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When Jim Thome hit a pinch-hit home run for the Phillies earlier this year, he broke the record for walk-off home runs in a career with 13. Thome had been tied with five Hall of Famers — Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Stan Musial, Frank Robinson and Mickey Mantle — before his record-setting blast.

Mantle actually had 13 walk-offs if you count his ninth inning, upper deck home run against the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 3 of the 1964 World Series (all-time MLB records apply to regular-season games only). Of Ruth’s dozen walk-offs, he had 11 as a Yankee and one as a member of the Boston Red Sox.

The New York Yankees have hit 210 walk-off home runs in their long and illustrious history, the first by Wee Willie Keeler in 1905 as the then-named Highlanders beat the Washington Senators. Here are the Yankee walk-off kings.

Mickey Mantle (13) — Outside of the World Series winner, Mantle’s most famous walk-off occurred on May 22, 1963. That night, batting in the 11th inning against the Kansas City A’s, Mantle belted a ball he later called “the hardest ball I think I ever hit.” The ball was still rising when it struck the facade above the upper deck in right field at Yankee Stadium, 118 feet high and 370 feet from home plate. Some estimates say the ball might have traveled 600 feet or more.

Babe Ruth (11) — The Babe hit more memorable home runs throughout his career than anyone. His signature walk-off occurred on September 24, 1925. With one out in the bottom of the 11th inning and the bases loaded, he hit a grand slam to beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-5. Ruth also hit a walk-off home run for the Boston Red Sox early in his career.

Yogi Berra (7) — Three of Berra’s walk-offs came against the Red Sox (1955, 1957, 1958). He victimized Boston hurlers Ellis Kinder, Ike Delock and Willard Nixon respectively.

Alex Rodriguez (6) and Graig Nettles (6) — A-Rod’s highlight was a two-out, ninth inning grand slam that gave the Yankees a 10-7 win over the Orioles early in the 2007 season. Both Rodriguez and Nettles belted extra-inning home runs to beat Boston. A-Rod’s 15th inning blast gave the Yankees a 2-0 win in 2009; Nettles hit a 14th inning walk-off to give the Yankees a 6-4 win in 1978.

Bernie Williams (5) — Bernie is the only player in MLB history with two walk-off home runs in the playoffs. Bernie went boom against the Orioles in the 11th in 1996, and three years later repeated the feat against the Red Sox. Both homers occurred in the first game of the ALCS, and both times the Yankees went on to capture the pennant and World Series..

7. Joe DiMaggio (4), Tommy Henrich (4), Reggie Jackson (4), Chris Chambliss (4) — DiMaggio hit a three-run blast to beat the St. Louis Browns, 15-12, in 1938. Henrich hit three of his four walk-offs in 1949, including the first in World Series history to defeat Don New Newcombe and the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game One of the 1949 World Series. Reggie’s most memorable walk-off was a two-out, ninth inning blast to beat the Red Sox, 2-0, in a key September 1977 game. Chambliss hit the first pitch in the bottom of the ninth for the home run that gave the Yankees the 1976 pennant against the Kansas City Royals.

BTW: Lou Gehrig, Bill Dickey, Joe Gordon, Charlie Keller, Joe Collins, Tom Tresh. Oscar Gamble, Mel Hall and Jason Giambi each hit three walk-off home runs for the Yanks. Roger Maris, Derek Jeter, Hideki Matsui, and Tony Lazzeri were among those tied with two.

Claudell Washington hit a two-run homer to beat the Tigers in the 18th inning of a September, 1988, contest. It ranks as the latest walk-off home run in Yankee history. Two nights earlier, Washington victimized the Tigers with a ninth-inning walk-off homer.

Walk-off grand slams: Babe Ruth (1925), Red Ruffing (1933), Charlie Keller (1942), Joe Pepitone (1969), Ruppert Jones (1980), Mike Pagliarulo (1987), Jason Giambi (2002) and Alex Rodriguez (2007)

Catcher Russell Martin hit the Yankees’ most recent walk-off, a leadoff shot to beat the crosstown rival Mets 5-4 in June.

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At the last checkpoint, the Oakland A’s were 39-42 at the midway point of the season. On pace for 78 wins, they have gone a blistering 16-3 since to move to 55-45 and are on the verge of taking the lead in the American League wild-card standings. For the month of July, they are 18-3 and show no signs of slowing down.

