Farewell to a WS hero

Every baseball fan has his team. It may not be the first team you knew. But it is the one that really caught your fancy. If you're really lucky, that team ends up a winner.

Mine was the 1968 Detroit Tigers. A few members of that team are gone now. But, with all due to respect to Joe Sparma (who pitched the game that won the pennant), none of the major contributors from that club had left us.

Until today.

Word has come that Jim Northrup has died at age 71. Northup was a left-handed hitting outfielder who filled in nicely that season when longtime star Al Kaline broke his hand.

Although he only hit .264, he seemed to get his hits in bunches. I remember a July 4 game against the Angels when he bombed two home runs in a 13-10 win. One of them (as I recall, off Andy Messersmith) went to left field - a rarity for a pull hitter. Earlier, he hit three grand slam homers in one week. Two of them came on consecutive at-bats in a game at Cleveland. The third came on a rare Saturday night game at Tiger Stadium off a Chicago pitcher name Cisco Carlos. I can still see it -- a line drive that snaked inside the right field foul pole. Later in the same game, Northup just missed hitting another one. It landed in the upper deck but was foul by a couple of inches. That's better than most guys do in a career.

In the World Series, the Tigers looked doomed until they rallied for a dramatic victory in the best baseball game I have ever seen, a stirring 5-3 victory that kept their hopes alive. In Game 6, they buried the Cards early with a 10-run 3rd inning, tying a famous record. Northup capped that rally with ... you guessed it ... a grand slam home run.

Now it came to game 7. Mickey Lolich, on two days' rest, battled the great Bob Gibson on even terms for six innings. In the 7th, Detroit, which had recorded just one hit all day, got back-to-back singles. That brought up Northup, who hit a line drive to center field. Curt Flood saw it late, stumbled slightly and watched hopelessly as it sailed over his head for a two-run triple. The Tigers added two more runs and won the game and the Series.

Northup, who was a tall, handsome left-handed hitter, was the toast of the town.

The man played a dozen seasons, batting .267 with 153 home runs and 610 RBI. Those were numbers a fellow could be very proud of. But, to those of us who reveled in that glorious season of 1968, Jim Northup will always be remembered as the guy who got the big hit that brought the Tigers the World Series.

The stories in the paper noted Northup suffered from Alzheimer's at the end of his life. I hated to hear that. I prefer to remember him as the carefree, smiling guy who had what many players dreamed of -- a magical season capped by a World Series championship. His numbers were not the type that put you in the Hall of Fame ... except in the eyes of a 15-year old who was crazy about baseball.

R.I.P. Jim.