On Oct. 2, 1968, Cardinals ace Bob Gibson stood on the mound at Busch Stadium in St. Louis for Game 1 of the World Series. The 6-foot-2 Gibson glared toward the plate, his jaw dripping with sweat, his cap pulled low over his face. Batters stood in against Gibson with trepidation, facing an arsenal that included a sharp curve, a devastating slider and a high-90s fastball that often came in high and tight.
Read more
Hal Naragon, the Tigers’ bullpen coach and right-hand man to famed pitching coach Johnny Sain on the world champion 1968 Tigers, died Saturday at the age of 90. Naragon was in Detroit for the 50th anniversary celebration of the ’68 title last fall.
Read more
Wayne Comer is amazed. It has been 51 years since he was a reserve on the Detroit Tigers’ World Championship team, 47 years since his last big-league game and, at 75-years-old, he still gets fan mail.
Read more
An interesting conversation that came out of a recent SABR Detroit meeting was the importance of Bill Freehan to the 1968 Tigers, as well as his Hall of Fame credentials. Freehan’s name comes up a lot more in Hall of Fame discussions now that the old Veterans Committee has been replaced by committees specified to eras
Read more
Lynn Henning had a front row seat for some of the biggest moments in Michigan sports for a half century. He retired from the News earlier this year.
Read more
By Jim Sargent at Baseball Almanac: When his many baseball accomplishments were added up, Bill Freehan, the longtime standout catcher[…]
Read moreFrom MLive: The World Championship ring on Jim Rooker’s finger is from the Pittsburgh Pirates. The chip on his shoulder[…]
Read moreAppropriate and painful, those video snippets running for the past couple of months. They show Bill Freehan with his Tigers cap on backwards and his catcher’s mask tossed to the side. He settles beneath a pop-up launched by Tim McCarver that had been shot into the afternoon sun at Busch Stadium, just right of the plate. Freehan raises his catcher’s mitt and snags the ball.
Read moreAs the Tigers prepare to celebrate that historic 1968 team it’s safe to say Denny McLain’s legacy remains complicated.
Read moreRichard John “Dick” McAuliffe was never the kind of player destined to make it into Cooperstown, and yet he was precisely the kind of hard-nosed, rough and tumble baseball player who helped turn the 1968 Tigers team into world champions. The spirited infielder was known as “Mad Dog” to his teammates.
Read more