What is all the more remarkable about this turnaround is that is has happened without many of the cogs people expected the A’s to need to have any kind of chance to contend for anything in 2012. For starters, Jemile Weeks, expected to be the catalyst for the Oakland offense, continues to languish around .220 for the year. The A’s shortstops have combined for splits of .184/.244/.276 as of July 28th. That is by far the worst in baseball. Catchers have not been much better, performing at splits of .198/.250/.269 in 2012. 

Meanwhile, the A’s have the No. 1 pitching staff in the American League despite having three rookies in the rotation. The team ace Brandon McCarthy has missed chunks of the season with a balky shoulder and rotation stalwarts Brett Anderson and Dallas Braden have yet to make one pitch at the major league level. 

So what have the A’s done well? First off, they are getting great production from Yoenis Cespedes. Backed by a hot July, Cespedes currently has splits of .302/.361/.541 for an OPS of .902. Considering “The Cuban Missile” has missed about 30 games to injury, the production he has had is all the more remarkable.

Even more of a surprise has been the amazing play of Josh Reddick. Billy Beane looks like a genius for acquiring the right fielder for Andrew Bailey and Ryan Sweeney. All Reddick has done is lead the team with 22 home runs, drive in 50 runs and compile his own slugging percentage of .537 with an OPS of .885 in 2012. By far the A’s most consistent hitter during the year, Reddick has helped the A’s balance out their lineup over the course of the season. 

Of course, Oakland’s success could not happen without great pitching. The trio of Jarrod Parker, Tom Milone and A.J. Griffin has done more than just complement veterans Bartolo Colon and the surprising Travis Blackley. They have become the lead story in a rotation that continues to surprise.

Parker, while having some struggles in July, still sits at 7-4 with a 3.38 ERA on the season. Milone has been lights out in Oakland, going 9-7 overall, while Griffin has truly been a pleasant surprise. In six starts, Griffin has gone six innings in each, winning his last three decisions while posting an ERA of 2.25 on the year. Instead of being a warm body until other starters got healthy, Griffin appears to be firmly planted in the rotation. 

Knowing how quickly the situation can change, it is important to note that the A’s still have a tenuous schedule to navigate. The 10 games with Los Angeles and six with Texas will likely determine if Oakland has a position in the 2012 playoffs. But there are also six games with Tampa Bay, three more with the Yankees, three with another division/wild-card hopeful, the Detroit Tigers, as well as six with the always pesky Seattle Mariners.

Either way, to be on pace for 89 wins with this team, there is no doubt that Bob Melvin deserves more than just a little consideration for AL Manager of the Year. Whether he will merit it will depend on his team in the next few weeks.

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Raul Mondesi, Jr. might want to take a few baseball lessons from his famous father, the former Dodger great by the same name.

When it comes to walk-off wins, the idea is for the home team to celebrate, not the other way around. 

After smacking an 0-1 curveball from Missoula Osprey pitcher Dexter Price for an apparent game-tying home run in the bottom of the 10th inning, Helena Brewers prospect Raul Mondesi, Jr. inexplicably forgot to touch home plate, a huge gaffe observed by Osprey catcher Michael Perez and home plate umpire Blake Mickelson.

After Mickelson put a new ball into play, Perez motioned for his pitcher to throw him the baseball, turning to the umpire and appealing for the man in black to ring Mondesi up for the most improbable of base-running mistakes.

A home plate umpire’s bond with home plate is special. Umpires spend a considerable amount of time studying the precise dimensions of the 17″-wide dish, they brush and wipe it clean throughout the game and rule every pitch in relation to whether it has passed over home plate.

And when asked, umpires are quick to discipline a runner for failing to touch home plate when required to do so.

Helena manager Jeff Isom was in shock: “On any home run, the umpire has one job and that’s to watch the plate and make sure the runners touch it. He said [Mondesi] missed it by eight inches.”

Game over, Missoula wins, 2-1.

As the great Vin Scully said about Kirk Gibson’s 1988 home run in Game 1 of the World Series, “The impossible has happened.”

Official Baseball Rule Rule 7.10(d)—used by minor league ball in addition to MLB—covers appeal plays in regards to missed bases:

Any runner shall be called out, on appeal, when … He fails to touch home base and makes no attempt to return to that base, and home base is tagged.

Ouch.

At least Mondesi, Jr. has some company.

