The Historic Baseball Season that Unified a Scarred City

I was 8 years old in 1968. It was one of the most turbulent years in American history, both culturally and politically. The assassinations of both Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King are etched in my mind forever….1968 was the most deadly year of the Vietnam war. There were riots outside of the Democratic National Convention that year. The year before in the summer of 1967 there were race riots throughout American cities. Nowhere was it as destructive and violent as in Detroit. The city was literally on fire. The downtown sounded and looked like a war zone. Two airlines canceled all flights to Detroit for fear of sniper fire.

Blues performer John Lee Hooker wrote the song “The Motor City is Burning” in 1967 in sync with the riots in his hometown.

“Oh the motor city is burnin’

it ain’t nothing in the world that I can do

Don’t you know the Big D is burnin’

My home town burnin’ down to the ground

Worse than Vietnam”.

President Lyndon Johnson declared on National television, “Law and order has broken down in Detroit”. After a week without any sign of tapering LBJ sent in tanks and 8,000 federal troops. The violence finally stopped. The problems were as raw and unresolved as ever but the rioting stopped when the tanks showed up. By the end of July 43 people had died, 2,000 arrested and 2,500 stores had been looted or burned.

"I never saw so many grown men cry in my life"

Just 3 miles away from downtown Detroit the Tigers of 1967 were making a pennant run late into the summer and fans were, in spite of the violence, showing up to see if their Tigers could get to the World Series for the first time since 1945. It seemed to be an oasis of peace and hope in the midst of the chaos, cracked skulls, broken glass, and blackened and smoldering buildings. Gates Brown, one of 3 black Tigers players, said the sentiment among many rioters was “don’t throw that brick, the Tigers are on TV”. Many whites were hesitant to cross “8 Mile”, the road that was the de facto dividing line between the white and black neighborhoods in the Motor City. You had to cross “8 mile” to get to Tiger Stadium. At the height of the riots you could see the smoke from downtown burning buildings from inside Tiger stadium during a game. But, Tiger stadium was safe. It was like a fortress. Reality was suspended in Tiger Stadium. The drama of baseball went on as usual and it may have been one of the only safe places in the southern part of Detroit.

The 67’ Tigers fell short that year by one game. It was a crushing blow to a city that needed something to celebrate, and something to forget. The city of Detroit, both the blacks and whites, needed this as consolation. After the Tigers were eliminated Gates Brown said, “I never saw so many grown men cry in my life”.

The late 60’s brought about a major demographic shift in the city of Detroit. The overall population started to drop for the first time as whites moved to the suburbs and more blacks moved in. In 1960 the black population of Detroit was 28%. It had shifted to 48% by 1970. The American Automobile Industry in Detroit was still robust in the 60’s but the black community wasn’t sharing enough in the prosperity and dignity. The unemployment rate for blacks in Detroit was an astounding 30%. The Tigers organization themselves had a history of being very slow to integrate their ballclub. Their first black player came a full 11 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Black players in the 60’s weren’t eager to join the Tigers due to their reputation. Still, it was largely agreed upon that there were no racial tensions among the players in Detroit. The team socialized together, played hard for each other and, to a man, showed great respect for one another.

None of that was on my mind in October of 68’ when the World Series began between the Detroit Tigers and the St. Louis Cardinals. It was the first year that I remember being aware of Professional sports. It marked the beginning of a deep love affair that has never ended. I was in the throngs of my 4th grade year at R.D. White elementary school and back then all World Series games were played during the day. There were no night World Series games until 1971 (now all World Series games are at night). The games were televised and on the radio but they would be over by the time I got home from school. I wasn’t going to miss the drama of my first World Series just because I was in school. A transistor radio was jammed into my back pocket to capture the broadcast on AM radio. I had to hide it from my teacher, Mrs. Downey, but I found a way to hear glimpses and updates of the games. Radios were important then. It was like a bicycle--we all had one and used them everyday. It was often how we followed and experienced sports and the main way we listened to music. For some reason that I am not sure of I was rooting for the Detroit Tigers. They hadn’t been to a World Series for 23 years and the Cardinals had won the year before and in 64’. I had no ties to Detroit but I had to pick a team…Detroit was my team that year. The city and the team has been special to me ever since.

