June 4, 2025 • 43 mins
This month on Lost Ballparks, our guest is Dennis Clotworthy, Al Kaline’s Last Bat Boy. Dennis grew up across the street from Tiger Stadium and eventually worked inside its walls. In our conversation, Dennis brings the old ballpark to life with incredible detail—describing everything from creaky trap doors to the magic of Gate 16, the heavy barn door that opened a hidden world below field level and the old, slick hardwood floors of the clubhouses, worn smooth and marked with metal spike impressions left by generations of legends. His journey, which began in the unlikely setting of Malta, takes him to Detroit, where he chases a dream that leads to jobs as a junior usher, clubhouse attendant, visiting team's bat boy, and ultimately, bat boy for the Tigers. Along the way, he rubbed shoulders with legends like Brooks Robinson, Reggie Jackson, Nolan Ryan and, of course, Al Kaline. If you’ve ever dreamed of being a batboy at one of baseball’s most storied old ballparks, this episode is for you.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mike Koser (00:00):
This month on Lost Ballparks, our guest is Dennis
Clotworthy.
He's the author of Al Kaline'sLast Bat Boy, a vivid and
heartfelt story of growing upright across the street from
Tiger Stadium and eventuallyworking inside its walls.
In our conversation in thisepisode, Dennis brings the old
ballpark to life with incredibledetail, describing everything
from creaky trapdoors to themagic of Gate 16, the heavy barn
(00:24):
door that opened a hidden worldbelow field level, and the old
slick hardwood floors of theclubhouses, worn smooth and
marked with metal spikeimpressions left by generations
of legends.
His journey, which began in theunlikely setting of Malta,
takes him to Detroit, where hechases a dream that leads to
(00:45):
jobs as a junior usher, aclubhouse attendant, visiting
team's bat boy, and ultimatelybatboy for the Detroit Tigers.
Along the way, he rubsshoulders with the likes of
Brooks Robinson, Reggie Jackson,Nolan Ryan, and of course, Al
Kaline.
If you've ever dreamed of beinga big league bat boy at one of
baseball's most storied oldballparks, this episode is for
(01:08):
you.
Dennis, how are you?
Dennis Clothworthy (01:57):
I'm good, thank you.
How about yourself?
Mike Koser (01:59):
I'm doing good.
I'm doing good.
Listen, uh, looking forward totalking with you today.
I really enjoyed the book andI'm ready to jump in.
So thank you for doing this.
Dennis Clothworthy (02:08):
You're welcome.
Mike Koser (02:09):
You and your family arrived in Detroit from the
island of Malta in March of1963.
You were five or six?
Dennis Clothworthy (02:16):
Not quite six.
Three months from six yearsold.
Mike Koser (02:19):
Okay, so uh I know those early years in America
were not easy for your family.
Your dad was doing whatever ittook to support you all, even
working as a dishwasher at ahotel in downtown Detroit.
You guys moved around quite abit, but uh by 1970, uh you had
landed on Church Street inDetroit in this old Victorian
house from the 1890s that yourparents were renting for just 60
(02:42):
bucks a month.
And for people who don't knowDetroit, who don't know the
layout of Detroit, 1632 ChurchStreet was just a block south of
Michigan Avenue, basicallyright across the street from
Tiger Stadium.
Uh Dennis, do you remember theday that you moved in and
realized just how close you wereto the ballpark?
Dennis Clothworthy (03:00):
Yes, I do.
And it's funny because when youmentioned moving previously, I
was never more than six blocksaway from Tiger Stadium.
We lived in...
when we got here, we uh uhfirst house we rented was in the
Corktown area, which again, Iwas never more than six blocks
away.
So when we moved to ChurchStreet, I couldn't get much
(03:21):
closer than that.
Mike Koser (03:22):
And your bedroom was upstairs on the back of the
house facing Tiger Stadium.
Could you hear the roar of thecrowd from your room?
Dennis Clothworthy (03:31):
Absolutely.
I mean, it was uh that was justthe norm, you know.
Whenever there was a home game,uh that was just a constant ebb
and flow of whenever the Tigersscored runs or got a great hit.
Ernie Harwell (03:42):
Swing a line cut, made it to the field.
Pass the ball up in theletters, and Mankowski just did
a little tap and hit it over theinfield for a single.
Dennis Clothworthy (03:51):
And you know, the neighborhood,
everybody sat on their porch,everybody had their transistor
radios.
Ernie Harwell (03:57):
Ready to go, and here for the play by play.
Ernie Harwell.
Thank you Paul.
Dennis Clothworthy (04:05):
It's just part of watching the people park
in the parking lots around theneighborhood.
And even on the, they would getthere early.
Some of the ushers or the uhvendors would get there early to
get whatever few parking spotson the street so they didn't
have to pay in the parking lots.
It was quite an event.
Everybody just partook inlistening to the Tigers.
Mike Koser (04:23):
Dennis, I love this image.
You and your buddies hangingout along Michigan Avenue, just
outside of Tiger Stadium, 1968,69.
Like you said, transistorradios in hand, listening to the
great, beloved Ernie Harwell,longtime voice of the Tigers,
uh, call the game.
Ernie Harwell (04:39):
Man on first, nobody out, Tigers at bat first
inning, the game scored.
Tiger Stadium in Detroit.
Mike Koser (04:45):
You guys even had this whole system, right?
I want you to talk about thiswhere you would position
yourselves on the street andspecifically which street based
on whether the batter was arighty or a lefty.
Dennis Clothworthy (04:56):
Correct, yes.
So uh home plate was located onthe corner of Michigan Avenue
and Cochrane.
So if we sat on MichiganAvenue, we'd sit on a curb and
we would listen to Ernie Harwelltalk about, you know, and
here's a fly ball over the roofover the first base side onto
Michigan Avenue.
We'd all jump up, we'd look forthe ball coming over the roof,
(05:17):
and we'd run chasing like crazyafter it.
However, that was only if itwas a right-handed batter,
because typically if he hit afoul ball and a right-handed
batter would hit it over thefirst base side of the roof.
If it was a left-handed batter,
Ernie Harwell (05:31):
left-hand batter takes a high one, two and oh,
the count...
Dennis Clothworthy (05:35):
We'd run over to Cochrane and we'd we'd
wait there in case the samething happened.
Mike Koser (05:43):
So great, and I gotta say, you and your buddies
were pretty resourceful as 11,12-year-olds.
You didn't have money to buytickets to Tigers games, so you
had to get creative.
