Riots, and Tigers, and the World Series, Oh! My

Riots, and Tigers, and the World Series, Oh! My

On the corner of Michigan and Trumbull, 40, 000 fans were rooting for their Tigers, in the baseball Mecca known as Tiger Stadium, during a day that would forever change how the Nation viewed the Motor City. As the Detroit Tigers were entrenched in a race for the American League Pennant, the National Guard was entrenched behind tanks and over turned cars as they patrolled the streets of Motown. And while the Tigers were battling the Yankees at the Corner, Detroiters were battling police officers on the corner of 12^th street a few miles away.

In 1967 the Tigers were in the midst of a season in which they were burning up the box-scores for the first time in over twenty years as their fans and citizens of Detroit were burning the city down.

During the afternoon of July 23^rd, 1967, the Detroit Tigers played the New York Yankees at 2:30pm. On the morning of July 23^rd, the city of Detroit began rioting at 8:00am; a mere four miles away from Tiger Stadium, after a white police force raided a blind pig- a place that illegally made and distributed alcohol after 2am. The police arrested 82 men that morning. As they brought them outside, curious on lookers got more and more volatile. Someone then hurled a brick as if they were trying to hit their cut-off man, and it connected with the rear windshield of a police cruiser. And as the band Sam Roberts would say in a song “Detroit ’67” many, many years later, “Somebody call the riot police… There's trouble down on 12th Street.”

The Tigers were scheduled to play a doubleheader against the Yankees that day. The second game never happened. As the Tigers were the last to find out that the city was under a revolution. The second game was cancelled soon after the Tigers clubhouse found out of the riots that had now progressed from 12^th to 14^th street, Linwood, Dexter and Grand River and were approaching the East Side of Van Dyke.

The Tigers made no mention of what was happening beyond the bleachers where banners hung telling tales of baseball and Tiger greats. The only thing that people where yelling about within the confines of Tiger Stadium were the inequality of the umpires’ calls towards the Tigers, a far cry from the inequalities between blacks and whites that pushed Detroit to the brink. The only person to speak about the riots during the game was the iconic voice of the Tigers, Ernie Harwell.

The voice who provided men, women, and children with news of Tigers baseball through the radio waves, and told every one in Tiger Nation that is was spring time by quoting a bible passage from Solomon, was now providing listeners who had their transistor radio dials turned to 760 AM and tuned into to Tigers Baseball news of something that listeners and spectators would soon find akin to the bible chapter “Revelations”.  

Harwell acknowledged during the game that there was something in the distance. He said, “It appears a thick black smoke is rising over the light towers in the outfield.” It was as if the rioters on 12^th street were sending an S.O.S. distress call to their Tigers, a call that two Tigers in particular would soon answer.

The starting pitcher of the day game between the Yankees, was fan favorite Mickey Lolich. He was the battery during the game along with Bill Freehan. When Lolich got home, he got a call from the National Guard. As soon as he took the Old English D off, he was called upon his nation to put another uniform on. He found he was trying to control and hold back the thousands of Detroiters fed up with the city, a far cry from trying to control runners and hold them in scoring position as he towed the rubber in a ball game. By now, many of the fans that were cheering for him as he took the mound earlier in the day were now amongst the rioters he was trying to suppress.

But compared to Lolich, one Tiger did not even get a chance to take his uniform off before going into the riots. Outfielder, and Detroit native, Willie Horton grew up a few blocks away from the epicenter of the riots on 12th street. After he found out that the second game of the double header was cancelled, he went to the rioters. The sea of disenchanted citizens parted like the Red Sea as they saw Willie in his uniform climb on top of a tank to speak to the masses. But unlike Moses, he had no staff, he had no bat, he had no object to keep rioters away. He just had the hope that maybe they would listen to their hometown favorite. Years later, while giving a speech on the riots, Horton said, "I didn't know what I was doing. I just hoped that by me talking to them, they would at least just listen and maybe stop.”

And four days later, they did. During the riots, the Tigers were forced to move a series of games intended to be played in Detroit to Baltimore, a team that they were apart of a rivalry with all throughout the 1960’s. And when they returned home, the city they knew and remembered a week before was depleted.

