Mickey Lolich

            Mickey Lolich departed this life at age 85 remembered in passing for his three consecutive complete game victories in the 1968 World Series.  But the backdrop of that performance, as well as his career says much more about the man.  Indeed, he was a durable pitcher, and one of the great clutch pitchers in Baseball history as evinced by his performances that bookend the ’68 Series.

            Michael Stephen Lolich was born on September 12, 1940 in Portland, Oregon.  He was born right-handed, but a childhood accident changed his throwing trajectory after the then tyke rode his tricycle into a parked motorcycle, which fell on him and broke his left collarbone.  Exercise to strengthen the left arm morphed him into a southpaw. 

            After a successful high school career, lefty Lolich signed with the Detroit Tigers where he earned a reputation as a freethinker as one sportswriter quipped: “He now eats, writes and bats right-handed, pitches left-handed and thinks sideways.”

            Major League Baseball has much changed since Lolich arrived at the big leagues in the 1963 season along with the flashier Denny McLain who was four years his junior.  Their respective careers paralleled up to the 1967 season–the last great pennant race before division playoffs era–when four teams vied for the American League flag down to the last week of the season.  In the stretch run, Lolich hurled three consecutive shutouts at the end of September allowing just 11 hits with 24 strikeouts in 27 innings.  McLain got rocked in the last game of the season as the Tigers fell one game short behind the Boston Red Sox. 

            As an aside, Mickey missed two weeks of that 1967 season while serving in the Michigan air force national guard during the riots of that tumultuous summer in Detroit.  Lolich stood a post guarding a radio tower and drove for the motor pool.  In his humble way, Lolich took no credit for his service remarking that he was not in the epicenter of the turbulence.

            1968 proved a miracle year for the pennant-winning Tigers, and especially for McLain who found favor with fate and control of his fastball for a mythical 31-6 record and 1.96 ERA. Between starts, the brash McLain piloted his private plane between starts to distant cities so he could entertain audiences with the play of his Hammond organ, or to appear as a glib guest on television talk shows.  Meanwhile, his stoic motorcycle riding teammate endured mid-season struggles that led to banishment to the bullpen where he re-gained his groove, garnering four victories on his resume before toeing the rubber again as a starter. He finished the year with a postscript record of 17 and 9.

            The upcoming World Series drew all eyes on McLain and the St. Louis Cardinals’ ace Bob Gibson, the latter having his own form of spectacular with a 1.12 ERA over the course of 304 innings pitched.  In Game One, Gibson blew away the Tigers and McLain in perhaps the most dominant performance in Series history striking out 17, winning 4 to 0.

            With the marquee game behind them, the Tigers mauled the Redbirds, 8 to 1. Serving as a portent for things to come, Lolich connected for the only home run in his 14-year big league career to add an exclamation to his complete game victory.

            St. Louis trounced Detroit in next two games, and seemed on their way to the Crown in Game Five when they jumped out to first inning three to nothing lead.  Lolich looked shaky.

            But Detroit rallied.  The Series pivoted when Willie Horton threw out Tiger nemesis Lou Brock at the plate in the fifth inning.  It would be the last time the Cardinals came close to scoring when it counted against the locked in Lolich. With the Cardinals only eight outs from a World Championship, Tiger manager Mayo Smith—who had lost faith in his battered bullpen—allowed his pitcher to bat for himself with the Tigers down by a run. Lolich, who hit only .114 that season, flared a single to shallow right that ignited a rally that led to a 5 to 3 victory,

            McLain’s start was moved up to pitch Game Six who felt rejuvenated by a cortisone shot and the prospect of pitching against someone other than Gibson.  Detroit won handily 13 to 1 setting up Game Seven where a new name appeared on the marquee.

            So Detroit’s fate instead came down to Mickey Lolich, and figuring out a way to beat Gibson who had won seven consecutive world series games.   Thanks to his stint in the bullpen, the Tiger lefthander was not overtaxed having logged ‘only’ 220 innings that season, nearly 100 less than Gibson who would pitch with three days rest.