Tell me about gate 16.
Dennis Clothworthy (05:55):
Yeah, when uh gate 16 was located where the
visitor's clubhouse was, youknow, you got familiar.
We were stadium rats.
That won't that's whateverybody called us because we
just hung around a stadium bothinside and out.
And we found out one time whenwe were inside a stadium that
occasionally the usher orsecurity guard would not latch
(06:16):
the lock on the inside of thisgate that uh normally would be
lifted open for fans to exit thestadium.
And if he didn't latch thelock, we learned that we could
put our fingers underneath thegate.
You know, there's only anopening of maybe a couple
inches, and four or five of uswould lift the gate up, roll it
up, and scatter all in differentdirections so we couldn't be
(06:39):
caught.
And if so, not all of us weregonna be caught.
Right.
And so, you know, some onewould go down the right field
line, one would go behind onplate, the other would go down
left field.
Yeah, and it happened.
We we were successful, I'd sayuh 75% of the time.
Mike Koser (06:54):
We should take a second, by the way, and give a
shout-out to your buddy Henry.
He lived just a few doors downfrom you.
And in the ultimate clutchfriendship move, he helped land
you a job as a junior usher atTiger Stadium back in uh the
spring of 71.
And then just a few monthslater, in July of 71, the
All-Star game returned to TigerStadium.
Curt Gowdy (07:15):
Hi, everybody.
I'm Curt Gowdy of NBC Sports,to call to play-by-play.
And here in the home ballparkof the American League Tiger
Stadium, it is hot and it isvery windy.
The wind is going to be a bigfactor in tonight's game.
It's blowing from home plate toright field at 30 miles an
hour.
Mike Koser (07:34):
So here you are, a junior usher in section 14 on
the third base side, watchingone of the most memorable
All-Star games in baseballhistory, and it's the bottom of
the third inning.
Curt Gowdy (07:46):
Remember, a 30 mile an hour wind blowing from home
plate toward first base.
Anything hit in the air towardright field will be given a
tremendous boost.
Mike Koser (07:55):
Reggie Jackson comes to the plate.
Curt Gowdy (07:57):
17 homers.
He's bounced back this year.
41 runs batted in.
A fine all-around player.
Mike Koser (08:03):
And you had the perfect view for what happened
next.
Dennis Clothworthy (08:06):
You give me goosebumps, and I mean that.
Um, there were no seatsavailable, obviously.
And senior ushers, if you will,they pretty much took care of
the box seats first 18 rows.
And then the rows after thatwere alphabetized.
So row A would be the first rowof the reserve seats.
So with no seats beingavailable, we'd sit on the
(08:28):
stairs.
And I was sitting on thestairs, which I was low enough
so that when Reggie hit thatfamous home run off the right
center field tower, I was notunderneath the overhang, so I
could see it clearly.
Curt Gowdy (08:41):
There's a long drive...
That one is going way up, it isoff the roof.
That hit the Transformer upthere.
Dennis Clothworthy (08:51):
And like everyone in the whole park,
everybody's just looking at eachother going nuts because it was
an unbelievable shot.
And I swear to this day, thatball was still going up when it
hit the light tower.
And it was not on its descent.
Curt Gowdy (09:04):
A tremendous smash.
Only eight players have hit theball over the roof here in
Detroit.
And Jackson nearly hit it thenout of the ballpark.
Mike Koser (09:13):
By 1972, you made your way to the visiting team
clubhouse at Tiger Stadiumworking as a clubby.
Tell me about a typical day.
What did that look like for youback then?
What kind of stuff were youdoing behind the scenes as a
clubby in the uh in the visitingteam clubhouse at Tiger
Stadium?
Dennis Clothworthy (09:28):
So while we were in school, until you know
school got out for the summer,we would hurry up and get home.
I used to have to take a citybus to school, and we'd get
there somewhere between two andthree o'clock, depending on the
day.
It was a full day because theplayers would be coming in
within the next two hours.
So there was always somethingto do, ranging from sweeping the
(09:50):
floor, mopping the floor,putting the laundry back into
the lockers for each player, andall the laundry being underwear
and the uh undergarments underthe jerseys, you know, all
marked with the black uh markingpen so that you can identify
who's who, filling the towelrack, filling the pop machine,
and a cigarette uh cabinetfilled with cigarettes and ice
(10:13):
cream and sunflower seeds, uhscrubbing the toilets, washing
down the showers.
It was a busy day.
Mike Koser (10:21):
Yeah, and how much did you make per day back then?
Dennis Clothworthy (10:23):
A whopping $12.
Now that was on when we were inschool.
When we were out of school,we'd have to do pretty much the
same uh things, but we'd getthere by 11 to noon.
And you know, the games,depending on what time the games
ended, could we never got homebefore midnight, and typically
it was around one o'clock.
So that's about a buck an hour,right?
(10:44):
Yeah, that's about it.
Mike Koser (10:46):
Okay, so tell me about the visiting teams
clubhouse back then, what itlooked like, what it felt like.
I mean, this is the sameclubhouse where uh Babe Ruth
was, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams,uh Brooks Robinson, Mickey
Mantle, uh some of the all-timegreats.
Dennis Clothworthy (11:02):
You know, back then I I don't remember
barn doors being popular likethey are today.
You know, a lot of people havethem in their houses and
basements and stuff.
Well, there's this heavy barndoor type thing where it slid
from left to right, and therewas always a security guard in
there.
And when you walked in, therewas another wall, so you
couldn't see straight into thelocker room.
(11:22):
You kind of had to turn leftand then scoot around the uh
tiled wall.
And immediately, as soon as yougot around that tiled wall, the
first locker was there on theleft.
It was a rectangular-shapedclubhouse, and therefore a set
of lockers.
I'm gonna guess probably around15 to 18 lockers on one side,
(11:45):
another maybe 12 to 15 on theother side.
And the first set of lockers,when you walk in, uh, those are
primarily for non-pitchers, andthe other side of the locker
room, they put all the pitcherson that side of the locker room,
and then in the back corner,the manager and some and the
coaches.
The floor, I mean, think aboutit.
(12:05):
You know, I don't know whenthat floor went in, but it was
ancient.
It was extremely hard wood.
And you had to be careful withthose metal spikes because you
could slip on that floor realeasy.
There was no running out ofthere in full speed because you
could fall in, God knows whathappened.
Mike Koser (12:20):
Yeah.
