 MAY 7 • 2020 | 5

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for openers
Goodbye, Mr. Tiger
T

ears instantly filled 
my eyes the moment I 
learned on April 6 that 
Detroit Tiger and Hall of Fame 
great Al Kaline had passed away 
at 85. The news was an added 
gut punch to our 
already chaotic 
pandemic world. 
A giant part of 
my childhood was 
ripped away. 
That exact same 
reaction followed, 
to a person, in 
subsequent conversations, 
Facebook posts and emails to 
me about the passing of “Mr. 
Tiger”—or “Mr. Kaline,
” as play-
ers past and present referred to 
him in interviews since his pass-
ing. Those were the monikers 
he so richly deserved after being 
part of the Tigers’
 organization 
for 67 years; 22 as a player and 
45 more in the front office.
That’
s the charming man I 
experienced when I had a rare 
opportunity to team up with 
him in a celebrity golf outing at 
Oakland Hills around 15-years 
ago. I was intimidated nonethe-
less. It was all I could do to pre-
vent my knocking knees from 
disrupting his backswing.
So it came as no surprise that 
coverage of Kaline has focused 
as much on his off-the-field 
character as it did his on the 
field prowess. He never wavered 
from being a class act whether 
in the clubhouse or the com-
munity. 
That reputation, I’
ve come 
to learn, has been experienced 
firsthand by members of our 
Detroit Jewish community over 
several generations.
In 1955, 9-year-old Tiger fan 
Alan Kaczander of northwest 
Detroit loved the fact he shared 

the same initials with his 
favorite player, a then 
20-year-old Al Kaline. 
That same year the Detroit 
Free Press called for entries 
for a contest they called 
“Suppressed Desires” — 
not something today you 
want showing up in your 
computer’
s browser search 
history.
Kaczander sent in his 
entry. “My wish would be 
to sit next to Al Kaline in 
the dugout during an entire 
game,
” he wrote. Reflecting 
on it today, he said, “I 
thought nothing of it until 
my father informed me a 
couple weeks later that I 
had received an envelope 
from the Free Press. I was 
among several winners!”
“Due to Detroit Tiger 
policy, you couldn’
t sit 
in the dugout during 
the game,
” recalled Kaczander, 
a retired teacher, now 73. “So, 
what they wanted me to do 
was come down with my dad 
to Briggs Stadium, and I was 
allowed to go into the dugout 
during practice and sit with 
Kaline there.
” 
He had his picture taken with 
Al and Bucky Harris, the man-
ager at the time. The Free Press 
sent him the photograph, auto-
graphed, along with a baseball 
signed by the entire team. The 
poses and expressions captured 
in that photo rival a Norman 
Rockwell painting.
Dr. Marty Levin, a West 
Bloomfield optometrist, had an 
exciting Kaline encounter of his 
own as an 8-year old in 1956. 
“I went to Briggs Stadium with 
my dad to see a game. I had a 
great-uncle who was an usher,
” 
he said. Levin recalled how 

proud he was to see his 
uncle in his all-green usher’
s 
uniform that matched the color 
of the stadium and grass.
Levin’
s dad invited his uncle 
to their house for a barbecue. 
His uncle accepted but said not 
to wait because he would need 
to catch a ride with someone 
after the game. 
“That evening, we were bar-
becuing at our house in north-
west Detroit when my uncle 
walked into the backyard, to our 
amazement, with his ‘
driver’
… 
Al Kaline!” Levin said.
Kaline’
s humble demean-
or and generous personali-
ty endured throughout the 
decades.
Real estate developer Michael 
Surnow, 71, of West Bloomfield 
shared some unforgettable 
personal time with Kaline in 
1999 at a Tigers Fantasy Camp 

in Lakeland, Florida. The trip 
was a gift from Michael’
s wife, 
Sherry, for his 50th birthday. 
At dinner one evening, 
Surnow noticed an empty seat 
next to Kaline and asked if he 
could join him. “He said sure, 
have a seat,
” said Surnow. The 
two had already met and con-
versed at their hotel pool earlier 
that day.
Over dinner, Surnow shared 
with Kaline the reason he came 
to the Fantasy Camp. “I’
m just 
addicted to coaching my kids,
” 
he told the Tiger legend, and he 
was looking to add some skills 
to his coaching repertoire. With 
a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity 
in front of him, Michael asked 
Al, with some hesitancy, “Would 
you, and if you don’
t want to, 
say no, show me some hitting 
techniques?”
The very next day, after a full 
camp session, Al Kaline gave 
up his free time at the pool and 
spent two hours, one-on-one 
with Michael, introducing him 
to a variety of new hitting tech-
niques. 
“He brought my coaching 
game way up to another level,
” 
said an overwhelmed Surnow. 
“Who am I? Some schmegegge
(nonsense) at fantasy camp. I’
m 
nobody to him, but he was kind. 

continued on page 8

Alan 
Muskovitz

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proud he was to see his

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DETROIT FREE PRESS

ABOVE: Alan Kaczander with Al Kaline. 
LEFT: Al Kaline’
s letter to Mike in Texas

