[benjaminthomas]

Gates was an old Detroit Tiger who played on the '68 World Series champions. Ex-con, I think, and a big local hero in Detroit. Lau was the hitting coach, most famous for his tutelage of George Brett. :-)

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Old? He played in the 1970's. That's like yesterday. I recently (like last year) saw him on a Red Sox broadcast. Apparently, he's still connected to the Tigers in some way.

They (the Cryptoquote monopoly) do a series on hitting, in early spring some years. The Charlie Lau quote goes something like: "There are two theories on hitting the knuckleball. Unfortunately, neither of them works."