Dennis Clothworthy (12:20):
Um, the showers were at the far end, the
restrooms at the far end, andabout halfway through the
clubhouse on the right side uhwas the uh trainers' trainer's
room, and that was probably thesize of maybe a 10 by 12
bedroom.
And there was a training tableand all his supplies that went
along with uh the needs of theday.
(12:41):
It was nothing special.
The the lockers were maybe 30to 36 inches wide and pretty
much like uh a little heaviermaterial than chicken wire, but
nonetheless, it had the tiledwalls in the back, and nothing
fancy by any stretch of theimagination.
Mike Koser (12:59):
Yeah.
So the Tigers wrapped up the1972 season with 86 wins uh and
faced the A's in the ALCS.
Game five was at Tiger Stadium.
Ernie Harwell (13:09):
Cloudy skies, the lights are on, it's cool, and
windy at Tiger Stadium.
Mike Koser (13:13):
And in the second inning, Reggie Jackson slid hard
into home, and it was clearright away that something was
wrong.
Ernie Harwell (13:19):
Jackson is now lying on his back in the
right-hand batters boxs.
Mike Koser (13:24):
He was hurt, couldn't get off the field on
his own, and I know that you,Dennis, remember what happened
next.
Dennis Clothworthy (13:30):
Yes, um, the trainer and manager Dick
Williams ran out to see himbecause he was having trouble
getting up.
And after, you know, a fewminutes here and there, they
they picked him up.
Reggie had put his arms on theshoulders of Williams and the
trainer and walked him over tothe visitor's dugout.
Ernie Harwell (13:46):
Gingerly, uh, Jackson is walking off the
field.
And unless he shows a good dealof improvement, I don't think
he'll be back in the lineup.
Dennis Clothworthy (13:55):
Now I was in the tunnel that uh right at the
end of the dugout beforeheading up into the clubhouse,
and I was in my street clothes,and I couldn't go into dugout,
you're not allowed in a dugoutwithout a uniform.
And they brought him to theedge of the dugout, and there
were three steep stairs to comedown, and a trainer saw me there
and he called out to me andsaid, Hey Dennis, come and give
me a hand.
(14:15):
And I did, and Dick Williamswent back to managing the game.
Here I am, I'm 15 years old.
I've got Reggie Jackson's armover my shoulder, and the
trainer on the other side ofhim, and we're slowly walking
him about, oh, I'm guessing 40feet or so to the stairs that
lead up to the clubhouse.
It ended up he had a pulledhamstring, and we took him into
(14:37):
the trainer's room.
For whatever reason, thetrainer asked me, he says, Um,
hey Dennis, stick around.
He says, I might need you tograb me something.
So we kind of helped Reggie geton it, lay back on his back on
the training table.
And the trainer says to Reggie,he says, Reggie, I'm gonna have
to diagnose, you know, how badyour injury is, so I'm gonna be
poking around in the back ofyour leg.
And he says, Dennis, giveReggie a towel.
(15:00):
So I grab a towel from thetowel rack right there, and uh,
Reggie puts it in his mouth, andthe trainer starts working on
his leg, and obviously it wasn'tjust a pulled muscle, it was a
torn hamstring.
Mike Koser (15:12):
He was in bad shape, yeah.
Dennis Clothworthy (15:13):
He was in bad shape, didn't play in the
World Series because of that.
And uh, as the trainer touchedthe sore spot, Jackson bites
down on the towel, and hehappened to be holding my left
hand because I was on by hisside, so I don't know if he
needed something else to grabonto besides the towel.
He squeezed my hand, and Iswear I thought he was gonna
pull my arm off.
(15:34):
So uh he was a strong guy andone of the few guys that I would
consider really built andmuscular for the day.
Mike Koser (15:41):
Yeah.
Now, uh, Dennis, here's thetough part about being a
visiting teams clubby.
After the A's won that series,Oakland is the American League
Championship team.
It was your job to hand out thechampagne as the players came
up the tunnel steps from thedugout.
Announcer (15:57):
are they thrilled as they go to the dressing room.
Mike Koser (15:59):
And as a hometown kid who loves his tigers, it was
a double-edged sword.
Dennis Clothworthy (16:04):
You know, Tigers were my team and
certainly wanted them to win,but you've kind of take got to
take that neutral attitude whenyou work in the visitors'
clubhouse.
Yeah.
And myself and the other twoclubbies were standing as they
come up the stairs, and therewere two or three, I can't
remember, two or three um55-gallon drums filled with ice
and champagne.
And here we are passing themout, and the celebration begins,
(16:26):
and they're just going nuts astypical locker rooms are when
they win, you know, somethinglike going to the World Series.
Mike Koser (16:33):
Yeah, and adding insult to injury though, after
the A's left that night, youguys were stuck cleaning
everything up without, by theway, without the benefit of
plastic sheeting back then,right?
Dennis Clothworthy (16:43):
That's correct.
Back then, the players didn'twear goggles to protect them
from the champagne.
Um, there was no sheeting onthe lockers.
Fortunately, the back of thelockers, as I mentioned earlier,
were made of little four byfour tiles.
And Jack Hand, the clubhousemanager, my boss, said, We're
not cleaning this place uptoday.
He said, We'll just come backtomorrow.
(17:03):
You know, season's over at thatpoint with nobody coming in.
And that's what we did.
The next day we came in andcleaned it all up.
But I might add, uh Angel Mangual, the backup second baseman,
saw myself and the two otherkids, clubbies, standing there,
and he comes over and he handsit, he says, Come on and
celebrate with us.
So he gives us each a bottle ofchampagne.
I'm 15 years old.
(17:23):
I never opened up a bottle ofchampagne in my life.
And uh I open it up, it pops, Itake a little swig, and here I
am.
I'm squirting Sal Bando, JoeRudi, Reggie Jackson, and he's
standing there in a towelwrapped around his waist and
nothing else, and on crutches,Vida Blue, and I mean, it's just
(17:44):
Burt Campaneris and Jim CatfishHunter, and I'm hosing him down
with as much as I could with abottle of champagne.
Mike Koser (17:51):
It's so great.
By 1973, you were chosen as thevisiting team bad boy at Tiger
Stadium.
Now, think about the players inthat era that you were in
contact with regularly (17:59):
Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer, Fisk, Yaz,
Dick Allen, Rod Carew, HarmonKillebrew, and Nolan Ryan.
Ernie Harwell (18:08):
One of the great games Nolan Ryan pitched was
right here.
You remember when uh he waspitching his second no-hitter of
the season and struck out atotal of 17 Tigers.
That was in 73.
