Detroit News columnist
George Cantor has
written a book about
Detroit's real dream team.

ALAN ABRAMS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

George Cantor: "I went out to have a drink with one of the editors of the paper, and he asked me how would I like to be the baseball writer."

T

here's a great anecdote in George Cantor's lat- the Detroit News over the last 18 years.
est book, The Tigers of '68: Baseball's Last Real
Cantor was born in Detroit on June 14, 1941. He grad-
Champions.
uated from Mumford High School and received his bach-
In the midst of the 1968 World Series — it elor's degree from Wayne State University. That was his
was right after Game 5 — the Tigers' colorful passport into newspaper work. But it almost didn't hap-
pitcher Denny McLain uttered a vile anti-Se- pen that way.
"I went into college as a pre-law [student]," recalled Can-
mitic remark to two other sportswriters about
Cantor, then a Detroit Free Press baseball writer.
tor, "and then it occurred to me at the end of my freshman
"I didn't think that McLain really meant it. This was year I really had no interest in it.
"I'd always liked to write. [But] I'd never written for a
just the way he was brought up. You didn't like Somebody
— you identified him with an ethnic tag," recalled
Cantor.
"I was willing to let it pass. But Joe Falls (then a
Free Press sports columnist, and now, like Cantor,
writing for the Detroit News) was furious, and in- By Gorge Cantor; Taylor Publishing Co.; $22,95.
sisted that we go down there and confront
him.
The Tigers of '68 is living, in-your-face
history, told in the cleverly subversive
"We go to McLain's locker, and Falls starts
guise of a book about a baseball team.
saying, 'How can you say a thing like that?'
And McLain denies ever saying it, and they
You already know how good the team
was How good is Cantor's retelling of that
get into this real screaming match. And I'm
magic year that was?
scared to death that McLain is going to hit
If you were there, you can live the
Falls, because then I would have to swing
dream again. It's like the Tigers fantasy
on McLain, and he would have killed me. So
camp in words.
I was extremely nervous about the whole
thing," Cantor remembered.
If you weren't there, this is the only
book about the 1968 Tigers you'll ever
Had McLain hurt his hand swinging at
need to buy for your kids or grandkids.
either Falls or Cantor and been unable to
Cantor has told reporters he modeled
pitch in Game 6, the whole city could blame
asebairl
this
book upon the classic The Boys of
both writers for blowing the World Series
Last pea, Summer.
He's skillfully interspersed the
championship for the Tigers.
chainPluils kaleidoscope of social upheaval that
Fortunately, some cooler Tigers rushed
marked 1968 as one of the most pivotal
up to separate McLain from the press. "Mayo
rote wig years
in modern American history with
Smith (then the Tigers manager) pulled Joe
the dramatic contrast of the Tigers and
and me into his office and shut the door,"
continued Cantor. "He said, 'Boys, I'm going to tell their remarkable journey to the world championship. And that's
you something my daddy told me years ago in Mis- no easy feat.
This was the Dream Team. Cantor has made these living leg-
souri. Never get into a pissing match with a skunk."'
And that's how George Cantor could have altered ends into more than just faces we see at sports autograph shows.
the course of Detroit's history. Instead, he has been Once again, they live and loom, larger than life.
content to inform, amuse and entertain almost a gen-
—Alan Abrams
eration of readers, most recently as a columnist for

The Tigers Of '68 Baseball's La

high school newspaper and had no real journalism expe-
rience at all. Almost on a whim, I went up to the journal-
ism department at Wayne and switched my major.
After working for six months at internships at the Flint
Journal and the Kalamazoo Gazette, Cantor joined the
Free Press in January 1963 as a general assignment re-
porter. "It was a tremendous place to be a writer back in
the `60s," recalled Cantor.
"It was a writer's newspaper. To get a story on Page 1
on that paper was a terrific accomplishment because the
competition was so keen. It was really a terrific place
to learn the business."
Then, fate stepped up to the plate. Veteran sports-
caster Brent Musberger was slated for a job as base-
ball writer at the Free Press in early 1966, but opted
instead to follow a career in broadcasting. So Cantor got
the nod and was sent to Florida with the Tigers to report
on spring training.
"I went out to have a drink with one of the editors of
the paper, and he asked me how would I like to be the
baseball writer. I fell over backward.
"I had no idea this was coming. About 10 days later,
I found myself on the plane to Florida, absolutely be-
wildered, not having the faintest idea of what I was do-
ing. But I knew the game, and that got me through."
Cantor covered the Tigers for four seasons, from 1966
through 1969. But it is his reporting of their champi-
onship season that is still fondly remembered by fans
and peers alike.
However, Cantor did not cover the first game of the
1968 World Series. Why? It was played on Yom Kippur.
"At that time, our family were members of Beth
Achim," recalled Cantor. "The congregation had just
moved into its new building and was sharing it with a
church. [Free Press columnist] Bob Talbert ran an item
that I wouldn't be able to go to the first game of the World
Series.
'The secretary of the church saw the column and called
me up at the paper," said Cantor. "She said that she
would leave me the key to the church office, so I could
watch the game on television.
"When you think about it ... I've led a blessed life." ❑