December 12, 1975: The Staub-Lolich Trade

Staub wore Number 4 in his first tenure with the Mets.

I decided this photo, from his second tenure with them,

was the best picture I had of him.

December 12, 1975: The New York Mets trade right fielder Rusty Staub and pitcher Bill Laxton to the Detroit Tigers for pitcher Mickey Lolich and outfielder Billy Baldwin.

Laxton and Baldwin (no relation to the Long Island acting family that includes a Billy Baldwin) are footnotes in baseball history. The Mets needed pitching, and thought that Lolich, a hero of 2 postseason runs for the Tigers, had something left, so they were willing to give up Le Grand Orange in his prime.

Lolich went 8-13 for a decent (82-80) Mets team in 1976, but feuded with team management, and retired after the season. After sitting out the entire 1977 season, he was granted free agency, and pitched 2 more seasons as a reliever for the San Diego Padres. He finished with a career record of 217-191, and more strikeouts than any lefthanded pitcher in history, 2,832. (A few lefties have since surpassed that total.)

As for Staub, maybe he wouldn't have hit as well in Shea's dimensions and wind as he did toward Tiger Stadium's short right field porch. But the Mets missed his bat: He averaged 19 home runs and 106 RBIs over the next 3 seasons. This was one of the trades that made the Tom Seaver trade of 1977 a confirmation of the already-present collapse, not the start of one.

By the time the Mets got Staub back, he was fat and slow, and little more than an occasionally-good pinch hitter. He finished in 1985 with a .279 lifetime batting average, and 2,716 hits including 292 home runs. He is the only player to collect at least 500 hits with 4 different teams: The Houston Astros, then the Montreal Expos, then the Mets, then the Tigers. Along with Ty Cobb, Gary Sheffield and Alex Rodriguez, he is 1 of 4 players in the major leagues to hit a home run before his 20th birthday and hit one after his 40th birthday.

And yet, both Lolich and Staub fall a little short of consideration for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

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December 12, 1975 was a Friday. Actress and scientist Mayim Bialik was born on this day.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 6 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Buffalo Braves, 123-110 at the Buffalo memorial Auditorium. Bob McAdoo scored 39 points for the Braves, leading all professional scorers on the night.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Washington Bullets, 130-108 at the Boston Garden.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 109-91 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* The Kansas City Kings beat the Chicago Bulls, 109-99 at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 114-102 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 34 points and 21 rebounds.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Detroit Pistons, 97-95 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 3 games in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets beat the Spirits of St. Louis, 106-98 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Kentucky Colonels, 107-100 at Freedom Hall in Louisville.

* And the Denver Nuggets beat the Virginia Squires, 110-107 at The Scope in Norfolk.

There were 3 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders and the Atlanta Flames played to a tie, 3-3 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Washington Capitals, 5-3 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* And the California Golden Seals beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-2 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

And there were 5 games in the World Hockey Association:

* The Toronto Toros beat the Quebec Nordiques, 6-4 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Cleveland Crusaders beat the Minnesota Fighting Saints, 1-0 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Houston Aeros beat the Indianapolis Racers, 4-2 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Calgary Cowboys, 4-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* And the Cincinnati Stingers beat the Phoenix Roadrunners, 4-2 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

October 10, 1968: The Tigers Win One for Detroit

October 10, 1968: Mickey Lolich wins his 3rd game of the Series – matching Harry Brecheen as the only lefthander ever to do it thus far – and the Detroit Tigers win their 1st World Series in 23 years (to the day), beating the indomitable Bob Gibson and the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7, 4-1 at Busch Memorial Stadium.

Mike Shannon hits a home run for the Cardinals, Jim Northrup's triple past the normally sure-fielding Curt Flood in the top of the 7th makes the difference. In the bottom of the 7th, Roger Maris, the Cardinals' right fielder pops up to short, closing an 0-for-3 day. It is the last at-bat of his career, as he has already decided to retire.

