougar report is brought to you by the No. 4. Theo Lawson has some news about a four-star football recruit listing the Cougars in his final list. And Theo has another story on four potential transfers that would be a good fit for Kyle Smith’s basketball team. … Around the Pac-12, it’s officially official. Sabrina Ionescu was the best women’s basketball player in the nation last season. And one of the most honored ever. Other Oregon players earned honors as well. … Utah is losing one of its young players to the NBA draft. Maybe. … So is Stanford. … UCLA has lost some luster over the years, but the 1995 team burnished the school’s basketball reputation with an NCAA title. … Washington coach Mike Hopkins had some things to say. … Terrell Brown, who played for former Whitworth and Eastern coach Jim Hayford last season at Seattle U., will be playing for Sean Miller at Arizona next season. Maybe (if Miller is still there). … Oregon also picked up a transfer guard. … In football news, a former UCLA tight end/quarterback has transferred to Colorado. … Arizona State’s Brandon Aiyuk is burnishing his draft stock. … So is Oregon’s Justin Herbert.
EWU: Former Eastern receiver Kendrick Bourne has re-signed with the 49ers, accepting their restricted free agent tender of $3.26 million.
Preps: With Gov. Jay Inslee closing schools in Washington until the fall, the spring sports seasons are officially over. Dave Nichols explains that as well as covering what is happening in Idaho.
Seahawks: The NFL picked its all-decade team and five Hawks were mentioned, including coach Pete Carroll. But there was one notable omission. … Thank goodness for Jadeveon Clowney and his inability to make a decision on which team to play with next season. … Should Russell Wilson help in that regard with a pay adjustment? … The NFL Draft will be done virtually.
Mariners: Could all major league games this season be played in Arizona? In unrelated news, why didn’t I buy a condo in Scottsdale last year?
•••
• The schedule for golf’s majors has been figured out, if the coronavirus pandemic abates by August. … Our fearless leader, Ralph Walter, wrote about the good work the sports department has done recently. We echo the sentiment. … Hopefully, there will be a time this week when we won’t have to write about another sports standout from yesteryear passing. That would make my day. Until later …