Mickey Lolich, Detroit Tigers 1968 World Series hero, dies at 85
He was not on the list.
Legendary Detroit Tigers pitcher Mickey Lolich, whose three
complete game victories in the 1968 World Series delivered a championship and
earned him the series MVP, has died at age 85.
As one of the anchors of the Tigers’ pitching staff in the
1960s and '70s, the portly southpaw, who once called himself “a beer drinker’s
idol,” developed into one of the game’s most durable and best left-handed
starting pitchers ever.
Fifth on the career strikeouts list for left-handers (2,832,
behind only Randy Johnson, Steve Carlton, CC Sabathia and Clayton Kershaw),
Lolich struck out more batters than Hall of Famers Bob Feller, Warren Spahn,
Don Drysdale, Christy Mathewson, Cy Young and his childhood idol, Whitey Ford.
Over his 16-year major league career, Lolich won 15 or more
games eight times, threw 195 complete games and struck out 200 or more batters
in seven seasons while missing just one start due to injury. He remains the
Tigers' all-time leader in strikeouts (2,679), starts (459) and shutouts (39).
"The Tigers are deeply saddened to learn of the passing
of Mickey Lolich and we extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and
loved ones," the team posted on social media Wednesday. "Lolich will
be remembered as one of the most durable and dominant left-handed pitchers of
his era and a cornerstone of Detroit’s pitching staff for more than a
decade."
"Lolich was a great pitcher, teammate and champion, but
he was more than that to me," longtime Tigers teammate Willie Horton said
in a statement released by the team. "He was like a brother for over 60
years. I will keep the memories close to my heart and will never forget the
close bond we shared. My condolences to Joyce and their family and to everyone
who loved him."
Entering the 1968 World Series, the spotlight was on the
pitching matchup between St. Louis Cardinals ace Bob Gibson and 31-game winner
Denny McLain, the MVP and Cy Young Award winners for their respective leagues.
Although Gibson set a World Series record with his 17
strikeouts in Game 1, it was Lolich who stole the show with three complete-game
victories against a powerful lineup that included Lou Brock, Curt Flood and
Orlando Cepeda.
In Game 2, Lolich pitched a six-hit, complete-game victory
to tie the series at a game apiece. He helped his own cause by hitting the only
home run of his career in the 8-1 win.
Down three games to one in the Series, Lolich pitched
another complete game, helping the Tigers in a come-from-behind 5-3 win at
Tiger Stadium.
During Game 6, when the Tigers pulled away for a 13-1
victory, manager Mayo Smith had begun to seriously think about who was to pitch
the deciding seventh game.
“I was at the far end of the bench when Mayo came up to me
and asked if I could pitch the next day,” Lolich said. “I knew it was (loser of
Game 3) Earl Wilson’s turn to start and I told him that if he needed me for a
couple of innings out of the bullpen, I could do that. He said, ‘No, I want you
to start, can you give me five?’ I did the math and knew I averaged about 15
pitches an inning and realized I could probably give him that.”
Smith then ordered Lolich to go back to the hotel to rest
and avoid reporters.
When Lolich entered the dugout after setting down the side
in the bottom of the fifth inning of a scoreless tie in Game 7 on just two
days' rest, he assumed his day was done, but Smith asked him if he could give
him one more inning. The man with the rubber arm agreed.
In the bottom of the sixth, Lolich’s heroics continued when
he ended a potential Cardinals rally by deftly pulling off the improbable —
picking off speedsters Brock and Flood at first base.
After the Tigers took a 3-0 lead in the top of the seventh,
highlighted by Jim Northrup’s two-run triple over Flood’s head, Lolich
delivered a message to Smith.
“I tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘Now I’ll finish it
for you.’ Mayo said, ‘That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.’ ”
Relying largely on his sinking fastball as he had done all
day, Lolich completed his trifecta when Tim McCarver popped out to Bill
Freehan, who immediately lifted his batterymate off the ground in a celebratory
embrace that was captured in what became one of the most famous images in
Tigers history.
In his 27 innings pitched in that series, the Cardinals
scored just five runs.
"The first couple of years I played with him I didn’t
have that much confidence in him," teammate Mickey Stanley said in 2026.
"The way he pitched in the seventh game of the World Series, on two days'
rest, was unbelievable. He became a real pitcher in that Series and from then
on, it was like night and day. It was great to play behind him because he threw
strikes and was a great competitor."
Lolich is the only left-handed pitcher in American League
history to win three complete games in a World Series and just the third of
either hand, for either league, since the start of the 1921 season. (The other
two: Lew Burdette for the Milwaukee Braves in 1957 and Gibson for the Cardinals
in 1967.) Given the modern approach to pitcher usage, Lolich will likely be the
last.
While riding a tricycle as a toddler in his Portland,
Oregon, neighborhood, Michael Stephen Lolich knocked over a parked motorcycle
that fell and broke his left arm.
Naturally right-handed, his parents' form of physical
therapy included tying his right hand behind his back — forcing him to depend
on his left arm. From then on, Lolich threw left-handed.
“I was an only child and there were no other kids on my
block, so I used to entertain myself by throwing figs at city buses 150 feet
from the top of my grandparents’ garage,” he said in 2015.