In 1908, Giants rookie Fred Merkle famously forgot to touch second base on an apparent walk-off base hit. Merkle, the runner on first at the time, was forced to touch second base by virtue of batter Moose McCormick becoming a runner, so when Merkle inexplicably drifted off the base path to go celebrate with his team, outfielder Solly Hofman and Hall of Famer Johnny Evers saw what was happening and facilitated an appeal.

Umpire Hank O’Day obliged and ruled Merkle out for missing the base, effectively wiping out the game-winning run and resulting in a walk-off tie.

When the game was replayed to determine a winner, the Cubs won the contest, eventually finishing just one game ahead of the Giants for the NL pennant.  

Maybe it’s a teenager thing; Merkle was 19-years-old when he committed his bonehead play, famously known as “Merkle’s Boner”. After all, Mondesi, Jr. is also 19-years of age.

As Isom instructed his team, “From now on, make sure you jump on the plate on a homer.” Just hopefully not so hard that you break your ankle in the ensuing celebration a la Angels stud Kendrys Morales.

Gil Imber is Bleacher Report’s Rules Featured Columnist and owner of Close Call Sports, a website dedicated to the objective and fair analysis of close or controversial calls in sports.

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The St. Louis Cardinals won their third consecutive pennant in 1944.  They faced the St. Louis Browns in the World Series. Since the teams shared Sportsman’s Park, all the games would be played in the same park.

The Cardinals had beaten the New York Yankees in 1942. The Yankees returned the compliment in 1943.

The 1944 Cardinals won 105 games. The Browns had won 89. The purists wrung their hands in anguish. How unfair to give a team with a record 16 games worse than its opponent’s record a chance to win the World Series.

When the leagues were split into two divisions in 1969, the purists cracked their knuckles in disgust, because the team with the best record was forced to play a best-of-five series against an opponent that might have finished with a much worse record.

Baseball purists never liked the wild card. To them, having a second wild card is anathema. They cite the possibility that a team can finish 15-20 games behind a division winner and win the World Series.

In 2006, the Cardinals won 83 games. Only the 1973 New York Mets ever won a division title with fewer wins when they finished at 82-79. The Mets defeated the Cincinnati Reds, a team that won 99 games, to win the pennant.

The 2006 Mets won 97 games but lost the NLCS to the Cardinals. The Mets’ 14-game regular-season edge over the Cardinals was meaningless once the playoffs started.

The 1944 Cards held a16-game edge over the Browns. They were highly favored to win the World Series, which is just what they did.

Despite the war, the Cardinals had a fine team, which is more than can be said about the Browns. The Cardinals averaged about five runs a game to lead the league. They were the only team in the majors to hit 100 home runs, and the pitching staff led the league with a 2.67 ERA.

Stan Musial (.347), Johnny Hopp (.336) and Walker Cooper (.317) all batted over .300. Mort Cooper led the staff with 22 wins.

The World Series was a little closer than expected. Cooper held the Browns to a pair of runs over seven innings in the opener, but it wasn’t enough as the Browns won, 2-1.

The Cardinals won the second game 3-2 in 11 innings, but when the Browns became the home team, they won the third game handily by a 6-2 score to take a two-games-to-one edge.

Then the Cardinals went to work, winning the next three games. The Browns could manage only two runs in the three games and finished the Series batting .183. They scored only 12 runs in the entire Series.

The 1944 Cardinals maintained their regular season excellence to win the World Series. The 2006 Mets were unable to maintain their regular season play to win the pennant.

The purists just don’t get it. A team that gets to the World Series because it took advantage of the rules earned it by playing best when it counted the most.

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Lou Gehrig passed away 71 years ago today, June 2, 1941. A study released on Aug. 17, 2010 created speculation about the cause of Gehrig’s death.

12 athletes that suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) comprised the study’s sample. It was discovered that three of the 12 had symptoms similar to those of Gehrig, who died from amyotophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

ALS is rare. About 6,000 individuals in the U.S. are diagnosed with it each year.

Individuals that suffer from trauma to the head and brain develop symptoms similar to those of ALS.

The researchers identified spinal cord markings on the three individuals with symptoms that resembled Gehrig’s. They suggested that they died by concussion or other head trauma that attacks the central nervous system.

Two former football players diagnosed with ALS, Wally Hillenburg and Eric Scoggins, had the condition, according to the study.

