Today is the 40th anniversary of the one of the happiest days I ever spent at an athletic event. On this day in 1968, I took a bus down to Tiger Stadium to watch the Tigers play the Red Sox a doubleheader. We got there in time for batting practice at 11:30 a.m. ... and left at 9:05 p.m. after the home team rallied for four runs in the bottom of the ninth for a 6-5 win.
The first game went 14 innings and saw Detroit rally to tie the game on a rare Don Wert triple in the eighth inning (It was his only one of the season) and then win it on a Gates Brown pinch-hit homer in the 14th. (Not that I am anal about such stuff but he hit it off Lee Stange into the lower deck in right.)
In the second, they trailed twice but rallied both times with Brown getting the winning hit in a wild rally.
I can remember it like it was yesterday. I think the only time I ever left my seat in the upper deck behind third base was to go to the bathroom.
My wife says that I explained it how this can happen one day. She asked me how it was I could remember such an event but forget to take out the trash. The explanation was simple: I don't have a passion for the trash.
Now I grant you I might have a hard time sitting at a ballpark now for 9 1/2 hours watching a baseball doubleheader. But the memory of this one on August 11, 1968 will stay with me until my final out. And it never ceases me to make me smile. Any memory that does that is worth every minute to get there ... all 575 of them.
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