Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 127

Mickey Lolich: 'I'm Trying To Be A Personality9 In fact, Michael Lolich knows exactly what he is doing. "I'll be honest about it," he said, "I admit I'm trying to be a personality. I don't want to be another run-of-the-mill ball player. "I'm lucky. I've never had a sports writer dislike me.

I try to get along with them. I joke and clown around with them. I try to give them little things to write about. "I know they'll write what I say. I realize they've got a job to do and I try to help them.

"The thing is, I never want anyone to think I'm conceited. That's why I try to make fun of myself. I take my job seriously. I've finally come to realize what baseball has meant to me and what it has done for me. I appreciate that.

"I want to do my part to make it a more interesting game. That's what it really is a game. It's entertainment and I think it should be entertaining. "So if something strikes me funny and I think I've got a pretty good sense of humor I figure somebody else might think it's funny, and so Til blurt it out. What has matured Lolich more than anything was his recent marriage to Joyce Fleenor, a former airlines stewardess from Los Angeles.

About this, he is very serious. "She's done so much for me, to settle me down, that I can hardly put it into words," said Lolich. "She's made me a very happy guy." They were married Nov. 21. Continued ently," Lolich admitted.

"Some people might say I'm flaky. Let me tell you about the time I played at Durham. The whole club was flaky, not only me. "I never saw a team like that one in my life. No matter where we played, we always seemed to lose in the ninth inning.

"I remember the night Pat Dobson was pitching for us. The catcher was Wayne McLain. The other team had a runner on first base and it was a steal situation. Well, the runner broke for second and Dobson got down low on the mound to let the throw go through. So what does McLain do? He throws the ball and hits Dobson square in the back as he's kneeling on the mound.

"And then there was the night we made four errors on one play Very little of the ordinary happens when Lolich is around. While warming up in Tiger Stadium before the start of a game last season, he paused while they played the national anthem. When he got out to the mound, they goofed in the press box and announced the anthem for the second time. That was ok with the Mick. He turned around, took off his cap and faced the flag in centerfield.

If they wanted to play two anthems or three, four or five he was willing to go along with it. AS YOU MIGHT EXPECT, some of Lolich's ways are a ruse. A pleasant, harmless ruse, so nobody really minds. Last year, 18 victories; and the Tigers hope LOLICH IS OF YUGOSLAVIAN descent and although it may not seem so, he is sensitive. He revealed himself on a night in Minneapolis after Harmon Killebrew had hit a long home run against him.

Killebrew, aided by a strong wind, had hit the ball over the centerfield fence 390 feet from the plate. After the game, a Minneapolis sports writer asked Lolich what he thought of the homer. Lolkh told him what he thought. He thought it was a good homer, yes, but added that it was helped along by the wind blowing out to center-field. "He didn't furnish all the power for it," said Lolich in his candid way.

"In fact, on a normal day I don't think it'd have gone out of the park." The writer, searching for a headline, wrote that Lolich had called Killebrew's homer a "cheap homer." That rankled Lolich. It rankled him because the writer neglected to mention what Lolich had said about the wind, quoting him only as saying it was a cheap homer. "That's not fair." said Lolkh. "It makes me look like a complainer. I wasn't complaining at all.

He asked me what I thought of the homer and I told him. How could anyone knock Killebrew? Heck, I admire the guy." And then, with that humor again: "Whenever he's up there, it makes me think of Cape Kennedy." The Mick, though, has a way of frustrating people. Ever since he's been with the Tigers, he has been frustrating trainer Jack Homel. LOLICH HAS A POT BELLY and Homel feels it stems from Lolich's refusal to run enough. To this, the Mick says: "I know I've got a pot belly.

I can't help it. I've always had it and I guess I always will It's just one of those things." As for not doing enough running, he says he is simply "short winded." He claims if he runs too much, he gets out of breath, and when he gets out of breath, he doesn't feel strong, and when he doesn't feel strong, he can't pitch well, and when he can't pitch well "Never mind," says Homel. The Mick also confuses some people. Such as the time in Minneapolis last Aug. 12, to be exact that the clubhouse man had a big birthday cake waiting for him when the Mick came in from beating the Twins.

"Gee," said Lolich, "that's really nice but you shouldn't have done it." "Why not?" asked the clubhouseman. "Well, for one thing, it's not my birthday," said Lolich. The roster missed his birthday by a month it's Sept. 12 but that didn't faze the Mick. He had two slices of cake.

Long may he live. fit TA4 i 1 1 Mrs. Lolich is a lady named Joyce. 12 Detroit. Feb.

7. 1965.