Mickey Lolich dies at 85; longtime Detroit Tigers pitcher was surprise hero of 1968 World Series

By Ed White | Associated Press

DETROIT — Mickey Lolich, who had three complete-game victories for the Detroit Tigers in the 1968 World Series, the last Major League Baseball pitcher to post the incredible feat, died Wednesday. He was 85.

The Tigers said Lolich’s wife told them that he died after a short stay in hospice care. An exact cause of death was not provided.

Denny McLain was the star of Detroit’s pitching staff in 1968, winning 31 regular-season games. But Lolich was the Most Valuable Player of the Series, with a ERA of 1.67 and a Game 7 road victory over Bob Gibson and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Bill Freehan threw off his catcher’s mask and caught a foul pop-up by Tim McCarver for the final out. Lolich jumped into Freehan’s arms — an iconic image of Detroit’s championship season.

“It was always somebody else,” Lolich told the Detroit Free Press in 2018, “but my day had finally come.”

He is No. 23 in career strikeouts with 2,832, ahead of many others who, unlike Lolich, are in the Hall of Fame, and fifth among all lefties, according to baseball-reference.com.

Lolich was an unlikely hero in 1968. During a reunion of the World Series team, he recalled how manager Mayo Smith had sent him to the bullpen for much of August. He returned to the Tigers’ starting rotation and was 6-1 in the final weeks.

“I was having a few problems, but I had been a starting pitcher ever since 1964,” said Lolich, who was upset about the bullpen move. “I remember telling him, ‘If we win this thing this year it’s going to be because of me.’ But I was only talking about the season. I wasn’t talking about the World Series.

“I got my revenge back in the World Series,” he said.

Lolich pitched Game 7 after only two days of rest. He figured he would get a Corvette from General Motors for being the Series MVP but had to settle for a Dodge Charger GT because Chrysler was the sponsor in 1968.

“Nothing against Chargers, nothing at all,” Lolich said in his book, “Joy in Tigertown.” “It’s just that I already had two of them in my driveway.”

Since Lolich, only Arizona’s Randy Johnson in 2001 has won three games in a World Series, though Johnson pitched about 10 fewer innings and was a relief pitcher, not a starter, in Game 7.

Lolich had a record of 220-192, including the postseason, over a 16-year career, all but three with Detroit. He left baseball after playing for the New York Mets in 1976 but returned with San Diego in 1978-79.

The left-hander was 25-14 in 1971, striking out 308 batters over 376 innings and finishing second in AL Cy Young award voting. He followed that up with a 22-14 record and 250 strikeouts in 1972.

In a statement, the Tigers expressed condolences to Lolich’s family and said his legacy “will forever be cherished.”

After his baseball career, Lolich, a native of Portland, Oregon, was in the doughnut business in suburban Detroit, making and selling them for 18 years.

“I doubt any other ballplayer has ever made that transition — from the diamond to doughnuts. But I did,” he wrote in his book.

AP Sports Writer Larry Lage contributed to this report.