25- What's in a number?

Then (1968)

Now (2008)

For a sports fan its's all about statistics and numbers. take for instance baseball. I grew up in suburban Detroit and 1968 was a great baseball year for me.

So what's with #25?

#25- that's my favorite Detroit Tiger ballplayer's number... Stormin' Norman Cash. As a kid I used to play fist base (I'm left handed) and he was the Tiger first baseman at the time. 1968 was the "Year of the Tiger" and it was the year I became a baseball fan.

That Tiger team had:

C- Bill Freehan (#11)

1b- Norm Cash (#25)

2b- Dick McAuliffe (#3)

3b- Don Wert (#8)

ss- Ray Oyler (#1)

LF- Willie Horton (#23)

CF- Mickey Stanley (#24)

RF- Al Kaline (#6)

C- Jim Price (#12)

1b-3b- Eddie Mathews (#7)

2b-ss- Tom Matchick (#2)

2b-ss- Dick Traczewski (#44)

of- Gates Brown (#26)

of- Jim Northrup (#5)

of- Wayne Comer (#27)

p- Denny McLain (#17)

p- Mickey Lolich (#29)

p- Joe Sparma (#21)

p- Earl Wilson (#16)

p- Pat Dobson (#22)

p- John Hiller (#18)

p- Darryl Patterson (#43)

p- Fred Lasher (#15)

p- Don McMahon (#47)

p- Jon Warden (#39)

p- Dennis Ribant (#14)

(Those names and uniform numbers were mostly from memory.)