Customer Reviews

The Tigers of '68: Baseball's Last Real Champions (Honoring a Detroit Legend)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Cantor does an admirable job of recapturing the spirit and excitement of the '68 Tigers. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who spent any amount of time at Michigan and Trumbull in 1968. What a season! What a team! What a wealth of memories!

This is truly an enjoyable book- especially for those who lived it in the city...it was a chance to be there again. This mentions all the big plays, players and events during this wonderful, healing summer in Motown. Lolich, Cash, Kaline, the Gator, Denny and the rest of the cast bring back all those happy emotions and feelings. If you were there in '68 then buy this one to read, keep it and then pass it on to your grandkids when you die.

For someone who grew up in Detroit, and was totally immersed in the '68 season, this was a worthy read. The author talks a bit about the season, from start to finish, and mixes in the interviews he has had with the players recently. It works, but I, personally, would have liked a bit more about the '68 season. As an example, Chapter 5, "A Matter of Race" talks about the racial things going on in Detroit, in baseball, and on the Tigers in 1968. Chapter 6, "The Duke of Earl" is the result of the interview the author had with Earl Wilson recently, discussing certain things about that season. The whole book is like that. I would have liked more input from the players about points in the season--what was going on, what they were going through at pre- and postgame, etc. As one reviewer noted, it's hard for the book to really take you back to that season, when it's broken up in this manner. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it, and I forced myself to only read a few pages at a time so I could savor it. (We don't win that many championships in Detroit!) Unless you were there and remember that season, it might be hard to fully appreciate the book.

I was there in 1968. I remember that summer between 3rd and 4th grade and it made me the big baseball fan I am today. This book rekindles the happy feelings of growing up and being at the ballpark- watching these titans claim the World Championship in 1968. They literally glued the city back together after the riots. The author was able to weave together all the points that both socially and emotionally re-shaped Detroit. The baseball stats and trivia so faithfully presented and recorded in the book are accurate and the personal interviews of the players almost 30 years later gives an inside perspective to the greatness and importance of that Championship season so long ago.

Reading this book took me all the way back to listening to the great Ernie Harwell with my dad so many years ago- it was wonderful then and I loved reliving those memories again while reading the book. For any REAL Tigers fan this is required reading. Sock it to 'em Tigers!

Kinky Friedman still calls it the greatest World Series of all time: The Tigers down 3 games to 1 to the Cardinals and losing again in the 7th inning in Game 5 on a dreary, gray Monday afternoon in Detroit.

By Thursday of that week the Tigers were champs, coming little more than a year after the ugly, destructive riots in the Motor City.

It was a team of Hall-of-Fame hitters .... Al Kaline, Norm Cash, Bill Freehan et. al. combined with a shortstop who hit .135 (Ray Oyler had 29 hits while pitcher Earl Wilson had 20). And pitchers like McLain (31 regular-season wins) & Lolich (the World Series hero) teamed with some guy named Sparma.

A year when a big bulging pinch hitter (Gates Brown) won both ends of a doubleheader doin' his thing (i.e., pinch hitting) and a slick outfielder (Northrup) hit two grand slams in one game.

And with Ernie Harwell calling every pitch ....

No wonder I like Kinky Friedman.

I was 12 and just got interested in baseball in 1968 and fell under the Tiger spell. It was a spectacular year for a young Tiger fan, topped off by the magical World Series. This book captures in just enough detail the spell cast that summer and how this team is baseball's last true championship team. The following season, the game had changed, expansion, playoffs and the beginnings of free agency did not truly help the game. The stories, memories of this book will take you back if you were there, or bring it to life if you were not.