After the assassination of Martin Luther King at the start of the 68’ season racial tensions were reignited. It was going to be a tumultuous and painful year for many. The citizens of Detroit were putting a lot of hope in the Tigers to bring something to cheer about.

I have never forgotten the names of both lineups that year: Dick McCaullife, Bob Gibson, Mickey Stanley, Al Kaline, Lou Brock, Julian Javier, Mickey Lolich, Denny McClain. McClain won 31 games that year, No one has won close to that many games in a single season since….no one will ever win 30 games again. I had his baseball card that year….I had all their baseball cards that year.

In 68’ the Tigers got off to a great start and never looked back. They won the pennant by 12 games and this time they were going to the World Series. Attendance was growing as the Tigers success grew and Tiger Stadium was the place where racial tensions were forgotten. It seemed like everyone in Detroit was either at the games or listening on a transistor radio somewhere. Everyone in Detroit claimed the Tigers…One of their best players was a black, hometown star, Willie Horton. Horton grew up in Detroit and was revered by both blacks and whites and during the riots in 67’ he drove to the middle of downtown in his Tiger uniform to try and calm the rage. It’s hard to imagine a baseball player in this era feeling so connected to a city and a riot. This was the late 60’s in Detroit and this was Willie Horton.

Game 1 of the 7 game series was in St. Louis. The Cardinals starting pitcher was future Hall of Famer, Bob Gibson, a proud, black, intimidating player who was at the peak of his powers. Tigers starting pitcher Denny McClain led the league in wins but Gibson, by far, was the the most difficult pitcher to score on. Gibson pitched one of the greatest games in World Series history that day, some say the greatest, and set a record by striking out 17 Tigers batters.

The Tigers came back to win Game 2 as Tigers starter Mickey Lolich pitched a dominating game. The series then shifted to Detroit for games 3, 4 and 5. Game 3 was won by the Cardinals and Game 4 featured, again, the starters from Game 1. Marvin Gaye sang the National Anthem and Vice President Hubert Humphrey and legendary Jackie Robinson were in the stands. McClain was experiencing a sore shoulder and he was ineffective and wasn’t able to compete with Gibson. The Tigers were routed 10 - 1 and now they were down 3 games to 1 and one game away from elimination. They would have to win the next 3 games to win the 68’ World Series. Only 2 times in World Series history had a team come back from a 3 games to 1 deficit.

Game 5 would be in Detroit and it would be a historic game (and pregame). Detroit Tigers longtime announcer, Ernie Harwell, was asked to select those who would sing the national anthem for the 3 games in Detroit. Harwell selected a white woman for game 1 in Detroit, the famous black soul singer, Marvin Gaye for Game 2 in Detroit, and for game 3 in Detroit Harwell invited 22 year old Jose Feliciano, the blind, Latin soul singer who was opening for Frank Sinatra in Vegas at the time. He took the red eye from Vegas after his show in time to arrive hours before game time. With guitar in hand and seeing eye dog by his side Feliciano delivered a rendition of the national anthem that shocked those watching and listening. Never before had anyone tried to reinterpret the classic (and only) rendition of that All American song. It was like changing the place settings at the Last Supper. Feliciano was from Puerto Rico. It was the height of the Vietnam War and the country was not ready for a departure from national norms--a perceived assault on something so sacrosanct. Many people booed at it’s conclusion and phones lines in the Detroit Tiger front office were ringing with disapproval immediately. People called Harwell a communist. The anthem made the national news. Cardinal pitcher Bob Gibson was quoted as saying “it was the worst thing I ever heard in my life”. Municipalities everywhere were trying to pass laws to insure that no one could deviate from the traditional rendition without fear of being arrested. Feliciano recalls that they were trying to deport him. “How do you deport someone who is a citizen?” He had many of his upcoming concert dates canceled. Feliciano’s intentions were not to be counterculture or anti American but it didn’t matter—Jose had broken the “sound barrier” of Star Spangled Banner decorum. It was indeed historic and, perhaps, acted as inspiration for the famous rendition delivered by Jimi Hendrix a year later at Woodstock. Feliciano’s version that day is my favorite version of the Star Spangled Banner. It is the only one that truly inspires me. The link is below.