Former Detroit police chief Isaiah McKinnon said of the riots, “I saw thing were getting ugly… to remedy things, it had to be taken to another level.” And things were taken to another level. A level no one could have ever imagined. 43 Detroiters were dead, (33 blacks and 10 whites). 467 people were injured, everyone from citizens to even three soldiers from the United States Army were maimed in the Malay. 7,231 citizens were arrested enough to fill one-third of Navin Field- the former home of the Tigers. And 2,509 stores were either looted or burned in the fracas. After almost a week of National Guard and United States Army occupancy, the riots of 1967 had finally halted.

Soon after the riots halted, so did the Tigers’ playoff hopes. They went from a three game lead for the pennant the day of the riots, to missing out by one game to the Boston Red Sox a little over two months later. The city and the team desperately needed something to smile about as there was now a seismic shift in the attitude of Detroit.

The nation and world now viewed Detroit differently. A bustling blue collar city was now viewed as a place full of bullies. The mouthpiece of Detroit, Motown even shifted as innocent songs such as “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)”, “I Was Made To Love Her” and “How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You” would soon find a much different tone as songs like “Love Child”, “What’s Going On” and “What Becomes of the Broken Hearted” echoed how Detroit now felt after the riots.

Even Martha & The Vandella’s feel good summertime hit of 1964, “Dancing in the Street” was used by the rioters as an anthem of sorts for those infamous days in the summer of 1967. A song intended for happiness and celebration was used for despair and destruction. But a little over a year later in the summer of 1968, the citizens of Detroit would find themselves blaring this song again throughout the city, this time not for rioting but for rejoicing.

As Ernie Harwell did every spring he told Tiger faithful:

“Lo, the winter is past… The rain is over and gone… The flowers appear on the earth… The time of the singing of the birds is come… And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land…”

And during the 1968 season no voice was stronger than the fans that flocked to Michigan and Trumbull to root on their Tigers. After a 1967 campaign that was marred with inconsistencies and overshadowed by the riots, the 1968 Tigers led by the two men who flocked to 12^th street, Mickey Lolich and Willie Horton along with help from veterans like Norm Cash and future Hall Of Famer, Al Kaline, surged to an American League Pennant. A Pennant clinched a mere month into the season.

 On May 10^th, they were a half game up in the American League and the Tigers did not relinquish that position for the rest of the season. During that season, Tigers pitcher, Denny McLain pitched his way to a 31-6 record en route to the American League Cy Young and MVP.

But in the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, McLain was not even the Tigers’ best pitcher, that honor went to Mickey Lolich. In a seven game series against the Cardinals, Lolich made three starts, all of which were complete games. He posted a 1.67 ERA and all three of his starts resulted in Tiger wins, including the pivotal and clinching game seven in St. Louis during a showdown with St. Louis’ ace, Bob Gibson.

Tigers catcher Bill Freehan recorded the final out on a pop up behind home plate. Lolich gleefully jumped into Freehan’s arms right after. And you know that many Tiger fans were jumping into each other’s arms as well. Nuns, students, parents, co-workers, blacks and whites together were celebrating their team’s and city’s World Series win.

A year before, fire engines were rushing down Woodward to suppress the flames bellowing downtown. Now, people were riding atop those same fire engines holding up newspapers with their Tigers being christened champions on the front page. The same people who were tearing down the city piece by piece that previous summer and tore out the heart of Detroit, now had a reason to give the city new life.

The Detroit Tigers during the 1967 and 1968 seasons provided a haven to the citizens of Detroit. Though the city may have been rioting, when you sat on the bleachers of Tiger Stadium you were able to escape that. For nine innings the Tigers provided hope and optimism for a ravaged city. Running away from rioters or cops was the farthest thing from their minds as they watched on as Gates Brown was caught in a run-down between first and second base.

They did not have to worry about the city that lay in disarray beyond the stadium walls. They only had to worry if the Tigers could come back and rally for a win. And the Tigers rallied and provided a victory that can never be shown through a box score. They put a reeling Detroit on their backs and took them to the World Series.

The Detroit Tigers provided the citizens of Detroit a reason to unify as one again. They provided them with a reason to believe, after all if the Tigers could comeback, so could they. They showed that the Motor City wasn’t quite dead yet. And though the city is still recovering to this day, the Tigers helped show that a city is capable of going from rioting to rebuilding in only a year. They gave the city of Detroit their identity back. But above all, they gave them a reason to celebrate, rejoice and go “Dancing in the Street” once more.