Mickey Lolich did it all in 1968.
You know, Mickey may not have been the best pitcher on the Detroit Tigers that year, but he was second to Denny McLain. Detroit didn't have another lefty to compare to him. Or any other pitcher (McLain excepted) to compare to him. I don't see how going 17-9 with 3.19 earned run average makes you a pitcher you don't talk about. And, in the World Series that year, the St. Louis Cardinals would find out how good of a pitcher he was. Not a bad hitter, either.
The big story was Bob Gibson vs. Denny McLain in the opener at new Busch Stadium, so Lolich was already taking a back seat to two pitchers. The reasoning is simple, Gibson's ERA was 1.12, McLain's 1.96.
Gibson took the opener, 4-0 (Although McLain did not pitch badly, two earned runs, three hits allowed over five innings) and appeared to set the tone. The Cardinals didn't know it yet, but the second contest, would change the way anyone watching thought about the Fall Classic.
Lolich started out slow, allowing a hit and a walk in the bottom of the first, but seemed to get it together. Willie Horton's second inning home run put Detroit ahead for good. Lolich, though, wouldn't be content with just pitching on this afternoon. There was a bit of wind, from the dish to the bag at second, which would help the batters. Not that it helped St. Louis.
Lolich came up himself next inning, and hit a home run of his own! He'd never done that in the bigs before (And this was the only one he'd ever hit!). A new experience for the star pitcher. How was it like getting a free ride around the bases?
"Between the shock of everything, first base came up right in the middle of my stride, and I stepped right over the top of the base and I had to go back and, you know, touch the base, and then [First base coach] Wally Mosses said 'Second base is that [To the left] way', so I had to start running in that direction.
I've never hit a home run in the ten years I've been in professional baseball. The best I've ever done is a triple that Tony Conigliaro tried to shoestring, and I have hit two legal doubles [Not ground-rule] that I've hit at the gap, that's the only extra base hit I've ever had between the home run in professional baseball."
It was 2-0, Detroit. Lolich had things well in order. His hitting, which was a big surprise, was actually starting to overshadow his pitching. St. Louis, you see, would collect one RBI, total, in this game. The whole team.
So Mickey was really doing it all. Four times, he got the Cardinals in order. The game stayed close, however, until the top of the sixth, as Norm Cash to start it. Two more runs scored that frame, giving the left-handed pitcher a nice five-run cushion to work with. He was working on a shutout.
Well, that went by the wayside in the home have of that frame, but the Tigers came roaring back with more offence, in the seventh. Just one run, but that was big for Detroit, who'd been shutout by Bob Gibson the previous game.
Lolich added a single in the top of the eighth, but that didn't lead to anything. You'd think he was done as a hitter this afternoon? Think again.
Come the top of the ninth, Lolich had a 6-1 lead on St. Louis. Al Kaline got a rally going with a leadoff single. From there, the Tigers scored runs in unconventional ways. There was an error. So two on for Ray Oyler, who was a terrible hitter. But rather than hurt the rally, Ray bunted the two men over into scoring positon. The next batter was intentionally walked. Don Wert walked. So did Lolich. Wert and Lolich got RBIs.
Now would be a good time to mention that Mickey Lolich, the pitcher, was just a great pitcher on this afternoon. He did have some scary moments. Baseball may not be a contact sport, but Lolich had some issues this game. In the sixth, Curt Flood hit a chopper to the pitcher's right. Mickey got to it, but fell before he could make a play.
Lou Brock had added to Lolich's misery. He scored the lone run for St. Louis, stole two bases, and nearly took Mickey's head off with a shot to centre in the eighth. Despite all that, St. Louis was held to just six hits.
The series headed towards Tiger Stadium, but it was St. Louis that seized the momentum. Game three was a home-run filled contest, that went the Cardinals way, 7-3. The Tigers collected just four hits. Game four had many-a-rain delay. It didn't help Denny McLain and company. The second McLain / Gibson matchup was a washout, literally. St. Louis won, 10-1.
So, it was up to Mickey Lolich to keep his team alive. But St. Louis looked like they wanted to uncork some champagne right there, at Tiger Stadium. That was made clear right off the bat. The Cardinals scored three time in the first, capped off by Orlando Cepeda's towering home run.
Lolich went back to work. He had a 1-2-3 second, and got through the third, as Lou Brock was caught stealing. The Tigers offence needed to get going. Would Mickey help out his team with the lumber again?
The other Mickey, Stanley, got the ball rolling on the comeback in the bottom of the fourth with a triple. The Tigers would end up with two runs. Could Mickey the pitcher do more? He'd settled down nicely since the first.
In the bottom of the seventh, it was still 3-2 for the visitors. The Detroit half of the inning started off poorly. Don Wert fanned. The batter had hit .114 in 1968. The pitcher, Mickey Lolich. Somehow, he singled. Dick McAuliffe followed suit. Mickey Stanley walked to load the bases. Al Kaline hit a clutch two-run single, putting the Tigers ahead for good. Norm Cash then got Lolich some insurance with a run-scoring single. The whole situation would have been different had the inning started off differently. As Detroit manager Mayo Smith explained to Tony Kubek prior to the next game.
"...Don Wert was the leadoff hitter, of course if Don Wert had gotten on, I'd have pinch hit for Mickey, but with one man out the eighth and ninth-place hitters are going to come up again, because after the seventh inning we got two more shots at 'em, and Mickey was pitching so well, I figured we can catch up with them within the next two times at bat. So, fortunately, as you say, Mickey got a humped back single to right field that started a rally and of course we went on to win it"
St. Louis put two on in the top of the ninth, but again, Lolich came through. With one away, Roger Maris fanned. Lou Brock grounded back to the pitcher. With his toss to first, Lolich had his second win of the 1968 World Series. And so did Detroit.
