[shove_it]

As a kid playing sandlot baseball in Detroit, Al Kaline was my favorite player. He had a deadly throwing arm which he used to pick off base-runners who hit singles to him in right field then rounded first base - he’d leisurely field the ball then whip it to the firstbaseman who’d tag out the runner scrambling back to the base. I got his autograph shortly after he made it to the Tigers as a rookie — he was delighted to give it to me. In those days, grandstand tickets in the outfield were 75 cent$ as I recall at Briggs Stadium.

[cripplecreek]

Willie Horton walked out of the park in his uniform and waded into the middle of the riots and stood on a car with a bullhorn begging people to go home.

[riverdawg]

I have Al Kaline’s autograph on a baseball that I took to a pre-season barnstorming game played in my hometown in the late 50s. Also on that baseball are autographs from Cal McLish, Harmon Killebrew, Jim Bunning, Paul Foytack, John Roseboro, and other stars from that era.