After the race riot and near-miss for the Pennant in 1967, after 23 years without a Pennant (let alone a title), after 11 years without a World Championship in any sport (since the 1957 NFL Champion Lions), and after 16 years without a Pennant for their legendary star Al Kaline, Detroit needed this World Championship very badly. With Kaline, Lolich, Northrup and Willie Horton being the stars of the Tigers' comeback from 3-games-to-1 down, the '68 Tigers remain the most beloved team in the history of Michigan sports, ahead of any Lions, Pistons, Red Wings, Michigan Wolverine or Michigan State Spartan team.

Lolich, who would retire with 217 wins and as the all-time strikeout leader among lefthanders with 2,832, was criticized for being fat. He was the original "hefty lefty." He was 6 feet even, and is usually listed as having been 210 pounds. Seriously, that was considered fat for a pitcher in 1968. Paging David Wells. Paging CC Sabathia. And on the right side, paging Bartolo Colon. Paging Rich Garces.

The last at-bat was future broadcaster Tim McCarver, popping up halfway down the 1st base line. Catcher Bill Freehan caught it, and Lolich jumped into his arms. Freehan must have been a very strong man to be able to hold Lolich in his arms for 6 seconds.

Michigan sports fans have held the '68 Tigers in their hearts ever since. In spite of the achievements of the Tigers in 1984, the Pistons in 1989-90 and 2004, the Red Wings from 1997 to 2008, and various teams at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University, the 1968 Tigers remain the most beloved team in Michigan sports history.

UPDATE: The Tigers do not have a team Hall of Fame. But they honor their players who have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on the outfield wall at Comerica Park. From the 1968 World Champions, they honor right fielder Al Kaline and broadcaster Ernie Harwell. They also honor left fielder Willie Horton, who is not in the Hall of Fame, but whose uniform Number 23, like Kaline's 6, is retired.

They are in the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame, along with shortstops Dick McAuliffe and Mickey Stanley, 1st baseman Norm Cash, catcher Bill Freehan, outfielder Gates Brown, center fielder Jim Northrup; pitchers Denny McLain, Mickey Lolich and John Hiller; executive Jim Campbell; and broadcasters George Kell and Ray Lane. Manager Mayo Smith, however, has not received any of these honors. 

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October 10, 1968 was a Thursday. This was the only baseball game played that day. Football was in midweek. The NHL season started the next day, the NBA season 4 days after that, and the ABA season 3 days after the NBA. So there were no other scores on this historic day.

July 13, 1971: The Shelling of Tiger Stadium

Reggie Jackson

July 13, 1971: Major League Baseball holds its All-Star Game at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. It was a ballpark that strongly favored hitters, but nobody expected the onslaught that came that night.

For the 1st time in All-Star Game history, both starting pitchers were black: For the American League, Vida Blue of the Oakland Athletics; for the National League, Dock Ellis of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The year before, Ellis had pitched a no-hitter, which he later claimed to have done while under the influence of the drug LSD. From September 11, 1970 to August 15, 1971, Blue was 24-4 with an ERA of 1.76. That remains one of the best stretches of starting pitching in the post-1968, 10-Inch Mound Era.

Tiger Stadium was a hitter's park, with a 325-foot right field pole, an overhanging upper deck that made it even closer, and close power alleys on both sides. And, on this night, a strong wind was blowing out to right field.

Tiger Stadium set up for the 1971 All-Star Game.

Note the red, white and blue stars in the outfield.

It got the familiar blue and orange seats in the 1977-78 off-season.

In the top of the 2nd inning, with Ellis' Pirate teammate Willie Stargell on 1st base, Johnny Bench of the Cincinnati Reds, the previous season's (and the next season's) NL Most Valuable Player, hit a 2-run home run to the opposite field, to make the score 2-0 in the NL's favor. In the top of the 3rd, Hank Aaron hit one to the opposite field, also wind-aided. Although he would become the game's all-time home run leader, this was his 1st extra-base hit in an All-Star Game, in his 18th season. It was 3-0 NL.

Luis Aparicio, the former Chicago White Sox shortstop now playing with the Boston Red Sox, singled to lead off the bottom of the 3rd. The AL manager, Earl Weaver of the Baltimore Orioles, sent Reggie Jackson up to pinch-hit for Blue, his Oakland teammate. Reggie was already one of the top sluggers in the game, but nobody expected this: He crushed a drive that looked like it might clear the right-field roof. Instead, it hit the transformer of a light tower. It became Reggie's signature moment -- until the 1977 World Series.

