Posted on 05/04/2010 6:29:44 PM PDT by sand lake bar
I wasn’t around then.. but I watched the replay of one of the 68 WS games
Mickey Lolich was fearless. He belongs in the Hall of Fame.
We in the Tigers Nation are in mourning tonight.
I think also with the passing of Harwell, we also mourn an icon of back in the day when Detroit was still a great city, instead of the sad shell it has become.
Mickey might get in there some day, maybe on the old-timer’s committee. A 272-inning season, then four straight 300-inning seasons. They worked him to death, nobody can do that any more. Not even close.
If you ask me..
Billy Martin mishandled him. Even though that was a different time. I think I read that he pitched 376 innings in 1971. That is such an enigma because he got a lot of great out of him. But maybe that cost Mickey a chance to pitch into the very early part of the 80s. But who knows if he would have been as good if he had pitched longer.
Infact, Billy Martin worked starters to death everywhere he went. He let his starters is Oakland pitch 13 and 14 inning games in the early 80s. They burned out. Another enigma. They won the American League West in 1981. The pitchers ruined their arms but they won a championship, so what can you say..
Thanks for the ping. R.I.P. Mr. Ernie Harwell. Thank you, sir.
I remember him saying, after he retired, that people thought he had a rubber arm, but it was killing him. "It was my job".
They weren't so careful with pitchers back then, because they weren't so expensive.
Fidrych, his rookie year, didn't make his first start until mid-May, 21 yrs old, 250 innings, 24 complete games.
Nobody comes close to that any more. They wrecked him.
Thanks for the post. R.I.P. Mr. Ernie Harwell. Thank you, sir.
too bad they pre-empted last night’s tigers game for that stupid playoff game. might have actually heard about it.
I grew up watching the Tigers, started going to games in 1961. I was at Game 5 of the 68 series, the 71 All Star Game, a few of The Bird’s great games, the 84 playoffs and Series. Growing up that way, I guess the Tigers became part of my DNA. I couldn’t stop rooting for them even if I wanted to.
If you look at his career record, he falls a bit short. But he obviously had an outstanding World Series in '68 with three wins, including Game 7 vs. Bob Gibson, who deservedly is in the HOF. (Gibson won two World Series Game 7s.)
You know that old saying, death comes in threes? Ernie’s is all three this time.
The summer days of my youth were full of Ernie and Paul.
God Bless Ernie Harwell. This place is a bit more empty without him.
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