https://youtu.be/aQkY2UFBUb4

For Game 5 Detroit rested their thin hopes on Mickey Lolich, the winner of game 2. Game 5 was a game the Tigers had to win to stay in the Series. The Cardinals got to Lolich in the first inning for 3 runs. It seemed like it wasn’t meant to be for the Tigers and their fans, desperate for something to feel good about. The Cardinals seemed to have this series firmly under control. They had a 3-0 lead after 1 inning in game 5 and a 3 games to 1 lead….in the series.

By the bottom of the 7th inning the Cardinals were leading 3 – 2 and were only 9 outs from winning their second straight World Series. Lolich, who had shut down the Tigers hitters for the last 6 innings now came to the plate and hit a bloop single to right field. With one out Dick McCauliffe also singled to right field. Mickey Stanley walked to load the bases and then Al Kaline, the son of a Baltimore broom maker, in his 16th season as a Tiger, playing in his first World Series, came to bat, their superstar, and lined a single to right center field. It was to be the biggest at bat of his life. 2 runs scored to put the Tigers in front and before the inning was out the Tigers held a 5 – 3 lead going into the 8th. Lolich pitched two scoreless innings and the Tigers had salvaged game 5. The series wasn’t over after all. Baseball fans were going to hear at least one more national anthem. It was now 3 games to 2 in favor of the Cardinals with the final two games to be played in St. Louis.

Denny McClain was scheduled to pitch game 6 in St. Louis but he had been having significant pain in his pitching arm for over a week. It didn’t look possible that he could make his scheduled start. His game 4 performance was dismal but the Tigers felt they had to try anything to get their ace into game 6. The team doctor recommended injections of both lidocaine and steroids into his pitching shoulder in a desperate attempt to bring his arm back. The next day McClain felt “better than I have felt in a month”. McClain took the mound for game 6 and he was the Denny McClain that Tigers fans had learned to expect. He gave up one run in 9 innings while the Tigers offense had a World Series record 10 run 4th inning highlighted by Jim Northrup’s grand slam. 13 – 1 was the final score and game 7 was all that remained to decide it all…..The Cardinals felt great about their chances as they had the virtually unhittable Bob Gibson going for his 8th straight World Series win. He had won games 1 and 4 by giving up only one run total and had won the World Series game clinching game 7’s in both the 64’ series against the Yankees and the 67’ series against the Boston Red Sox. Mickey Lolich was certainly no one’s “David” but Bob Gibson was a “Goliath”, for sure. Lolich, the winning pitcher in games 2 and 5 was ready for the pressure. Mickey said “I wasn’t nervous. I slept like a baby the night before but my wife was up pacing the floors all night”.

In Detroit, before game 7, the barriers between black and white came down….it seemed like the whole city shut down to see if the Tigers could be World champions. Not even the worst race riot in the country’s history could distract Detroit Tiger fans from investing heavily into something that could make them feel on top of the world.

For the first 6 innings neither team scored a run. Gibson had only given up one weak hit. In the top of the 7th the first two Tigers batters were dispatched; with two outs Norm Cash came to the plate, the power hitting, gum chewing first baseman and one of the Tigers best hitters. On a 3 and 2 count Cash lined a hard single to right….it was only the 2nd baserunner of the game for the Tigers.. This brought up Willie Horton. Horton hit Gibson’s first pitch between the short stop and third baseman for another hit. Runners were on 1st and 2nd with two outs when Jim Northrup came to the plate. Northrup was a crafty and often powerful left handed hitter who, in game 4, had hit the only home run that Gibson had given up in the series. Northrup hit Gibson’s first pitch into deep center field in the direction of Golden Glove centerfielder Curt Flood. Flood ran to his right and seemed to stumble slightly and the ball went over his head by about 8 feet and all to the way to the wall. Both Cash and Willie Horton scored and Northrup ended up on third base with a triple. “I just was pounding on the floor….could not stop..that had to be the highlight, that could have been the highlight of my life right there…that triple”. – Jim Lewis, a young Tigers fan who stayed home from school to watch the game on TV.