The author sets the sport in with the times, beginning with the Detroit riot of 1967, the heart breaking pennant race that hot summer into the beginning of the tumultous year of 1968. Interviews with a number of the players is mixed in with specific events centered around them. The book sets the context of the events of 1968, deaths of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, the escalating Vietnam war, and the Democratic Convention in Chicago in with the events of the season, McLain winning 30 games, Northrup's grand slams, Manager Mayo Smith's risk of playing outfielder Mickey Stanley at shortstop for the series. The heartbreaking losses in the series as Bob Gibson proved his ability in mowing the Tigers down to the jubliant wins from games 5, 6 and 7. A follow up chapter the '68 Tigers since then closes out the book.

Sadly, the game has never been the same for me after the advent of free agency and its lack of player consistancy, money grubbing so-called stars, meglomaniac team owners and today's much slower pace of the game that is oriented for television. Luckily, this book brought back the joy of the sport, at least in my mind.

Buy it to read, keep and re-read once again. If you are a Tigers fan, a baseball fan or one who just wants to recapture the time, it is a worthy book.

I remember fondly the summer of 68. I used to lie on my bed in the afternoons (cause thats when they played baseball back then), looking at my Tiger baseball cards, and listing to Ernie Harwell give the play to play on my short wave. I remember many of the events in this book - Tommy Matchick's home run, Daryl Patterson striking out the side (nasty Orioles), the triple-play in number 27, Rocky Colevito beating the Tigers, and of course, #30, the "clinch", the world series. This book is great for reliving old memories.

But I do wish it had more storeies. I was a big Coyote (Don Wert) fan, and it hardly mentions him. Same for some of the other players.

In spite of that, its a great book, even if you arn't a Tiger fan, cause thats the way baseball used to be played.

I am a Tiger fan but not old enough to know the stories of the '68 Tigers. I remember growing up and hearing my Dad's stories so before I read this book I was familar with the players and the team. Reading this book was fun and exciting. At times I could not put it down. Being a newspaper writer Mr. Cantor delivers this book as if you are reading a very long article in the newspaper. You will Enjoy.

This is a wonderful book about a colorful team at the end of the `winner take all' era in baseball, just before divisional play was introduced. Author George Cantor was close to the Detroit Tigers as a sports writer in 1968, and remained close to many of the players nearly three decades later to interview them about their experiences as Tigers in the late 60's. Cantor does a great job of providing background to the Tigers' 1968 championship year, describing the conservative, old school philosophy of the managers and owner of the team in those years, as well as the civil strife that existed in the Motor City in the same period.

Despite living in Toronto most of my life, I have a special nostalgia for the Tigers. The first MLB game I attended was in 1972 at Tiger Stadium; I got to see '68 stars Micky Lolich, Bill Freehan, Gates Brown and others play that night. In the late 70's I moved to Windsor, just a 15-minute drive from Tiger Stadium, and went to over 30 games each summer. I attended the last Tiger World Series win in 1984, with Kirk Gibson and Larry Herndon leading the way.

All of these experiences, however, and my love for baseball, trace to the year 1968 when, as an 11-year-old, I watched in amazement on TV as Denny McLain won his 30th game. I am thus grateful that there is Cantor's book to offer a detailed depiction of that year, as well as the years leading up to and following '68. The author provides interesting insights into the origins of many of the players, and also discusses what many of them ended up doing after their baseball careers were over. Some, such as Norm Cash, died untimely deaths.

Parts of the book read like a gossip column, shedding light on the self-absorbed antics of McLain, and the animosity that existed between him and many of the players, particularly Micky Lolich. Cantor also describes vividly the World Series pitching match-up between McLain and the Cardinals' Bob Gibson, the latter having nothing but disdain for the former.

I highly recommend this book to all baseball fans, and especially to Tiger fans. I also recommend "The Final Season" by Tom Stanton, about the Tigers' final year (1999) playing in Tiger Stadium.

This book is a must for any 1968 Tiger fan. George Cantor takes you for a trip down memory lane as you revisit the summer of 68 and find out what the Tigers are doing in the present day. Some things brought out new facts, others brought back old memories and recollections. I read this book in one day--could not put it down! Do not pass this one by!!