Mike Koser (18:20):
So in 1973, Nolan Ryan threw the second no-hitter
of his career, this one at TigerStadium, pitching for the
California Angels.
Couple of details here areimportant.
The visiting dugout at TigerStadium was on the first base
side.
Behind home plate sat the ballman, and those pieces came
together just right that night,July 15th, 1973, and set you up
(18:42):
to walk away with an incrediblepiece of memorabilia.
Tell me what happened thatnight.
Dennis Clothworthy (18:48):
I knew it around the fifth inning.
Everybody knew there was achance that Ryan could pitch an
O here.
He was just the Tigers weremissing the ball by six inches
to a foot.
Ernie Harwell (18:58):
Ryan sets and delivers.
he swings and misses.
Dennis Clothworthy (19:02):
It was crazy.
He was just mowing them down.
So I said, you know, this isamazing.
I could be part of history.
I came up with the idea that ifthe Tigers were up and Ryan was
pitching and the ball, therewas a foul ball hit down the
right field line, there was anusher there sitting on a stool.
I said, if the ball didn't gointo the stands, he typically
would pick it up and throw itback to me.
(19:24):
I would jump out of the dugoutin front of the dugout, he'd
throw it to me on a roll, and Iwould turn around and toss it
back to uh the ballman behindhome plate, Bill Fendero.
And uh so on this occasion,about the seventh inning, sure
enough, foul ball down the rightfield line.
Uh Usher tosses it to me.
But rather than just turningaround and throwing it to Bill,
(19:45):
the ballman, I looked at theball and looked at Bill and I
shook my head left and right ina no fashion.
Mike Koser (19:53):
Like you're telling him the ball's no good, and
you're taking it out of play.
Dennis Clothworthy (19:56):
That's correct.
I took the ball and put it inmy first baseman in the dugout,
and that happened again thefollowing inning.
So now I've got two baseballsthat were pitched by Nolan Ryan
during his second careerno-hitter.
And after the game, I took himinto the clubhouse and I had him
completely signed by the uhAngels team, and uh including
(20:20):
Nolan Ryan, of course.
Mike Koser (20:22):
Wasn't that game where the one where Norm Cash
walked up to the plate to faceNolan Ryan with a table leg
instead of a bat?
Was that the one?
Dennis Clothworthy (20:30):
Yes, it is, exactly right.
Announcer (20:32):
Now Ryan is one out away from the no-hitter, but
both Stanley and Brown hit theball hard here in the ninth, and
now it's Norman Cash.
Dennis Clothworthy (20:39):
Norm Cash walks up to the plate, and Ron
Luciano is the home plateumpire, and he was quite a
character back in the day.
And Cash just walks upcasually, you know, swinging the
bat by his side.
Announcer (20:50):
Ryan waits for Cash.
Cash wants perhaps a lighterbat.
Dennis Clothworthy (20:54):
And Luciano bends over and he looks at Cash
and goes, Norman, I can't letyou bet with that thing.
He says, Why not?
I'm not gonna hit the guyanyway.
Okay, Cash walked up there withan old board bat.
Announcer (21:08):
That wasn't a bat at all.
It looked like an old fungo.
Well, leave it to Norman for alittle levity, and Ron Luciana
is breaking up behind the plate.
Dennis Clothworthy (21:17):
So he tosses uh table leg, whatever it was,
back to the dugout.
The other bat boy gets him theum his bat, and sure enough, he
pops up, which is better thanwhat he did in his first three
times at bat, because he struckout all three times, uh and then
he popped up to end the game.
Mike Koser (21:33):
Dennis, when the 73 season wrapped up, you got moved
over to the Tigers Clubhouse.
And I mean, sure, that job wasgreat, but for a Detroit kid,
the real dream I think was beingthe team's bat boy.
And just like the title of yourbook says, when the 74 season
kicked off, you became Al Kaline's last bat boy.
Tell me about the moment thatyou put on the Tigers uniform
(21:56):
for the first time.
Dennis Clothworthy (21:57):
I'm waiting anxiously in the in the
clubhouse as the players arecoming in.
I'm just in heaven, right?
I mean, imagine being 16 yearsold and here's your team.
And uh I'm sitting at my lockerand I'm just looking at my
uniform and I'll tell you howfortunate I was.
On one side of me was MickeyLolich.
(22:17):
And John Hiller was in thelocker on the other side of me.
But it was amazing putting onthe white home uniform of the
English D.
And I was in awe, simply put, Iwas in awe, and I still am to
this day.
Mike Koser (22:32):
Let's talk about the the Tigers Clubhouse for a
minute.
You mentioned where your lockerwas.
Can you just take us insidethere for a second and and uh
give us the scene, the the heavyclubhouse door?
I mean, Jack Hand's storageroom with the wire cage door,
the layout, yeah, that kind ofthing.
Dennis Clothworthy (22:48):
Sure.
Like the visitors' clubhouse,it had a uh heavy barn door that
slid off to the side, and thenyou had a little bit of a
hallway here, uh, and you couldlook straight into the
clubhouse, unlike the visitors,and the Tigers Clubhouse was
more square than rectangle.
And as you walked in, um, onthe left, there was a wall, and
behind that wall was themanager's office, and that year
that happened to be Ralph House.
(23:09):
Now, when I say manager'soffice, this thing might have
been 10 by 10.
And after games, you'd have 12,15 uh reporters in there and
they're crammed in elbow toelbow.
It was hilarious.
But once you got past thatlittle hallway, there was a
short row of lockers to theright, and behind my lockers,
there was the room that youspoke of where Jack Hand, the
(23:31):
manager, kept all hisincidentals.
He kept everything in theresunflower seeds, cigarettes,
everything you could think of.
And then as you walk in thelocker room to the left, next to
the uh Ralph Hawk's office, thecoaches had their lockers
there, and then the rest of theinfielders, outfielders were
mixed in.
And if you walk straight intothe tire clubhouse, the far left
(23:54):
corner where the back wallmeets the left wall was a double
locker.
And this locker was typicallyreserved for the uh well, well,
in this case, it happened to beAl K alne, the prominent player
on the team, or maybe moreseniority.
That was his locker.
Mike Koser (24:09):
So that first night, you head down those 12 steps or
so from the clubhouse into thetunnel and out through the
dugout.
And you mentioned in your bookthat one of the absolute best
parts of being the Tigers batboy was shagging fly balls
during batting practice at TigerStadium.
I mean, I can't even imaginewhat that was like.