Gehrig was hit in the head numerous times during his career. Because he was Lou Gehrig, he continued to play despite fractures and being knocked unconscious.

Dr. Anne McKee, director of the neuropathology lab for the New England Veterans Administration Medical Centers, who was the lead neuropathologist of the study, hypothesized the concussions Gehrig endured, not ALS, might have killed him.

“Here he is, the face of his disease, and he may have had a different disease as a result of his athletic experience,” McKee told the New York Times.

The danger of blows to the head cannot be overemphasized. It wasn’t until the 1950s that players started to wear batting helmets on a regular basis. I remember when all that players wore was a protective plastic lining under their hat.

The cause of Gehrig’s death will always be considered ALS. It doesn’t matter whether it was ALS or the concussions he suffered and basically ignored. Both problems are being addressed.

Major sports today are taking steps to protect players that suffer head trauma. Better late than never.

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It happened 56 years ago. On May 24, 1936, the New York Yankees were visiting the Philadelphia Athletics. The Athletics scored their only two runs in the first inning. It wasn’t enough.

Shortstop Frankie Crosetti hit a pair of home runs and Joe DiMaggio hit one, but that was nothing.

Tony Lazzeri batted in the second inning with the bases loaded. He hit a home run.

Tony Lazzeri batted in the in the fifth inning with the bases loaded. He hit a home run.

Lazzeri hit a solo shot in the seventh inning. He also had a triple and finished the day with an American League record 11 RBIs. That record still stands.

The final score was 25-2.

The Yankees had 19 hits and received 16 walks. The game was reminiscent of the time a writer asked Yankees’ owner what he considered a good afternoon.

Ruppert responded that  it was “When the Yankees score eight runs in the first inning and slowly pull away.”

The Yankees and Athletics had played a doubleheader the previous day. The Yankees won the opener, 12-6 and took the nightcap by a score of 15-1. Lazzeri hit three home runs in the twin bill, which meant that he had six home runs in three games.

Lazzeri was considered by many, and is still considered by some, the greatest of all Yankees second baseman.

He played for the Yankees from 1926-37. During those years, he was an integral part of six pennant winners and five world champions. Lazzeri was with the Chicago Cubs when they lost to the Yankees in 1938.

“Poosh ‘em up” Tony hit .293/.379/.467, averaging 17 home runs and 114 runs batted in over a 162-game season.

As a comparison, Robinson Cano, who will go down as the Yankees’ greatest second baseman despite his habit of first watching his deep drives and then running instead of the other way around, has batted .307/.347/.495, averaging 22 home runs and 94 RBIs over a 162-game season.

Nineteen-thirty-nine was Lazzeri’s last season. He played for both the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants that year. He is among of a handful of players that were Yankees, Dodgers and Giants.

Lazzeri was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1991.

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Playing Rough

Something you hear a lot about from fans is the lack of an “old-school” mentality in the modern game of baseball.

While many of the proponents of the so-called “old-school” are too young to know anything about it, there is some truth to the idea that the game was more hard-nosed in days gone by. Whether this is a good or bad thing is open to debate (that’s what we’re here for, after all). With injury concerns and millions of dollars at stake, with careers and long-term health on the line, we have seen less and less of the violent action that, in our sepia-toned memories, once punctuated the game with much greater frequency.

Collisions at Home Plate

Recently, the focal point of these debates has been collisions at home plate.

Talented young catcher Buster Posey broke his leg blocking the plate and missed all but a few weeks of the 2011 season after a Rookie-of-the-Year season in 2010. Perhaps more famously, in the 1970 All-Star game, Pete Rose ran over catcher Ray Fosse, causing Fosse to suffer a separated shoulder, which many fans attribute to the decline of Fosse’s career. In fairness, Fosse played 42 more games that season and hit .297, and the collision with Rose was just one of many injuries Fosse suffered through the years.

The question here is was it worth it?

Fosse has been quoted many times saying it’s “part of the game”, and Rose maintains he was just trying to win. The problem here is that this was an exhibition game, with nothing on the line. In general, the catcher can possibly try for a sweep tag or even attempt to catch the runner further up the line. The runner isn’t always forced to hit the catcher; he can opt instead to slide around him or go for the plate with his hands.