Lolich's entry into baseball did not come until his teens,
according to his 2018 autobiography "Mickey Lolich: Joy in Tigertown"
(penned with Tom Gage). The nascent lefty was introduced to baseball at age 11,
when he happened upon a game at the city park maintained by his father. A local
team of 14- and 15-year-olds were short one player and asked Lolich if he would
play. Having never played before, he borrowed a glove from an opposing player
and was relegated to right field.
“We were getting beat pretty bad and I thought, ‘I can throw
as good as those guys,’ so I volunteered to pitch,” Lolich said. “To the
surprise of everyone, I blew all the batters away because they couldn’t hit my
fast ‘fig.’ ”
By age 14, Lolich was a star in the local Babe Ruth League
and a batboy for the Pacific Coast League’s Portland Beavers; for two
consecutive seasons (1955-56), he took his hometown team to the Babe Ruth World
Series while winning MVP awards each year.
After signing with the Tigers in 1958, he struggled with his
control in four minor-league seasons and briefly quit in 1962 after refusing an
assignment to Knoxville. But on loan that year to the hometown Beavers, he
found his groove, thanks to pitching coach Gerry Staley.
Lolich returned to the Tigers for spring training 1963; a
month into the season, he was called up to make his major league debut. On May
12, he came out of the bullpen against Cleveland and struck out the first two
batters he faced, Max Alvis and Sam McDowell. Two weeks later, he earned his
first victory while scattering eight hits and going the distance against the
Angels in Los Angeles.
By 1967, Lolich and Denny McLain had established themselves
as one of the top starting duos in the AL while the Tigers battled in one of
the most exciting pennant races ever, losing out on the AL crown on the last
day of the season.
Earlier that year, Lolich found himself wearing a different
uniform once civil unrest broke out in Detroit that summer.
He took the loss in the first game of a doubleheader against
the Yankees at Tiger Stadium on July 23, the first day the disturbance spilled
onto the streets of Detroit. The following morning, he was activated by the Air
National Guard. Lolich, who, since 1963, had missed two weeks in the middle of
every season for mandatory summer camp, was a sergeant in charge of 11 men and
served 10 days in downtown Detroit during the disturbance.
On active duty for 12 days, Lolich was one of three Detroit
athletes activated: receiver John Henderson and quarterback Tom Myers of the
Lions, were both summoned from the Cranbrook training camp.
The next summer, while McLain became the talk of baseball on
his way to winning 31 games, Lolich had struggled a bit. To his surprise,
manager Mayo Smith assigned him to the bullpen in August 1968.
“I was mad and told him, ‘I’ll tell you one thing, before
this year is over, you’re going to need me,’ and Mayo said, ‘We’ll see,’ ” said
Lolich, who, after several successful relief appearances, returned to the
starting rotation for the final month of the regular season.
After McLain was traded in 1970, Lolich became the Tigers’
ace and established himself as a workhorse. From 1971-74, he pitched at least
300 innings each season.
"As good as he was, though, I always thought Mickey
didn’t realize himself how good he really was," 1968 teammate Jon Warden
said in 2026. "[Catcher] Bill Freehan told me ‘I could catch McLain with
my bare hand but Lolich killed me. I had to wear a rubber glove and a wrap
around my hand because it was swollen after every time I caught him.’"
After perfecting a cut fastball in 1971's spring training,
the three-time All-Star had his greatest season, leading the league in wins
(25), strikeouts (308), complete games (29) and innings pitched (376). That
year, he also earned the save in the 1971 All-Star Game at Tiger Stadium.
Lolich was edged out of the Cy Young Award by American League MVP Vida Blue.
Reggie Jackson, who called Lolich’s 1971 season “one of the
greatest of all time,” has always praised the man who gave him fits at the
plate.
“Lolich was a gallon of ice cream when you only wanted a
cone, simply a great pitcher, and for seven or eight years the toughest lefty
in the league,” Jackson said in 2015.
“When he stepped on the mound at 1 p.m., you knew he would be there
until the end and he never missed a start. Today, they talk about 200 innings
being special. Hell, Mickey had 200 innings by Aug. 1. I just wish he had gone
into the doughnut business 10 years earlier.”
In 1972, Lolich helped lead the Tigers to the AL East title
with 22 victories.
“He was an outstanding starter who could pitch down and away
all day long, get a thousand ground balls or with a two-strike count come up
and in and blow you out of there,” said former slugger Frank Howard, a teammate
with the '72 Tigers, in 2015.
By 1975, the Tigers were bereft of talent and even though
Lolich was frustrated with the lack of run support and a poor defense, he was
still disappointed when the Tiges traded him to the New York Mets for Rusty
Staub.
“I had always wanted to finish my career with the Tigers and
I almost didn’t agree to the trade, but looking back now I wish I hadn’t,” he
said in 2015.
After signing a two-year contract with the Mets, Lolich
pitched in 1976 but then retired and sat out the 1977 season before signing as
a free agent with San Diego; the woeful Padres coaxed him out of retirement
with a two-year deal worth more than he had ever been paid.
Following the 1979 season, Lolich retired and later owned
and operated his own doughnut shop outside of Detroit for several years.
Lolich is survived by Joyce, his wife of 61 years; daughters
Kimberly, Stacy, and Jody; and three grandsons.
