02/24/26
February 04, 2026
SportsFilter: The Wednesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Roly Poly Mickey Lolich - a slappin slab of Detroit funk dedicated to the beer drinker's hero and the rest of that team.
posted by NoMich at 11:30 PM on February 04, 2026
'68 was the 1st year I started really paying attention to baseball (6-7 years old).
Two of my favourite uniforms ever since, I rooted for the Tigers in the series that year.
I liked Mickey, and since my dad and mom were huge Bob Gibson fans, made for fun viewing!
Good long life, may he rest easy.
BTW, the song has a nice beat, I can dance to it.
posted by tommybiden at 01:07 PM on February 05, 2026
The only games I cared about in the autumn of 1968 were the Southeast Asia Military Games. I was in a place called Con Thien, Republic of Vietnam. It's a few miles from the coast of the Tonkin Gulf, and right on the edge of what was then the DMZ. What worried us was avoiding being hit by a pitch that carried an explosive warhead. I was not in the military at the time. We were working on some experimental infrared equipment that was to detect the gunflash from artillery. The last systems I worked on in my career were based on the same principle. They became part of the missile warning systems on aircraft. What goes around comes around.
My eldest sister married a guy from Detroit, and she was living there in '68. She was a rabid baseball fan, but of the Braves. They were in Boston until just a few years before she married and moved. When I had a chance to talk to her after I got back from Nam, she had to tell me how great the series was and how Mickey Lolich won it. I do remember seeing him on TV pitching against the Red Sox. He was rather hard to hit, but most unathletic in appearance. RIP, Mickey Lolich.
posted by Howard_T at 03:46 PM on February 05, 2026
RIP Mickey Lolich, unexpected star of the 1968 World Series.
That sporting event and the Apollo 8 mission brought hope and joy to the tail end of a wretched and riveting year. It was a titanic and historic hardball struggle that included everyday players and Olympic gods.
All seven of the games were day games, so following them in my high school was a challenge.
Someone snuck a small radio into study hall and secretly passed along updates.
It was billed as 30 game winner Denny McLain against Bob Gibson, but Lolich was the man of the hour in the end. And he didn't start Games 1, 4 and 7 to get his trifecta. It was games 2, 5 and 7. They were all complete games. The guy could throw innings until the cows came home and then went back out.
However, Gibson's magnificence musn't be lost in the telling of the tale. He was in his own realm at times, as he had been in the previous year's Series.
Lolich was part of a glorious tradition of #2 lefthanded starters becoming stalwarts, a role echoed by players like Boston's Bruce Hurst in the 1986 Series.
Sometimes, when you think back on moments in time like that, you run out of words and just sink into the memory of it.
If Howard was stateside at the time, he may have his own thoughts on the subject.