Dennis Clothworthy (24:26):
That was just awesome.
I used to take infield practiceonce in a while.
Also, Norm Cash.
There were days he didn't,let's say he didn't feel like
practicing, and so he'd ask meto go sub during infield
practice.
So here I am, and I was apretty good ball player, and I'd
do infield practice with theplayers just before the game.
But in the outfield, I'd go incenter field most of the time,
(24:49):
and Mickey Stanley was alwaysout there, and you know, three
or four other players, a coupleof pitchers out there, and we
used to take turns, and Mickeywould tell me once in a while,
okay, you got the next one thatcomes out to center field.
So on this one occasion, I'msure most people remember uh
Mickey Stanley.
He had a knack of turning theopposite direction when the ball
was coming at him and justchase it down.
(25:10):
Well, you know, I'm I'mpretending I'm Mickey Stanley on
this occasion and the ball'sover my head.
I reach up with my left hand,my glove hand.
Well, I didn't realize theflagpole was about five feet
away from me.
Mike Koser (25:23):
And for those who don't remember, the flagpole was
in play at Tiger Stadium.
It's on the field.
Dennis Clothworthy (25:29):
Exactly.
And I run right into it nosefirst.
I hung on to the ball, I fallto the ground.
The players, you know, youthink to come to see if I'm
okay.
Oh no, they're laughing at melike crazy.
The ushers in the stands andleft field are clapping for me
because I hung up and onto theball, and the players are just
(25:50):
laughing.
They're just giving me a hardtime.
Mike Koser (25:52):
That flagpole still standing today.
The Detroit Police AthleticLeague built a field right there
on the corner.
Yeah, that's the one piece ofTiger Stadium that's still left.
Dennis Clothworthy (26:01):
And my nose imprint is still there also.
Mike Koser (26:03):
Dennis, you had an on-deck circle routine.
Can you walk me through that?
Dennis Clothworthy (26:07):
Yeah, there was always a kneeling pad back
then, uh about a one-inch bymaybe 15-inch square kneeling
pad.
The players wanted to kneeldown.
There was also a donut,obviously, that you slip over
the bat to add weight to thebat.
And there was also a uh aweighted bat, which was just so
you didn't have to use thedonut, it was just a heavy bat.
(26:28):
Uh, a towel, a pine tar rag,and a rosin bag.
And this was something that Iput out at the beginning of
every inning, and I would uhremove it, obviously, when the
uh visiting team came up.
Mike Koser (26:42):
For those who spent a lot of time at Tiger Stadium,
you knew that the ball club, itsplayers, and its staff members
were not the only residents.
There were plenty of rats, andthat largely had to do with the
trapdoor and gate 14.
Dennis Clothworthy (26:55):
That's exactly right.
Um the trapdoor, there was ahuge room, and the trapdoor you
referred to was at the top ofthis room, which was basically
the upper deck.
So whenever the ground crew orthe stadium workers swept the
aisles with, you know, all thepopcorn and hot dog remains and
cups and everything else,everything was taken to this one
(27:16):
area near gate 14.
They'd opened a trapdoor andall this garbage was falling to
this room.
I'm gonna say maybe it was abig room, maybe like 30 by 30
square.
And then, you know, the garbagetrucks would come in with a
front loader and shovel up uhall the garbage and put it in
the trucks and take it away.
Well, I was taking the garbagefrom the clubhouse one time to
(27:39):
this area I'm speaking of, andit's about halfway full with
garbage.
And as I do, I turn a garbagecan over and out comes a rat
running from underneath a bigpile of garbage right between my
legs.
And those rats also used tocongregate on the field on the
tarp.
For whatever reason, if therewas going to be a you know a
chance of rain, the ground crewwould cover the infield and the
(28:02):
rats would go out there andthey'd just be 100, 150 of them
running around.
And we just ride out there in agolf cart.
One of us would have a broom,one of us would have a BB gun,
and we we'd go running drivearound the infield.
Mike Koser (28:16):
It's crazy too.
You know, the reason why I waslike that, part of the reason
was that uh I think the trashguy only came like once a week,
right?
So this stuff would just sitthere.
Dennis Clothworthy (28:24):
That's exactly right, and would sit
there.
And can you imagine the feelthat you know, pieces of hot
dogs and buns and oh yeah, whoknows?
Mike Koser (28:32):
I'm sure it I'm sure it smelled terrible too.
Dennis Clothworthy (28:35):
It did, it absolutely did.
And the other thing, uh, weused to ride the golf cart.
There was a golf cart that oneof the ground crew guys, we'd
ask him to leave the key in it.
We'd go riding around in themiddle of the night while we're
waiting for the when I was inthe visitors' locker room, we're
waiting for the team trucks tocome in from the airport, and
we'd take the golf cart and wego up and down those ramps.
How we didn't run into a pole,I have no idea.
(28:58):
But you know, at 15, 16, youdon't think of those things.
Mike Koser (29:01):
No, you think you think you're invincible, yeah.
Dennis Clothworthy (29:03):
Absolutely.
Mike Koser (29:05):
Today, every time a ball hits the ground, it's taken
out of a game and and manytimes given to a fan.
That seems almost inconceivablebased on what you experienced
as a bat boy in 1974, right?
Dennis Clothworthy (29:17):
Yes, yes.
You know, there was a bag thatwas for the game used balls that
the umpires and the ballmen uhhandled, and then there was a
similar bag in our in the TigersClubhouse uh that would they
use for batting practice.
And there was a stadiummanager, his name was Ralph
Snyder, and he sat about sevenrows up from the field just to
the left of home plate, thirdbase side.
(29:39):
And one of my one of my jobdescriptions was to make sure if
a foul ball went along thewall, I did everything possible
not to let the fans bend overthe wall and pick up the ball
and take it home with them.
So, on occasion where a fanwould get to it before me, you
know, I'd get booed by the fansif I picked it up before the
(29:59):
fans.
But I would get complimented byRalph Snyder for not letting
the ball get into the stands andthe fan take it home with him.
And when I see it today, I meanit's just unbelievable.
They weren't, they would hide.
The players would hide if theywere trying to give a ball to a
fan out in the during battingpractice or something like that.
And today they're just throwingthem in left and right.
(30:19):
You can't even let it hit theground at all and they toss it
out of the game.
Mike Koser (30:23):
September 24th, 1974, the Tigers were on the
road in Baltimore.
Ernie Harwell (30:28):
The Tigers and the Birds here in Baltimore
tonight on a cool, clearevening.