3 pitches and 3 straight hits. Bill Freehan followed with a double to drive in Northrup. The Tigers had 1 hit in the first 6 2/3 innings off of Gibson and now they proceeded to get 4 hits in a row. The Tigers were in the driver’s seat leading 3-0 in game 7. The Tigers scored another run in the top of the ninth to make it 4-0 and that was more than enough for Lolich to record his 3rd win of the series and wrap up one of the greatest comebacks in MLB history…

Lolich got Cardinal catcher Tim McCarver to foul out to catcher Bill Freehan for the 3rd out in the ninth…..Tigers were champions

The City of Detroit could finally exhale. The celebration was equally felt by both the black and white community. Racial tensions were on hold. It was as if nothing had happened in downtown Detroit just 14 months before. For a few months after the Tigers World Series win there was a truce between the white and black races in Detroit. It was all forgotten….for awhile. Tensions rewound soon enough and the insidious problems were once again in plain sight. The homicide rate in Detroit soared and civil unrest was always expected. Whites continued to leave Detroit and move to the suburbs and the black population became a larger and larger percentage of Detroit. But, for the summer and fall of 1968 the Detroit Tigers made the pain go away. It was a glorious gift.

Coda:

Denny McClain seemed to find a way to stay in the spotlight on and off the field. He was cocky as well as colorful and he often said things to the media, his fellow players and fans that sparked controversy. He lived on the edge. He was awarded the MVP and Cy Young trophy in 68’ and the Cy Young once again in 69’ as the leagues outstanding pitcher, though 69’ would be his last dominant year. McClain only won 3 games the following year and in the next 3 years combined he would win only 17 while losing 34. He was out of pro baseball at 28. McClain, whose weight ballooned past 350 lbs., spent several stints in jail for drug trafficking, embezzlement, racketeering, and a 6 year sentence for embezzlement and mail fraud. He was a gambler, a performing organ player, and he owned and flew his own private plane during the baseball season. In his playing days he admitted to having a habit of drinking a case of soda a day. Today, McClain can often be found hosting his sports radio show. He’s an electric storyteller. His gastric bypass surgery has brought his weight down close to his playing days.

Al Kaline, nicknamed “Mr. Tiger” went on to play 6 more productive seasons in Detroit--21 in all. He is a Hall of Famer and one of the most respected and admired players in modern baseball history. No one had anything bad to say about Al Kaline. He died just a month ago on April 6, 2020 in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. To this day those who remember tell of the glorious base hit he had to right field which put the Tigers ahead to stay in game 5.

Norm Cash, the power hitting first baseman, was a 5 time All Star. When he retired he had hit more homeruns than any left handed batter in the American League except for Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, and Lou Gehrig. While vacationing in Lake Michigan he died in a drowning accident at 51 when, while intoxicated, he slipped off a dock and struck his head.

Former All Star second baseman Dick McCauliffe died in his 70’s from a stroke and complications from Alzheimer’s disease. Gates Brown, one of 3 black players on the Tigers of 68’ died in Detroit at age 74. He, along with Kaline, Stanley, Northrup, Willie Horton, and catcher Bill Freehan played their entire careers in Detroit. Horton and Freehan were born in Detroit and Northrup was born in Michigan. Bill Freehan, 78, has been in hospice care since 2018 for dementia. Earl Wilson, the game 3 starting pitcher for Detroit and one of the 3 black players on the team died of a massive heart attack at the age of 70. He died in Michigan and is buried in Detroit. Ray Oyler, the Tigers flawless fielding short stop died at age 43 of a massive heart attack. McClain, Oyler’s team roommate, claimed that Oyler was an alcoholic and in AA and that his drinking likely played a role in his premature death.

That season, that Series, and that time in history will never be forgotten. Triumph and harmony rose up from despair and violence. In this case, at least, baseball was transcendent. It was much more than a game; it brought disparate people together for a common dream. It was binding and glorious. Sport, at it's best, freezes time and place. It can make us feel like champions—together.