While I don’t believe collisions are a thing of the past, I do think players on either side will be less likely to hit each other going forward because of the possibility of injury. Nobody will tell them explicitly not to do it, but the unwritten rules of baseball are legion.

My view: sometimes the team needs that run, or needs to prevent that run, more than anything. If it is going to give them the best chance at the result they want, then a collision is going to happen. These decisions are made in split seconds. So unless it’s unnecessarily aggressive, then it’s just part of the game.

Charging the Mound

Here’s something you rarely see, and likely with good reason.

While a pitcher can easily enrage a batter by hitting him or brushing him back one time too many, it’s probably not a great idea to rush at him from the batter’s box. If the batter is holding onto the bat and threatens the pitcher, he is looking at a suspension or even the possibility of criminal charges.

If the batter is a little bit smarter than that and drops the bat first, he just made the mistake of approaching a guy standing on raised ground who is, in all likelihood, quite a large man. Pitchers are big, often bigger than many sluggers. They have eight other guys on the field ready to back them up, including one wearing protective gear located right behind the batter.

Still, this is such a rarity that I only included it in this article so I could show the picture of Nolan Ryan beating up Robin Ventura. Ryan, already an old man and not long from retirement, famously got the upper hand when a young Robin Ventura came steaming towards the mount. Ryan was ready for him, and he grabbed Ventura in a headlock (a side headlock for you wrestling fans) and pounded his fist into his head until other players intervened. Do a Google Image Search for Robin Ventura, and you will see this in the first five pictures.

My view: if you’re stupid enough to do it, then go ahead. Fun for everybody!

Playing Dirty

There are countless examples or ‘dirty’ plays in every major sport that are nevertheless a part of the game. Then there are some things that just don’t jive well with most fans or players. I think the two most extreme examples of these types of behaviors are throwing at a batter and spiking the baseman.

Firstly, spiking the baseman.

You’re going from first to second on a sharp grounder off the bat of your teammate, and you see the second baseman running to cover the bag. The game is tied with one out in the seventh and the pitcher is tiring; you need to break up this double play. So you slide right at the second baseman, hoping to cause him to throw wide.

Breaking up the double play is always the right choice, but the line is drawn when you decide to stick your front foot up a bit and aim for the legs.

This is a dangerous and mean-spirited play and if obvious enough would result in an ejection. This wasn’t always the case, though.Ty Cobb, one of the greatest of his time – all-time leader in batting average, second all-time in hits, and all-time leader in being a psychotic bastard – was infamous for sharpening his spikes and aiming them at the defenders’ vulnerable legs. Cobb, being the demon in human form that he was, did this even on the most routine plays. While this was met with scorn and criticism even in his day, in Cobb’s mind every play was the most important one of the game.

Throwing at a batter; this is what prompted this whole article.

More specifically, Cole Hamels hitting Bryce Harper is what prompted this article.

Pitchers have hit batters for over a hundred years, and they’ll keep on doing it. While it’s dangerous and often a prelude to run-scoring retribution, I can’t say it doesn’t have its place in the game. It’s the situation it takes place in that makes all the difference.

Hall of Famer Don Drysdale was infamous for hitting batters, and quite hated for it, but it was a part of his strategy (which he put down to not wanting to waste four pitches on an intentional walk when he could throw one and plunk him).

On the flip side, you have the recent plunking of super-prospect and media magnet Bryce Harper by popular-only-in-Philadelphia Cole Hamels, who claims he hit Harper to “teach him a lesson”. While most pitchers will agree that sometimes throwing at a guy is acceptable, this is an example where it’s just a scummy thing to do.

Nowadays hitting a batter is taken pretty seriously by umpires, and hitting a guy who had never faced him before in the first inning of a scoreless game is a stupid move for a pitcher. Since it was both unprovoked and obviously on purpose, Hamels could have easily been ejected.

Where would that leave his team?

Now you’re asking another starter to pitch on the wrong day. Or you’re asking the bullpen, which hadn’t even begun to think about warming up, to patch together nine innings and screw up the next few games because all your relievers’ arms are tired.

For that matter, what lesson was Hamels teaching Harper, except one about Hamels’ obvious jealousy of Harper’s new-found fame?