That's it for now Ernie Harwellsaying.
See you at game time.
Mike Koser (30:36):
Al K alne in his final year was going for hit
number 3,000.
And in the fourth inning, hegot it.
Dennis Clothworthy (31:27):
The ground crew put together this
wheelbarrow.
They took a plank of wood oneach side, fastened it to each
side of the wheelbarrow, screwedit in, nuts and bolted it in,
whatever.
It was painted in blue, darkblue, with the numbers 3,000 in
white on each side.
My job was to take thewheelbarrow from the entrance
where the ground crew enteredthe field, walk in front of the
(31:50):
tiger dugout around to the homeplate area, and position the
wheelbarrow between home plateand the pitcher's mount.
In that wheelbarrow were threecanvas bags, typical bags that
they used to use at banks forcoins and things like that.
And my job was to, once I gotup there, while the announcer
was announcing what was takingplace, the announcer announced
(32:13):
that each bag contained $1,000silver dollars commemorating the
3,000 hits that Kaline had justachieved.
I was to pour the uh bags open,open up all three bags, and
pour them into the wheelbarrowwhile everybody, of course, was
cheering for Al Kaline.
Mike Koser (32:28):
What a what a great moment.
Kaline's 3,000th hit came in ingame 154 that year.
A few days later, he would playthe final game of his career.
That day provided so manymoments that Dennis, I know you
will never forget.
Can you talk to me about thatthat special day?
Dennis Clothworthy (32:45):
Certainly.
So it was the final homestand.
It was October 2nd, 1974, andeverybody knew that this was
gonna be it.
Um, Kaline was never gonna puton that home uniform again, and
illustrious career was gonna beover.
Only, if I remember correctly,4,061 people showed up that day.
(33:07):
It was misty, a slight drizzle,I get it, a little chilly.
But how could that possiblyhappen?
Yeah.
I mean, I know the team wasbad, but that's all that were
there.
The game ends unceremoniously,and myself and Bill Fondero,
who's in the in the dugout withme, bringing the ball bag over,
and we're very respectfullyquiet, and Kaline's the only
(33:29):
other person in the dugout.
And he's sitting there, he'sgot his tiger jacket on, and
he's taking it all in.
He's looking out into thestand, and we just kept it at a
bare minimum conversation.
We just wanted him to have histime.
And after a few minutes, he gotup, he stood on the first or
second step of the dugout, andhe kind of did a 360, and he
(33:51):
just took a look around theentire stadium, and that was it.
I don't know where I got thecourage to say this, but I
called over to him, I said, Mr.
Kaline, he turns around, turnshis head, looking at yeah.
I says, May I have one of yourbats as a keepsake?
He smiled at me and he says,Sure.
And that's all he said.
(34:12):
And he walked up into thetunnel and I proceeded to the
bat rack and he had two bats inthe rack that day.
Some players have three bats,four bats.
They just, you know, never knowwhich one they're gonna use.
He only had two in the bat rackthat day.
And of course, being the batboy, I knew exactly which bat he
had used when he flew out theleft field, and therefore, I was
(34:35):
the owner of uh Al Ka line'slast official bat he used uh in
his career.
Mike Koser (34:40):
That's incredible, and what a what a great piece of
uh of memorabilia.
So, Dennis, in 1976, Bird Manieswept through the city of
Detroit.
And after a magical Mondaynight in June, it captured the
entire country when Mark theBird Fydrich pitched against the
Yankees on national televisionon ABC's Monday Night Baseball.
Announcer (35:04):
He's won seven in a row.
Bob Uecker (35:22):
You know, I've never I've never seen a ball game
like this, Mark.
I gotta ask you one thing.
Have you ever have you everheard a more emotional response
from a crowd than we had heretonight?
Mark Fydrich (35:31):
Well, I never played under this many people
before in my life.
Mike Koser (35:34):
What the country saw that night, we had never seen
before.
A pitcher talking to abaseball, having a full-on
conversation with the baseball,and then manicuring the dirt
like it was his own backyardgarden that he was desperately
trying to take care of.
Warner Wolf (35:51):
He is a character.
Some people refer to him as aneccentric.
He will pat the mound, he'lltalk to the ball, he'll
congratulate his players afteran excellent play.
Mike Koser (36:01):
And with within a year, Fydrich was as big as any
rock star uh on the cover ofRolling Stone, sold-out
stadiums.
I mean, on nights that hewasn't pitching at Tiger
Stadium, they'd sell 10,000tickets.
On nights that he did pitch,there'd be 50,000 people in the
stands.
He was a true phenomenon.
Dennis Clothworthy (36:23):
He was something else, and there's
never been anybody like him.
And you can ask anybody inbaseball, nobody approached the
game like he did.
But after all is said and done,that was him.
This was not an act.
It was the way he psychedhimself up every time he pitched
the game.
Mark Fydrich (36:41):
Well, when I passed him on, I'm just keeping
it so I don't, you know, gettingthat guy's run.
I want to dig my own hole andmy own landing point and all
that, because I have my ownthing.
And then I'm just gettingmyself psyched, telling it,
don't let up now.
Just go as hard as you can, ashard as you can.
And if they burn you, they burnyou.
That's you know, life.
Dennis Clothworthy (36:56):
He would literally, yeah, you've seen
videos of him.
If you haven't, YouTube MarkFydrich, it's hilarious.
He's talking to the ballbetween each pitch.
And then what he's saying tohimself is settle down, keep it
low, keep it inside, whatever hewas attempting to do with each
pitch.
Well, the rest is history.
He went on to have a uh rookieof the year, had a tremendous, I
(37:20):
forget how many uh completegames he had.
I think it was 24, if Iremember correctly, and which is
unheard of by teams nowadays,much less a uh single pitcher.
After the first few starts outin the bleachers, which were
tickets, you know, only sold onthe day of the game, there was
no advanced uh ticket sales forthe bleachers.
He got so bad that they'd haveto delay the game a little bit
(37:41):
because people were lined updown the street.
And so what they started doingwas selling tickets early that
morning because they didn't wantthe streets crowded and people
getting in late.
Nobody wanted to miss this guypitch.
Mike Koser (37:53):
Uh, before the world knew him as the bird, before
the bird was as big as hebecame, there was a night in May
of 1976 that you shared withhim.
You got a chance to hang outwith him.
Dennis Clothworthy (38:05):
Yes, I did.
