In early August of 1991, my parents took me to a game at the old Tiger Stadium. We lived near Toledo, Ohio, which was home of the Tiger's Triple-A affiliate: The Toledo Mud Hens. Growing up an hour from Detroit it was hard not being a fan of the Tigers, but my father was a die-hard Yankee fan as his baseball idol growing up was Mickey Mantle. That passion for the Yankees was passed down to me and has now been passed on to a 3rd generation with my sons and daughter. So on that day in August, we traveled the hour north to see my two favorite baseball teams. For those of you in the know, you realize that the Yankees weren't a very good team in 80's and weren't any better in 1991 (the Yanks finished that season 71-91, 5th in the AL East). The Tigers were still good after winning a World Series title in 1984 having players such as Cecil Fielder, Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker, Mike Henneman, and a Hall-of-Fame manager by the name of Sparky Anderson. The Yankees...well they were basically Don Mattingly and a bunch of no-namers with a manager named Stump Merrill. A side-note: Bernie Williams DID play 85 games that year.
That day was hot, and so were the bats for both teams as they each recorded 10 hits. Mattingly recorded his 21st double of the season, but his batting average slipped below .300 to .299 as he went 1-4 with 1 RBI plating Rookie Bernie Williams. The Tigers won that day 7-6 as Lou Whitaker's home run in the 6th inning was the difference even with a 3-run 8th by the Yanks. My family saw a really well-played baseball game in a hallowed hall between my 2 favorite teams. Two weeks from that game I would turn 12 years old, so a bright-eyed 11-year old was in baseball heaven at the conclusion of that game. To top this off, I had brought my most prized possession along with me just in case I was able to get close enough to "Donnie Baseball": his 1984 Topps Rookie Card. Getting autographs on baseball cards isn't a big deal anymore, but in the 80's and 90's kids lived for that kind of stuff. So my parents, probably begrudgingly, allowed me to await outside the players' entrance at the stadium in hopes of a glimpse of my hero.
An hour passed and several Yankee players made their way passed a large group of people looking for autographs and pictures of their favorites. Steve Sax, Jesse Barfield, Matt Nokes, Randy Velarde, Kevin Maas, Steve Farr, Jimmy Leyritz...they all passed by me one-by-one and still no Mattingly sighting. Those guys all got on the team bus parked on Trumbull Avenue. All of a sudden there was a cheer from the crowd as my childhood hero, Don Mattingly, mustache and all walked out of the door from Tiger Stadium and made a bee-line for an awaiting taxi. About twenty kids, including myself headed towards the metal cattle-guard nearest his taxi yelling out "Donnie Baseball...can you sign my ball (card, hat...insert memorabilia here)"...and he signed every last one of them. I was next up with my Rookie Card and just as he reached for it, his handler moved him along apologizing to the rest of us as "Mr. Mattingly has a very busy schedule..."
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| Representation of my most prized possession |
Several years later that card was stolen from me out of a house I lived in during college. That card was still my most prized possession, but not because Don Mattingly had signed it. What I didn't realize back in 1991 was that baseball players are not really heroes...they are just grown men playing a game for a pretty good living. What Donnie Baseball did for me that day was not out of the goodness of his heart, in fact he was practically held hostage by my mother. No that day, one of my true heroes in life, my mother, saw her first-born son about to weep outside of Tiger Stadium and did something extraordinary. She probably would have run 20 blocks if it meant getting a stupid baseball card signed by her kid's favorite player if only to see a smile on my face. Baseball players aren't heroes, they aren't idols, in some cases that aren't even good people. What I do know is that having that card stolen hurt me very deeply, because my mother, one of my all-time heroes had shown me such astounding love and it reminded me of it every day.