Being a rookie isn’t a punishable offense, nor should it be (although Harper got the last laugh, stealing home on a pickoff attempt after Hamels put him on base by hitting him). One further point on Hamels and Harper; Bryce Harper is a National League pitcher, and one thing that is rarely tolerated in baseball is unprovoked throwing at a pitcher. Pitchers don’t throw at each other sometimes out of respect, but generally because it’s considered a high crime in the baseball world to do it. So when Cole Hamels was a rookie in Philly, who threw at him?

My view: Situational. Pitchers shouldn’t throw at a guy for nothing, or because they can’t get a guy out, or any other cowardly, selfish reason. However, there are times it’s justified. I cheered when Shaun Estes threw at Roger Clemens (although he didn’t hit him). I crossed my fingers during his every at-bat that Barry Bonds would take one in the head. Even though this isn’t something that should be common, in retaliation for an unjust plunking or as part of a rough game between rival teams, it has its place. That will never change.

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The Tigers came out of spring training in Lakeland confident of their hitting. Their lineup was rich with veteran bats and some young ones. The offense didn’t figure to be a problem.

But oh, what about that pitching!

The pitching caused some of the so-called experts to make a face that was consistent with biting into a lemon. There were a couple reliable arms but after that, you might have wanted to pray for rain, a la the old Boston Braves of Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain.

Then a funny thing happened. The offense was slow out of the gate, and the pitching—surprise, surprise—actually became the team’s saving grace.

Chalk another one up against the supposed wise baseball minds.

Sound familiar?

It should—if you’re over 45 years old.

If you thought I was speaking of this year’s Tigers, you’re forgiven. You should also be heartened.

This is the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Tigers—who often are nothing more to people’s recollection than the team that came four years after the heroic 1968 Tigers.

But the ’72 Tigers came within a whisker—pun intended—of making the World Series. And the formula they used was the opposite of what was forecast for them.

The Tigers of 1971 were a power-laden team, filled with those same heroes from 1968.

Norm Cash, still raising the right field roof at age 36.

Jim Northrup, another dangerous left-handed bat.

Bill Freehan, still the league’s best catcher.

Willie Horton, always a big bopper.

Al Kaline, another 36-year-old veteran who made the All-Star team in 1971, as did Cash and Freehan.

Off the bench was Gates Brown, who, if he had been born five years later, might have been the greatest designated hitter in history, let alone just for the Tigers.

Then you had the role players, like Mickey Stanley, Aurelio Rodriguez, Tony Taylor and Dick McAuliffe, all of whom could reach the seats more than occasionally.

So it was understandable that the Tigers felt comfortable with their offense coming out of spring training in 1972; the 1971 team had won 91 games and finished a strong second to Baltimore.

On the mound, the Tigers rotation was anchored by veterans Mickey Lolich (lefty) and Joe Coleman (righty), but after that it was a crapshoot. Lolich and Coleman each won 20-plus games. Then you did a rain dance.

The offense bulled its way to the 91 wins—that and the magic of manager Billy Martin.

Martin was, in a way, the perfect manager at the perfect time for the Tigers in those days.

It’s the tenet of hiring and firing coaches and managers in sports that you replace the fired guy with his polar opposite.

If the fired guy is too nice and too much a “player’s manager (or coach),” then you get a tough guy to take his place.

If the fired guy is too strict, you bring in an old softy who the players can “relate to.”

If the fired guy is quiet, go get a loudmouth. If the fired guy has loose lips, hire a clam with lockjaw.

And so on.

The 1970 Tigers played uninspired baseball for manager Mayo Smith, a hands-off skipper whose laissez-faire ways worked in 1968, to the tune of a World Series championship.

But by 1970, the Tigers were cranky and filled with the distraction of Denny McLain, whose escapades often went unchecked by the passive Smith.

As the ’70 season closed, it was terribly apparent that the Tigers needed a swift kick between the back pockets.

Enter Martin, one of the most celebrated butt kickers of all time.

Martin was still a raw manager in 1970, having guided the Minnesota Twins to the 1969 AL East pennant as a rookie skipper. Martin fought the umpires and his own players on his way to glory. A celebrated incident with pitcher Dave Boswell occurred in the alley behind the Lindell AC in Detroit. Martin gave the term “giving the pitcher the hook” a whole new meaning, as he KO’d Boswell after a night of drinking.

Minnesota fired Martin after one winning but notorious season in what would become a career trend for him.

After the 1970 season, the Tigers dismissed Smith, who on his way out of town claimed the baseball fans of Detroit couldn’t tell the difference between a ballplayer and a Japanese aviator. Smith’s words.