Um, the week prior to May 8th,Tom Veryzer, a shortstop for the
Tigers, uh, knowing that Iworked in uh I had connections
in the ticket office, if youwill, asked me if I knew anybody
at the Olympia Stadium wherethe Red Wings played, uh, in the
ticket office that could gethim tickets for Paul McCartney
and Wings Over America tourconcert.
(38:27):
And I said, Tom, I said, I doknow people, I said, but that
thing sold out.
I said, but I can get us in, wejust won't have any seats.
Because, what do you mean?
I said, Well, by this time,over the years, myself and a
friend of uh mine, Victor, weactually found out that the
usher is at the door.
All you had to do was take up afake ticket from a previous
(38:49):
game that's typically torn inhalf, hand it to the usher.
The usher would pretend likehe's tearing it, give it back to
you, and you would walk intothe stadium.
And we'd go in and we'd watchthe Red Wing games back when
they were the dead wings andthey had four or five thousand
people in the stands and theywere terrible.
And we used the same method.
I I told Veriser, I can use thesame method to get us into the
(39:13):
concert.
He says, That's fine with me.
So Tom Veryzer and I, uh, afterSaturday afternoon game, the
concert was at night, he said,let's go to Lindell AC, a famous
watering hole where a lot ofthe visiting team players hung
out and sometimes the tigerplayers as well.
He said, Let's go grab a burgerand a beer.
So we did.
And about 20 minutes later,Mark Fydrich walks in the door
(39:38):
and he comes hobbling in and hecomes in over the table, hey,
hey, TV, and Tom Veryzer and heyDennis, he knew me because I
worked in the ticket office.
He's what are you guys doing?
And Veryzer was a verylaid-back guy, and he just
calmly told him what I justexplained.
And he says, Oh man, can youget me in?
Can you get me in too?
He's screaming all excited.
(39:58):
And Veryzer goes, I don't know.
Let me Dennis, can you get himin?
I said, Yeah, we should be ableto do that.
So we have our burger andbearers, we get in the car.
I'm driving.
I had my 76 Ford Elite, and TomVeryzer's in the front seat,
passenger side, two-door car,and Fydrich's just sitting right
behind him.
And Veryzer's got the windowall down.
(40:19):
And as we're approachingOlympia Stadium on Grand River,
Fydrich's just trying to stickhis neck out the window, hooting
and hollering at every girlthat walked by.
Hey, you want to go to aconcert with us?
And Veryzer's like, shut up, wecan't get everybody in.
The bird is just going nuts.
So we went to the show and umwe ended up sitting on the
(40:40):
stairs only because I mentionedto the usher there, because he
tried to kick us out.
And I said, Hey, these guysplay for the Tigers.
This is Tom Veyzer and MarkFydrich.
And nobody knew who Fydrich wasback then.
Prior to that date of the 8th,he had pitched one inning on
April 20th in relief.
If he would have been yellingand hooting and hollering after
(41:01):
his notoriary, I can't imaginethat the car might have been
flooded with girls just tryingto jump in.
Mike Koser (41:07):
Yeah.
What just an incredible storyand a night I'm sure you will
never ever forget.
Dennis Clothworthy (41:12):
Not at all.
Never.
Mike Koser (41:14):
Hey Dennis, the book is excellent, and uh I
encourage people to check itout.
Al Kaline's uh Last Bat Boy,one of my favorite reads from
this past year.
Love spending some time withyou today.
Dennis Clothworthy (41:25):
Well, thank you very much.
I enjoyed.
I love talking that era ofbaseball.
Thank you, Mike.
I appreciate your time.
Mike Koser (41:31):
Yeah, what a great storyteller.
And the book is is really oneof my favorites.
I loved it.
Dennis Clothworthy (41:35):
Thanks again.
Mike Koser (41:36):
All right, take care, man.
The book is called Al Kaline'sLast Bat Boy, and it's available
now on Amazon and definitelyworth checking out.
A couple of quick notes beforewe wrap up.
First, every kid who lovesbaseball dreams of one day being
on a Topps baseball card.
And that dream came true forDennis.
The 1975 Topps Tigers teamphoto card, technically of the
(41:58):
1974 team, features Dennis inthe second row from the bottom,
third from the right.
In the book, he writes thatbeing on this team card has to
be one of the best things tohappen to be in baseball.
And here's something else.
Over the years, Dennis becameclose friends with legendary
broadcaster Hall of Famer, thelate, beloved Ernie Harwell.
Every year, without fail, Erniesent Dennis a birthday card and
(42:22):
a Christmas card.
A small gesture that reallyspeaks volumes about both men.
This month on Lost Ballparks, our guest is Dennis
Clotworthy.
He's the author of Al Kaline'sLast Bat Boy, a vivid and
heartfelt story of growing upright across the street from
Tiger Stadium and eventuallyworking inside its walls.
In our conversation in thisepisode, Dennis brings the old
ballpark to life with incredibledetail, describing everything
from creaky trapdoors to themagic of Gate 16, the heavy barn
(00:24):
door that opened a hidden worldbelow field level, and the old
slick hardwood floors of theclubhouses, worn smooth and
marked with metal spikeimpressions left by generations
of legends.
His journey, which began in theunlikely setting of Malta,
takes him to Detroit, where hechases a dream that leads to
(00:45):
jobs as a junior usher, aclubhouse attendant, visiting
team's bat boy, and ultimatelybatboy for the Detroit Tigers.
Along the way, he rubsshoulders with the likes of
Brooks Robinson, Reggie Jackson,Nolan Ryan, and of course, Al
Kaline.
If you've ever dreamed of beinga big league bat boy at one of
baseball's most storied oldballparks, this episode is for
(01:08):
you.
Dennis, how are you?
Dennis Clothworthy (01:57):
I'm good, thank you.
How about yourself?
Mike Koser (01:59):
I'm doing good.
I'm doing good.
Listen, uh, looking forward totalking with you today.
I really enjoyed the book andI'm ready to jump in.
So thank you for doing this.
Dennis Clothworthy (02:08):
You're welcome.
Mike Koser (02:09):
You and your family arrived in Detroit from the
island of Malta in March of1963.
You were five or six?
Dennis Clothworthy (02:16):
Not quite six.
Three months from six yearsold.
Mike Koser (02:19):
Okay, so uh I know those early years in America
were not easy for your family.
Your dad was doing whatever ittook to support you all, even
working as a dishwasher at ahotel in downtown Detroit.
You guys moved around quite abit, but uh by 1970, uh you had
landed on Church Street inDetroit in this old Victorian
house from the 1890s that yourparents were renting for just 60
(02:42):
bucks a month.
