Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • 39

WORLD SERIES FRIDAY, OCT. 20, 2006 9C DETROIT FRHE PRESS WWW.FRREP.COM TIGER TALES "I wanted to finish off the Padres now, and not mess around with any sixth and seventh games." KIRK GIBSON, on the Came 5 clincher against San Diego in which he hit two hone rune. i mi in- yiwwm 1 "i I "MMWMMMMM IM 1 1 iiim MMarlliril aiiUMII i HI I 1', Lm.m,$!imi.l i i A if "TW( 'y-h vL.V'"'"' 'l 1 i k0mh From previous page find because 98 or 99S of the time we were together at a restaurant or lounge. "Gates Brown, everyone used to go to his room, or the Norm Cash room. Sometimes we stayed up until 3 in the morning talking, guys laying on the floor and stuff.

That's something that no one can cheat Willie Horton out of the love of my teammates." Bill Freehan: "Al Kaline and I used to share a ride to the ballpark on a daily basis, and we hardly ever talked during that half-hour ride down to Tiger Stadium. I used to think, 'I know what I'm thinking' primarily about defense. I never asked him, but I know he was thinking all about offense." Jim Price: "We sometimes had this little glee club. We were all bad singers, but it was just to have a good time. Pat Dobson, John Hiller and I used to put on little plays about going to Hollywood.

We always did things together or ended up in the same place. That's what that 1968 team was all about why so many people wrapped their arms around that team." 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 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 We had to hear that crap from Billy Martin, the worst manager I ever played for. And there were other guys like him. But Mayo didn't have a bad bone in his body.

He sat there in the dugout and watched us play." ON DENNY AND MICKEY AND STORMIN' NORMAN 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 wild leader. "The night before the World Series, Norm was calling the majority of guys because nobody could sleep." Lolich: "Before the World Series started, Dick Purtan's (radio station) had contracted me to, every morning at 8 o'clock, give a summary of yesterday's game. Well, 8 o'clock is 7 o'clock in St.

Louis. I'd be sound asleep and the phone would ring. I'd say, 'Good morning, He'd say, 'Did I wake you 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. "They liked to act like they don't like each other." Freehan: "The competition between Lolich and McLain they weren't best friends. But as a catcher, you had to straddle it a little bit, the relationship, because I was in the middle.

If you went to dinner with one of them, the other would ask, 'What did you guys talk ON THE FIELD: WORLD SERIES GAMES HIGHLIGHTS GAME 1: St. Louis 4, Detroit 0. Winning pitcher: Bob Gibson (record 17 strikeouts). Losing pitcher: Denny McLain. Gates Brown: "I only got up once, in the first game, when Bob Gibson set a record for strikeouts.

But it was a big moment a big moment. He had a beautiful cracklin' slider and his fastball was movin'. I got three pitches from him. The first two were balls. Then he threw me a hard, tight, I believe it was a fastball.

I swung at it, and I flied to left." says, "Come on, Mick, let's go." He caught me off guard. It was the umpire down the leftfield line. They had already had their meeting at home plate. I said, Ym not ready to And he said, 'We got to "I said, 'No, I'm not ready to start the game "He said, 'We're on national television. When you go out to the mound, I will signal the home plate umpire for you to take a few extra You're allowed eight, and they gave me 11.

And when I went to pitch the first inning of that game, I was nowhere near ready to be pitching. I hadn't even thrown a breaking ball in the bullpen. "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.

Things were building slowly like, 'What's going on Things were changing. "There's a point in that seventh inning that I'm coming up to bat, and Gates should be pinch-hitting for me. He should be. And I look back, and Mayo is, 'Get up there. Get up I end up getting a base hit, so I made a hero out of him." Horton: "What made that play was it was more than Willie Horton throwing the baseball and (Brock) didn't slide.

It was what Bill Freehan and I picked up in the advance scouting report. I set myself in (the hitter's) area, and my job at the time was to hit Coyote which is third baseman Don Wert in the nose for the cutoff. But he let the ball come through because he knew that Lou Brock broke his stride. That's how we made that play." Brown: "Now if Brock would have slid, he would have been in safe, no doubt about it. But he stood up and Freehan blocked the plate beautifully, and Willie made the perfect throw and that was the pivotal game for us." GAMS 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 "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 "I said, 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 "I said, 'I can do GAMS 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 "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 because you couldn't see down into the bullpen. But when I got to the top step (of the dugout), he said, 'Can you give me one "Well, then we turn around and score three runs, and I walk over to Mayo, tap him on the shoulder, and said, Til finish it out for you, "He said, 'Exactly what I wanted to Kaline: "That first game, Bob Gibson was unbelievable. He just overpowered us and had great control. Quite frankly, in the seventh game, he wasn't as overpowering as he was before. He didn't dominate us as much, so we were able to take good swings.

I didn't get any hits the last game. That was the only game I was shut out. But we got plenty of them. And the big hit that came was when Lolich hit that line drive to centerfield, and we went on to score three runs in the seventh inning." Freehan: "My biggest thrill was catching the last pop-up and Lolich. jumping into my arms." Contact JO-ANN BARN AS at is -pi KIMBtRLY P.

Ml ICHELL Detroit Hee Press Above, Sharon and Denny McLain pose under McLain's famous No. 17 jersey; at left, Denny holds court with reporters after one of 31 wins in 1968. He won Game 6 of the World Series. Tigers' roster for 1968 World Series INFIELDERS Norm Cash Tom Matchick Eddie Mathews Dick McAuliffe Ray Oyler Mickey Stanley Dick Tracewski Don Wert OUTFIELDERS Gates Brown -Wayne Comer Willie Horton Al Kaline Jim Northrup CATCHERS Bill Freehan Jim Price PITCHERS Pat Dobson John Hiller Fred Lasher Mickey Lolich Denny McLain DonMcMahon Daryl Patterson Joe Sparma Jon Warden Earl Wilson MANAGER Mayo Smith COACHES Tony Cuccinello Wally Moses Hal Naragon Johnny Sain Paused GAME 3: St. Louis 7, Detroit 3.

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. Actually, I didn't know I did. I never hit the ball to leftfield. I always just used to hit the ball up the middle toward right, and when I hit the ball to left, to me, it was just a fly ball. "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." Lolich: "A lot of pitchers were wondering how the National League umpires were going to call the strike zone.

I wasn't worried about it because I was a low-ball pitcher. My nickname, Lolo, came from that I got very low on the mound when I threw. I actually dragged my left knee on the ground. The National League strike zone didn't bother me in the least." Winning pitcher: Ray Washburn. Losing pitcher: Earl Wilson.

GAMS 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, 1 believe, in the fourth inning. We made four errors, which was unheard of for our ballclub." GAMS 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 some- body, 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 Answers Aoq.vo jySiupift jepeiep sgj ui svl osjfa "-WH J3 MW. sy) Japei py 'jaw iiKHWi H0 )Ol topw twtfVXl awpfl wo liojeg wjeg 6g sxy uiif iqwbs "Snail Wmji Viq wnj uki pue in ii iv rAuauintis AWfl '( spiow JO) "sptoa, osP 6 'mm siij ui jejeu jstuoog "iui mpon jhu uijf Soq pefl ajjjinvw V.Q -Iiwujon ujjcn JOH )o tysjswin ui 613 u.

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