GM Jim Campbell brought in Martin, a manager Campbell admired from afar, and a former Tigers player (1958).

Campbell figured—rightly, really—that Martin was just what the coddled Tigers needed in order to awaken their talented roster.

Martin barged in and ruffled some feathers, but also coaxed 12 more wins out of the team in 1971, challenging the Orioles for much of the year.

All this was the back story as the Tigers opened the 1972 season, 40 years ago.

Well, you know what happened—the hitting went south (.237 team BA) and the pitching outperformed the expectations. And Martin’s veteran team managed to stay in the race all summer.

Campbell brought in some graybeards like lefty Woodie Fryman, who was the 1972 version of Doug Fister (2011) and Doyle Alexander (1987); catcher Duke Sims; and slugger Frank Howard.

The season’s final weekend pitted the Tigers against the Boston Red Sox in a three-game series in Detroit. Thanks to a spring training players strike that cut into the regular season, the Red Sox would end up playing one fewer game than the Tigers.

The Tigers took the first two games of the series, and thus clinched the division pennant. The Red Sox finished one-half game back—thanks in part to playing one fewer game.

The offensively-challenged Tigers, who drastically underperformed with the bats, used surprisingly good pitching and their two veteran starters (Lolich and Coleman—1972’s Justin Verlander and Fister), along with Fryman and some unexpectedly strong bullpen arms, to nip the pack at the finish line.

In the ALCS, Oakland beat the Tigers, 3-2 in a heartbreaking series.

A year later, Martin became too much for the Tigers to handle, so he was canned and replaced by his opposite—the more easygoing Ralph Houk.

The 1972 Tigers were the last Detroit playoff baseball team until the 1984 heroes.

Forty years ago. It hardly seems it—if you can remember it to begin with.

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I remember the Detroit Tigers vs. Chicago Cubs interleague baseball game in 1998 like it were yesterday.

It was June 25. And my friends and I had recently graduated high school at Southgate Anderson High School in suburban Detroit.

This was the second full season that Major League Baseball had implemented interleague play.

While I was always excited to attend a Tiger game, watching my home team play the Cubs made for an even more fun night.

Five summers before, my father took me to my first Cubs game at Wrigley Field. I watched in horror as Orlando Merced of the Pittsburgh Pirates smacked a game-winning, two-run home run off Shawn Boskie.  

While disappointed, I found solace in pictures of our drive to the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, prior to our journey to Wrigley.

Back to 1998, with very little money and no ballgames to play on our schedules, we piled into my friends beat-up Chevy sedan and hit I-75 northward toward Tiger Stadium.

It was nearly first pitch by the time my friend halted his squealing chunk of metal in a decrepit parking lot, just a stone’s throw from at least a one mile walk from the ticket office.

Like madmen, we hustled to the ticket booth hoping tickets were still available for the game. While the Tigers were not doing so well at 35-45, 30,000 Tigers fans came out to the ballpark that night.

For some fans, this was perhaps one of but a few opportunities remaining to watch a game at this white palace at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull. It was no secret this stadium was on its last legs, as chipping bright blue paint inside the stadium could attest.

Add insult to injury, the once-powerful offense the Tigers assembled during the mid-1990s was no more. Shortstop Alan Trammell and second baseman Lou Whittaker had recently retired, leaving a gaping hole in Detroit’s hearts.

Mickey Tettleton had taken his powerful swing to the Texas Rangers. And Cecil Fielder, who thumped home runs 50 and 51 on the final day of the 1990 season at Yankee Stadium, had been traded to the New York Yankees for Ruben Sierra and Matt Drews.  

Rob Deer, Dan Gladden and Skeeter Barnes had also handed in their badges to the Tigers front office.

Yet for all the carnage, Tony Clark and Bobby Higginson still roamed the hallowed grounds for the Tigers. These two ballplayers gave the hometown fans some hope for a positive future.

Fortunately for my friends and I, the $5 center field bleacher seat tickets we wanted were still available. With hot dogs and Cokes in hand, we made our way to our favorite part of the ballpark. We loved sitting 440 feet from home plate for two reasons. First, we could heckle opposing outfielders. Second, homers looked truly majestic as they sailed past blue steel.

