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Yeah, Lolich was the number one baseball villian of my youth, jj. No one thought that Mickey and the Tigers had much of a chance up against Gibson in game 7, but the unpredictable game of baseball had other ideas. I’ll never forget the feeling I had at the end of that day. The irony is that he was nice enough to have been one of several Tiger players to give me and my childhood pal an autograph as we caught the Tigers team entering the Chase Park Plaza hotel. My friend’s dad drove us down there to intercept them as they entered coming from the airport…Haha! Oh well, I got over it, but it took until 2006 to do so…
As I recall that was the fall where the riots and fires happened in Detroit. We also lost a 3-1 lead and some odd plays lead to our demise. I believe HBO has a documentary on that series.
Who are these guys! This staff is starting to look like the 71 Orioles! And the defense! Just Winn baby!
Yeah, the Cardinals squandered a 3-1 game lead in the series, booyah. There was some controversy in game 5 that centered on Lou Brock being thrown out at HP as he tried to score standing up as opposed to sliding. That play was a turning point in the series. Lolich, who had an excellent move to 1B also picked off both Brock and Flood in game 7 which obviously put a damper on two seperate threats in the deciding game. But the primary and historical play was Flood misplaying Northrup’s drive in CF which led to three 7th inning runs and was ultimately the play that sealed the fate of the ’68 WS. As an 11 year old kid, I was seated in a bleacher seat not more than 60 ft. from where Flood desperately chased and retrieved the Northrup triple after it had sailed over his head and out of reach of his glove hand after he’d misjudged it’s flight path as it rolled to the foot of the LCF wall. I still recall them playing, “Auld Lang Syne” as the crowd exited Busch Memorial Stadium after the final out had ended the game and the WS…Sad day in Redbird land…Haha!
Wow 1TD – that is so cool you were at game seven of the ‘68 Series! I remember that one well and was more or less shell shocked that Gibson lost the seventh game. That game is what made me a realist in baseball, and maybe even in life to some degree in that you just never know. There are no guarantees.
What is amazing is that fifth game where the Cardinals squandered an early lead. I think it was the 7th inning where the Tigers rallied, and Lolich was due up. According to “the book” Mayo Smith should have pinch hit for him. But he let him hit, and lo and behold he singled! Things went on to fall apart, then game six was a disaster and game seven was a huge letdown.
Haha!…I won’t go into all the details, but I was seated in my classroom at school that morning when my mom showed up to get me excused from the remainder of the school day. I thought I’d done something to get in some serious trouble when I first saw her outside in the hallway, but my dad had somehow snagged bleacher tickets to game 7…
Man, really cool! I was 15 and a sophomore in high school. We (me and some buddies) rode a bus to school that year and one of the kids in our neighborhood bet me $5 on the Series. After game four that kid went, “I will bring your money in a couple of days.” Then after game five, “I will bring your money after the next game.” Etc
Turns out I had to cough up the moola. As I said, that was an early life lesson that made me less naive about things, and to not take anything for granted. Before that I thought Gibson in a game seven was a lock.
Probably one reason in adult life I have been more risk averse than I probably should have been. 😄
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