The transformer is the box at the lower right of this light tower.

The AL was not done for the inning. Rod Carew of the Minnesota Twins walked. Bobby Murcer of the New York Yankees popped up. Carl Yastrzemski of the Red Sox hit one against the wind, to left field, and it was held up so that the shortstop, Bud Harrelson of the New York Mets, caught it. That brought up Frank Robinson of the Orioles, and he hit a home run with the wind to right field. The AL led, 4-3.

In the bottom of the 6th, against Ferguson Jenkins of the Chicago Cubs, Al Kaline of the host Detroit Tigers singled, and Harmon Killebrew of the Twins, like Jackson one of the few sluggers with enough power to beat the kind of wind this game had, did so, into the upper deck in left field. That made it 6-3.

In the top of the 8th, Mickey Lolich of the Tigers came in to pitch, to the delight of the home crowd. He gave up an opposite-field home run to Roberto Clemente of the Pirates. That made the score 6-4 AL, but the NL got no closer. Although previous pitchers have been retroactively credited with saves in All-Star Game competition, Lolich was the 1st one to be credited with one after the stat's official recognition in 1969.

Lolich ended up winning more games that season than Blue, going 25-14 to Blue's 24-8. But Blue edged Lolich in the voting of the AL's Cy Young Award, and also won the AL's MVP. For many years, my schoolmates, knowing I was a baseball trivia whiz, tried to trip me up with a trick question: Who was the last switch-hitter to win the MVP? In the AL, it was a pitcher, Blue. But they tended to forget that Pete Rose was a switch-hitter, and had won it in the NL in 1973, so he was the answer.

Since then, in the NL, it's been won by switch-hitters Willie McGee in 1985, Terry Pendleton in 1991, Ken Caminiti in 1996, Chipper Jones in 1999, and Jimmy Rollins in 2007. But Vida Blue remains the last switch-hitter to win the Most Valuable Player award in the American League.

In 1978, pitching for the San Francisco Giants, Blue was selected as the National League's starting pitcher. This made him the 1st pitcher to start the All-Star Game for both Leagues.

On May 15, 1984, playing for the team then known as the California Angels, on an NBC Game of the Week, Reggie Jackson, 38 years old, finally hit a home run over the roof of Tiger Stadium. It was the 485th homer of his career.

The 6 Hall-of-Famers who hit home runs in the 1971 All-Star Game would finish as follows: Hank Aaron, 755; Frank Robinson, 586; Harmon Killebrew 573, Reggie Jackson, 563; Johnny Bench, 389; Roberto Clemente, 240.

Clemente's total doesn't sound like much, but he played most of his home games at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, whose dimensions were similar to those of the pre-renovation original Yankee Stadium: Close in right field, too far everywhere else. In contrast, Aaron and Clemente were the only ones of this group to collect at least 3,000 hits, and Clemente's .317 lifetime batting average was easily higher than any of the others.

Tiger Stadium was the home of the Detroit Tigers from 1912 to 1999, and the NFL's Detroit Lions from 1938 to 1974. It was named Navin Field from 1912 to 1937, and Briggs Stadium from 1938 to 1960. There were over 30 home runs hit over the right field roof, including 4 by the Tigers' Norm Cash, and 2 by the Yankees' Mickey Mantle, as a switch-hitter batting lefthanded.

But only 4 players hit one over the left-field roof: Harmon Killebrew, Frank Howard, Cecil Fielder and Mark McGwire. Mantle certainly had the power to hit one over the left field roof batting righthanded, having done so twice at Comiskey Park in Chicago and once at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, but he never did that at Tiger Stadium.

Tiger Stadium had also hosted the All-Star Game in 1941 and 1951. Its successor, Comerica Park, hosted its 1st All-Star Game in 2005.

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July 13, 1971 was a Tuesday, as the day of the All-Star Game usually is. There were no other scores on this historic day.