            Befitting the Year of the Pitcher, the two hurlers matched the other midway through a tense, scoreless game. Brock led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a record tying 13^th  hit of the Series.  The crowd was ecstatic as Lou took a huge lead off first.  Lolich threw to first as Brock took off; Norm Cash’s throw to second was right on, and Brock was out.   Curt Flood later singled, but was also picked off by the Tiger southpaw.  Fans at Busch Memorial Stadium stirred uneasily.

            The Series’ denouement came the following inning when the Tigers mounted a two out rally. With two aboard, Jim Northrup launched a drive to dead center.  It was a tough play that Gibson needed. 

            But he did not get it.  Flood first broke in on the ball hit directly at him; pivoting sharply to reverse himself, he momentarily lost his footing on the loose turf nearly falling as the ball flew over his head, landing short of the warning track for a two run triple instead of long out to end the inning.  The Series was all but over.  

                  Dating back to the second inning of the Game Five, Lolich blanked the Redbirds for 17 consecutive innings until Mike Shannon homered with two out in the ninth.  Detroit won the game and the title by a final score of 4 to 1.   The Series that began as a ballyhooed McLain vs. Gibson show down ended—as so often happens in baseball—with an unexpected denouement transformed by an unanticipated performance.

            A notoriously bad hitter, Lolich homered in Game Two; had a key hit to spark the late rally that won Game Five; and picked off two St. Louis speedsters to quell a St. Louis rally in the decisive game.   Lolich’s sinking fastball and darting slider stymied the Cardinals as the Tiger hurler surrendered just five runs in 27 innings of work earning three complete game victories and the Series MVP.

            In terms of pitching in the clutch, Lolich certainly raised his game on a near par with the thoroughbreds of his era: Sandy Koufax and Gibson.  The long-limbed Koufax pitched with a fluid over the top deliver; Gibson hurled the ball with an almost balletic pirouette off the rubber seemingly jumping at the batter. 

            Lolich was more workhorse than pedigree possessing a powerful, square frame and a noticeable paunch.  He began his delivery with his right foot behind the rubber, winding up by bringing his arms up in unison meeting above his head, rocking forward to deliver his three-quarter delivery consistently popping in his pitches in the low-end of the strike zone.  His big game successes perhaps came from an alchemy of his genial jocularity that reined in his intense desire so he did not ‘over-pitch’. 

            In retrospect, Mickey’s victory in Game Seven on two days rest should have come as no surprise. His left arm proved extraordinarily resilient as his career progressed into the 1970s when he pitched over 300 innings for four consecutive years, winning over 20 games twice. In 1971, he won 25 games earned through 45 starts and 29 complete games with 308 strikeouts over 376 hardball innings.

            In 1972, he won 22 games leading Detroit to the Division crown, thereafter starting two games in the playoffs against the Oakland Athletics—an ascendant team beginning its run of three straight world titles.  Mickey pitched 19 hard luck innings allowing only three earned runs for an ERA of 1.42.  But like Koufax and Gibson before him, he endured the ill-winds of capricious fate as he suffered a loss and a no decision for his efforts.

            Ultimately, even his resilient left arm fell prey to the ill-effects of overuse.  His egocentric manager Billy Martin may have cost Lolich—who won 217 games in his career and a long-held American League career record for strikeouts by a lefthander—a spot in the Hall of Fame.  His weary arm lost its snap by age 33.

            He remained in Detroit after his retirement opening Mickey Lolich Donuts & Pastry Shop that he personally operated for 18 years, later writing: “I doubt any other ballplayer has ever made that transition from the diamond to doughnuts. But I did.”   Today’s ball playing mega-millionaires live the lives of Riley after they retire and would more likely invest in a Dunkin Donut franchise rather than work in one. 

            But Lolich remained ‘Mickey’, a goodwill ambassador for the ballclub and beloved fixture in Detroit, a workaday town that appreciates resiliency and every day Joes as personified by their adopted son.