Back to Busch Stadium for game six. Obviously, it was a must-win situation. But the Tigers gave the ball to Denny McLain, who'd won a lot of games in '68. 31 to be exact. The only trouble was, Denny was 0-2 in the Fall Classic. Well, the visiting team made themselves at home, even if they had to wait ten minutes due to rain. By the end of the third, it was 12-0, Tigers. They added a run in the top of the fifth. Another rain delay in the eighth merely prolonged the inevitable. There would be a game seven.
Obviously, it was Bob Gibson for St. Louis. He'd won his last seven World Series starts, going the distance in all. Gibby was also 2-0 in game sevens. McLain had looked very good in game six, allowing just a meaningless run in the ninth. Prior to that last inning, Denny was working on a six-hit shutout. But with him going nine, there was no way McLain could do as much as relieve in this all-important game.
It was, indeed, Mickey Lolich going for the Tigers. The Cardinals looked to get to him early. In the last of the first, Curt Flood got a base hit with two away. Only a single. But St. Louis' game was to run. And run Flood did to second with a stolen base. Orlando Cepeda followed with a walk, before the inning came to an end.
It seemed like Mickey settled down after that. But in the sixth inning, Lou Brock got it all going with a single. You knew what was next. What Brock and the Cardinals didn't know was that Lolich then picked him off first. But then Flood followed the second out by singling. And Curt wasn't slow. However, Lolich picked him off, too.
Bob Gibson had stayed right with Lolich all the way, but then fate intervened. In the top of the seventh, Gibby got the first two batters out, and appeared save. Two singles followed. Jim Northrup hit a ball to centre. Flood misjudged it, and the end result was a 2-0 Tiger lead. And Northrup on third. Bill Freehan followed with a double. 3-0. The Cards were in a bad hitting slump since the first inning of game five. Now, could Lolich hang on?
Mike Shannon reached second base on an error in the last of the seventh. But Lolich, who'd fanned Orlando Cepeda to start the Cards' half of the inning, induced Tim McCarver to fly out to Al Kaline. Then, Roger Maris, batting for the last time in his big-league career, popped up to Mickey Stanley at short.
Come the the eighth, it was Lou Brock who batted, after Gibson had been retired for the second out. "I wanted him [Gibson] to finish," St. Louis manager Red Schoendienst about his Hall-of-Fame pitching star. Alas, the Tigers took advantage of that decision. Brock walked, but Julian Javier was retired trying to bunt his way on.
So come the top of the ninth, three singles made it a 4-0 lead for Detroit. The last batter of the Tigers' half of that inning was Mickey Lolich. The Busch Stadium crowd gave him quite an applause. On the first pitch, Bob Gibson got him to pop out to Dick Schofield at short.
Three more outs by Lolich, who was working on a fine four-hitter, and:
1) A World Championship
2) A complete game
3) A shutout
Well, his curveballs were really clicking. Flood looked an one wicked on for strike two. He fouled the next offering. Another curve was low. A liner to Stanley followed. One out. Cepeda swung at the first pitch, only to pop out to Bill Freehan behind the plate.
Look at how far Lolich had come! Since giving up three runs with only one out in the first inning two games ago, Mickey had gone 17 1/3 innings without allowing another run. There was no one throwing in the Tigers' bullpen. It was all up to Lolich. Now, only Mike Shannon stood between the pitcher and immortality.
Shannon took a heater just a little low. A curveball was high, 2-0. A fastball caught the outer edge. 2-1. The next pitch, Mike was ready for it. He launched a home run to left. So much for the shutout.
Tim McCarver was next. There was still no activity in the bullpen of Detroit. Tim popped up foul on the first base side (first pitch swinging), Freehan got under it. Detroit Tigers, 1968 World Champions!
When the Detroit catcher turned around, there was Mickey, jumping into his arms. It was a great moment for the two. But what a Fall Classic by the portsider: 3-0, 1.67 earned run average (Tied with Bob Gibson for series lead). Plus a .250 batting average, one home run, two runs driven home and two runs scored himself. What hadn't Mickey done?
"I never got tired in the [Seventh] game, I was weak, almost from about the third inning on," Lolich told Ernie Harwell afterwards, "I didn't have the real, good, hard fastball that I do know how to throw, did you notice most of the balls hit today were hit on the ground? I was throwing a sinking fastball all day."
He'd been throwing the Cardinals off their game, all day. And all series.
References
Enders, Eric. 100 Years Of The World Series. Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. 2005.
Major League Baseball Productions. 1968 World Series Highlights. DVD.
Morissey, Scott C. 114 World Series in 1 Book. Updated ed., Pandamonium Publishing House, 2020.
Neft, David S., Richard M. Cohen, and Michael L. Neft. The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball, 1992. 12th ed. St. Martin's Press, 1992.
--------------. The World Series: Complete Play-By-Play of Every Game, 1903-1989, St. Martin's Press, 1990.
Nemec, David et all. 20th Century Baseball Chronicle: A Year-by-year History of Major League Baseball. Collector's Edition. Publications International, 1993.
1968 World Series. National Broadcasting Company, Oct. 1968, http://www.youtube.com/. Accessed 18 Apr. 2023.
Society For American Baseball Research, SABR. https://sabr.org/. 18 Apr. 2023.
Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. http://www.baseball-reference.com/. 18 Apr. 2023.
Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/. 18 Apr. 2023.
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