To say we were excited for the ballgame against the Cubs was an understatement. My friends and I had the rare opportunity to watch one of baseball’s most electrifying young pitchers at the time take to the hill for the Cubs.

His name was Kerry Wood.

Wood was our generation’s version of Stephen Strasburg—without all the social media buzz.

This 6’4” flame-throwing Texas native burst onto the scene in 1998, when he struck out 20 Houston Astros hitters in a complete game shutout at Wrigley Field.    

Coming into the game against the Tigers, Wood was 7-3 with 118 strikeouts.

Having heard the hype about Wood, we were anxious to see for this growing legend with our own eyes.

Now, sometimes youth combined with adrenaline can equal delusion.

Although the Tigers were terrible, we were convinced our home team would crush Wood that night.

That was until we heard Wood’s first fastball hiss through the hot summer air, before thumping into catcher Tyler Houston’s glove.

My friends and I just looked at one another in amazement, as we heard the fastball from center field.

This would be the first of many times Wood would do this for the Cubs that night. He ended up striking out eight Tigers in six innings of work.

But for the record, Wood did not leave this game unscathed.

Damian Easley took him deep for a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth inning. The Tigers added two more runs off Wood in the bottom of the sixth, when Geronimo Berroa doubled Bobby Higginson and Luis Gonzalez home.

Wood went on to surrender three earned runs on four hits in a no-decision for the Cubs.

The Tigers ended up winning the game 6-4 that night, thanks to a three-run homer by Tony Clark.

I must say as a baseball fan, I truly enjoyed watching Wood pitch at Tiger Stadium. After watching Wood, my friends and I thought he would easily go on to a Hall of Fame career.

This was especially true after Wood finished the 1998 season with a 13-6 record and 233 strikeouts in just 166.2 innings of work. He also won National League Rookie of the Year honors.

Sadly for Wood, injuries would plague the rest of his career, as he was never able to find his groove.

Although some consider Wood’s career 86-75 record, 1,581 strikeouts and 3.67 ERA respectable, others are convinced Wood by no means lived up to high expectations.

To this, I will let others debate this over the course of the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, I will continue to reminisce about Wood’s performance at Tiger Stadium that night.

Because frankly, it is a night that will stick with me forever.  

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The New York Yankees were hosting the Chicago White Sox for a twi-night doubleheader on July 25, 1961. The second-place New Yorkers trailed the Detroit Tigers by one game. The fifth-place White Sox were 13 games behind despite having a respectable 50-47 record.

Whitey Ford (17-2) faced Frank Baumann (7-7) in a battle of left-handers in the opener. Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle each had 37 home runs going into the games.

The teams traded zeroes until the bottom of the fourth inning. Bobby Richardson became the Yankees’ first baserunner when he drew a leadoff walk. Tony Kubek moved him to second with a sacrifice bunt, bringing up Maris.

The future single-season home run record holder promptly hit a drive that hit the right field foul pole.

Mantle, batting right-handed, now trailed Maris by one home run. He swung at a Baumann fast ball and drove it down the left field line. Guess what? The ball hit the left field foul pole.

The fans went wild as Mel Allen joyfully screamed that Maris and Mantle had hit back-to-back and wall-to-wall home runs.

In the eighth inning, with the Yankees leading 4-0, Maris faced Don Larsen. He hit his second home run of the game to pull one ahead of Mantle.

The Yankees won easily by a score of 5-1. Ford pitched seven scoreless innings to earn his 18th win.

The nightcap figured to be tough for the Yankees. Left-hander Juan Pizarro started for the White Sox against 22-year-old Bill Stafford. It was no contest, as the Yankees coasted to a 12-0 win. Stafford went the distance, but Maris was once again the story.

In the fourth inning, facing right-hander Russ Kemmerer, Maris hit a drive to right field that barely cleared the short concrete wall, or at least that was umpire Frank Umont’s call. White Sox manager Al Lopez was ejected for disagreeing with authority. Maris now had 40 home runs.

He wasn’t finished.

Right-handed veteran Warren Hacker was on the hill. Clete Boyer led off the sixth with a home run. After Stafford grounded out, Richardson singled and Kubek doubled him to third, bringing up Maris.

First base was open but the White Sox pitched to Maris. The result was Maris’ fourth home run of the doubleheader. He finished the day with 42 home runs.

Maris had five hits in nine at-bats, including four home runs. It was a memorable performance that almost everyone has forgotten.

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