sports
Relive the
Tigers’ Glorious
1968 Season
At B’nai Moshe
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
FILM AND ARCHIVES OF
WWII AND THE HOLOCAUST
Wednesday, July 25, 9am–4pm
A free workshop for teachers and the community by the Mémorial de la Shoah (Paris, France)
with renowned historians Christian Delage and Jacques Fredj, organized in conjunction
with the new exhibition ‘Filming the Camps: John Ford, Samuel Fuller, George Stevens,
from Hollywood to Nuremberg.’
Presented at Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus
28123 Orchard Lake Road, Farmington Hills, MI 48334
(248) 553-2400 | www.holocaustcenter.org
More information at aliza.tick@holocaustcenter.org
RSVP at https://goo.gl/forms/aROOcZNY5JzZvAQd2
Photo: George Stevens and his crew, France, 1944 © Courtesy of the Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA
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24
July 19 • 2018
jn
I
t’s been a long summer for Detroit
Tigers baseball fans. Victories
have been few and far between for
a team that’s taken only a few baby
steps on the road back to a winning
record.
That certainly wasn’t the case 50
years ago. The 1968 Tigers won the
World Series, roaring back from a 3-1
deficit to beat the St. Louis Cardinals.
A year after Detroit reeled from a
riot, the Tigers gave the city something
to cheer about the entire summer of
1968. They won the American League
pennant by 12 games over the second-
place Baltimore Orioles.
One of the big stars of the 1968
Tigers was pitcher Mickey Lolich.
He was 17-9 in the regular season
with 197 strikeouts, and he was the
winning pitcher in three of the Tigers’
four World Series victories, throwing
three complete games.
He beat the supposedly unbeatable
Bob Gibson in Game 7, and he hit a
home run in Game 2. It turned out to
be Lolich’s only home run in a 16-year
major league career.
His heroic efforts on the mound and
at bat earned him the Most Valuable
Player award for the World Series.
Lolich pitched for the Tigers from
1963-1975, for the New York Mets in
1976, and San Diego Padres in 1978
and 1979 before retiring from baseball.
Now age 77, he’s joined forces with
award-winning Detroit journalist Tom
Gage to write a 256-page book about
the 1968 Tigers season.
It’s called Joy in Tigertown: A
Determined Team, A Resilient City, and
Our Magical Run to the 1968 World
Series. Published in June, the book
includes a forward written by former
Tigers manager Jim Leyland.
Lolich and Gage are coming to
Congregation B’nai Moshe in West
Bloomfield to talk about baseball and
their book.
In partnership with the Michigan
Jewish Sports Foundation, they’ll
appear at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 14, as
part of the synagogue’s fourth annual
Spectacular Speaker Series.
Synagogue member Frank Reinstein,
who is friends with Gage, arranged the
appearance, which will include guest
moderator Alan “Big Al” Muskovitz.
“Mickey wasn’t interested in writ-
ing a book about the 1968 season, but
his grandkids convinced him to do it,”
Reinstein said. “He told Tom the book
had to be positive. He didn’t want any-
thing negative in it.
“Now that the book is out, I told
Tom that he and Mickey should come
to B’nai Moshe because there are a lot
of Jewish baseball fans and there was
an opening in our speaker series.”
Yes, there are a lot of Jewish base-
ball fans, but Reinstein and B’nai
Moshe Executive Director Steven Fine
emphasized that the speaker series is
open to everyone in the community,
Jews and non-Jews.
The cost to attend the talk by Lolich
and Gage is $5. Autographed copies
of the book will be sold for $25. Lolich
will sign memorabilia for a nominal
additional charge.
“You don’t have to buy the book to
attend,” Reinstein said.
Attendees can pay their $5 at the
door, but registering is advance is pre-
ferred.
“You’ll get in more quickly,” Fine
said.
Call the synagogue office at (248)
788-0600 to register. The office is open
from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through
Thursday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday.
The appearance by Lolich and Gage
is the second sports-related program
in B’nai Moshe’s wide-ranging speaker
series. Sports talk radio personality
Jeff Riger from 97.1 The Ticket spoke
earlier.
The last speaker was Barbara
McQuade, former U.S. attorney for the
Eastern District of Michigan, who now
is a professor of law at the University
of Michigan Law School and a legal
analyst for NBC News and MSNBC.
“We had about 135 people for
Barbara McQuade’s talk in June,” Fine
said. “I expect we’ll have more to see
Mickey Lolich and Tom Gage.”
Arthur Horowitz, publisher and
executive editor of Jewish News, was a
speaker for the series as well.
B’nai Moshe is at 6800 Drake Road. •
Send sports news to stevestein502004@yahoo.
com.