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Mr. Baseball Tells All

How mild-mannered Irwin Cohen became Detroit's biggest baseball buff.

David Sachs
Senior Copy Editor

I

n 1953, Irwin Cohen, a baseball-crazed 12-year-old,
boarded the southbound Dexter bus and headed
(for the first time by himself) to Briggs Stadium to
watch the Detroit Tigers play Boston.
After the game, he waited outside the visitor's club-
house to politely solicit the autograph of his all-time
favorite player — hard-hitting outfielder Hoot Evers
— who the year before had been traded from the
Tigers to the Red Sox.
But the boy's baseball dreams were not to be real-
ized, at least for another 20 years.
"Beat it, kid!" bellowed the fickle hero who, despite
his nickname, didn't give a hoot.
"But, I'm your biggest fan!!" protested Irwin.
"That's what they all say," Hoot snarled. "Now, beat
it!"
Enduring marriages, glorious lifetime friendships
and even the love of a sport can often start out with a
rocky first confrontation like that of the wide-eyed lad
and the gruff athlete. Little did Irwin know that after
a chance re-crossing of paths two decades later, Hoot
would start a chain of events that would enable Irwin,
now a diminutive, soft-spoken Orthodox civil servant
working for the Wayne County Treasurer's office, to
become Detroit's own "Mr. Baseball."
Irwin, today an established author and grass-roots
historian, has written nine books about Jews, Detroit
and baseball topics. His latest effort, Tiger Stadium/
Histories & Memories, weaves the
Comerica Park
story of his own obsessive love affair with baseball
along with Tiger history, lore and trivia.

—

First Big Breaks
In 1973, Irwin, then 31, telephoned the late WWJ radio
sportscaster Vince Doyle to comment on his show and
asked who the guest would be the following week.
When he heard it was Evers, Irwin revealed Hoot was
still his favorite player. Doyle then invited Irwin to
introduce Hoot live on the radio.
After the show, Irwin offered the much-more-mellow
former player a ride to his car; and Hoot gave him a
copy of a new, free publication he had picked up, All
Sports TV Guide, published by retired Tiger superstar
pitcher Denny McLain. Irwin could see that Denny
needed some writers and soon got his first paid base-
ball writing job at $15 a week with McLain's short-
lived publication.
At the time, Irwin would walk every lunch hour from
the City-County Building to the Downtown Library
and pore over out-of-town newspaper sport sections to
satisfy his craving for baseball information.
He compiled interesting tidbits he gleaned and
began feeding them to Detroit Free Press columnist Joe
Falls, who would include them in his Sunday column.
Irwin, who was shy, signed his letters to Falls as "Mr.
Baseball." Falls printed the name, and it stuck.
Irwin worked for Denny McLain for all of five weeks

Irwin Cohen proudly shows his

1984 Tigers World Series ring.

before the paper folded. But he had been exposed to
the world of publishing and thought that he could cre-
ate his own newspaper about baseball.
Irwin leveraged all he had and came out with the
Baseball Bulletin, a monthly tabloid-sized paper aimed
at baseball nuts like himself. Another big break was
when Tiger broadcaster Ernie Harwell agreed to write
for the new publication, giving it immediate credibility
and enabling him to attract a stable of quality writers.
Irwin ran the entire Baseball Bulletin operation for
five years in the mid-1970s while still maintaining his
county job. It grew to a national circulation of 40,000
and had just about reached the break-even point when
he sold it.
But his status as a journalist granted him entree to
the inside world of baseball. He interviewed and got
to know all the players of the era, as well as the retired
legends he'd meet at special events — Greenberg,
DiMaggio, Mantle. A favorite of his was Mark "The
Bird" Fidrych, whom Irwin took under his wing on the
way to the 1976 All-Star game in Philadelphia where
the charismatic Tiger rookie was the starting pitcher
for the American League.

Fate Smiles Again
The next big break for Irwin came in late 1983. As a
baseball journalist, Irwin was well known to the Tiger
front-office staff, who were aware of his Orthodox
Jewish observance. He ran into the Tiger director of
group ticket sales, Fred Smith, who told him he was
retiring. Smith suggested Irwin take his job since it
was the only one in the organization that didn't require

working on Saturday.
Irwin considers it beshert that at the same time
Wayne County was offering retirement to workers
with 20 years' seniority — which he had just reached.
He took the job, offered under new Tiger owner Tom
Monaghan, and a second whirlwind fling in baseball
began for him.
Monaghan, Detroit's original pizza-peddler-cum-
sports-impresario, had the tremendous good fortune
of winning the World Series in his first year as Tigers
owner. Irwin, often working 70 hours a week for his
$16,000 salary, was awarded a World Series ring in 1984.
Irwin writes fondly of Monaghan, who he said cultivated
a warm, family atmosphere for his employees.
Irwin's book is nonstop memories and inside
perspectives of Detroit baseball. In his afterword,
he mourns four beloved Tiger heroes who died in
the months after he began writing the book: Hall of
Fame third baseman and telecaster George Kell, Mark
Fidrych, Ernie Harwell and 1984 championship man-
ager Sparky Anderson. Indeed, he dedicated the book
to Harwell, a fellow gentle Detroit baseball guru, who
had given his career a big, early boost.

Irwin Cohen's memoir, Tiger Stadium/Comerica
Park – Histories & Memories, is available at
bookstores including Borenstein's and the Book
Beat in Oak Park. He'll even sell an autographed
edition to those who call him at his Oak Park
home, (248) 967-3383.

April 14 • 2011

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