And for people who don't knowDetroit, who don't know the
layout of Detroit, 1632 ChurchStreet was just a block south of
Michigan Avenue, basicallyright across the street from
Tiger Stadium.
Uh Dennis, do you remember theday that you moved in and
realized just how close you wereto the ballpark?
Dennis Clothworthy (03:00):
Yes, I do.
And it's funny because when youmentioned moving previously, I
was never more than six blocksaway from Tiger Stadium.
We lived in...
when we got here, we uh uhfirst house we rented was in the
Corktown area, which again, Iwas never more than six blocks
away.
So when we moved to ChurchStreet, I couldn't get much
(03:21):
closer than that.
Mike Koser (03:22):
And your bedroom was upstairs on the back of the
house facing Tiger Stadium.
Could you hear the roar of thecrowd from your room?
Dennis Clothworthy (03:31):
Absolutely.
I mean, it was uh that was justthe norm, you know.
Whenever there was a home game,uh that was just a constant ebb
and flow of whenever the Tigersscored runs or got a great hit.
Ernie Harwell (03:42):
Swing a line cut, made it to the field.
Pass the ball up in theletters, and Mankowski just did
a little tap and hit it over theinfield for a single.
Dennis Clothworthy (03:51):
And you know, the neighborhood,
everybody sat on their porch,everybody had their transistor
radios.
Ernie Harwell (03:57):
Ready to go, and here for the play by play.
Ernie Harwell.
Thank you Paul.
Dennis Clothworthy (04:05):
It's just part of watching the people park
in the parking lots around theneighborhood.
And even on the, they would getthere early.
Some of the ushers or the uhvendors would get there early to
get whatever few parking spotson the street so they didn't
have to pay in the parking lots.
It was quite an event.
Everybody just partook inlistening to the Tigers.
Mike Koser (04:23):
Dennis, I love this image.
You and your buddies hangingout along Michigan Avenue, just
outside of Tiger Stadium, 1968,69.
Like you said, transistorradios in hand, listening to the
great, beloved Ernie Harwell,longtime voice of the Tigers,
uh, call the game.
Ernie Harwell (04:39):
Man on first, nobody out, Tigers at bat first
inning, the game scored.
Tiger Stadium in Detroit.
Mike Koser (04:45):
You guys even had this whole system, right?
I want you to talk about thiswhere you would position
yourselves on the street andspecifically which street based
on whether the batter was arighty or a lefty.
Dennis Clothworthy (04:56):
Correct, yes.
So uh home plate was located onthe corner of Michigan Avenue
and Cochrane.
So if we sat on MichiganAvenue, we'd sit on a curb and
we would listen to Ernie Harwelltalk about, you know, and
here's a fly ball over the roofover the first base side onto
Michigan Avenue.
We'd all jump up, we'd look forthe ball coming over the roof,
(05:17):
and we'd run chasing like crazyafter it.
However, that was only if itwas a right-handed batter,
because typically if he hit afoul ball and a right-handed
batter would hit it over thefirst base side of the roof.
If it was a left-handed batter,
Ernie Harwell (05:31):
left-hand batter takes a high one, two and oh,
the count...
Dennis Clothworthy (05:35):
We'd run over to Cochrane and we'd we'd
wait there in case the samething happened.
Mike Koser (05:43):
So great, and I gotta say, you and your buddies
were pretty resourceful as 11,12-year-olds.
You didn't have money to buytickets to Tigers games, so you
had to get creative.
Tell me about gate 16.
Dennis Clothworthy (05:55):
Yeah, when uh gate 16 was located where the
visitor's clubhouse was, youknow, you got familiar.
We were stadium rats.
That won't that's whateverybody called us because we
just hung around a stadium bothinside and out.
And we found out one time whenwe were inside a stadium that
occasionally the usher orsecurity guard would not latch
(06:16):
the lock on the inside of thisgate that uh normally would be
lifted open for fans to exit thestadium.
And if he didn't latch thelock, we learned that we could
put our fingers underneath thegate.
You know, there's only anopening of maybe a couple
inches, and four or five of uswould lift the gate up, roll it
up, and scatter all in differentdirections so we couldn't be
(06:39):
caught.
And if so, not all of us weregonna be caught.
Right.
And so, you know, some onewould go down the right field
line, one would go behind onplate, the other would go down
left field.
Yeah, and it happened.
We we were successful, I'd sayuh 75% of the time.
Mike Koser (06:54):
We should take a second, by the way, and give a
shout-out to your buddy Henry.
He lived just a few doors downfrom you.
And in the ultimate clutchfriendship move, he helped land
you a job as a junior usher atTiger Stadium back in uh the
spring of 71.
And then just a few monthslater, in July of 71, the
All-Star game returned to TigerStadium.
Curt Gowdy (07:15):
Hi, everybody.
I'm Curt Gowdy of NBC Sports,to call to play-by-play.
And here in the home ballparkof the American League Tiger
Stadium, it is hot and it isvery windy.
The wind is going to be a bigfactor in tonight's game.
It's blowing from home plate toright field at 30 miles an
hour.
Mike Koser (07:34):
So here you are, a junior usher in section 14 on
the third base side, watchingone of the most memorable
All-Star games in baseballhistory, and it's the bottom of
the third inning.
Curt Gowdy (07:46):
Remember, a 30 mile an hour wind blowing from home
plate toward first base.
Anything hit in the air towardright field will be given a
tremendous boost.
Mike Koser (07:55):
Reggie Jackson comes to the plate.
Curt Gowdy (07:57):
17 homers.
He's bounced back this year.
41 runs batted in.
A fine all-around player.
Mike Koser (08:03):
And you had the perfect view for what happened
next.
Dennis Clothworthy (08:06):
You give me goosebumps, and I mean that.
Um, there were no seatsavailable, obviously.
And senior ushers, if you will,they pretty much took care of
the box seats first 18 rows.
And then the rows after thatwere alphabetized.
So row A would be the first rowof the reserve seats.
So with no seats beingavailable, we'd sit on the
(08:28):
stairs.
And I was sitting on thestairs, which I was low enough
so that when Reggie hit thatfamous home run off the right
center field tower, I was notunderneath the overhang, so I
could see it clearly.
Curt Gowdy (08:41):
There's a long drive...
That one is going way up, it isoff the roof.
That hit the Transformer upthere.
Dennis Clothworthy (08:51):
And like everyone in the whole park,
everybody's just looking at eachother going nuts because it was
an unbelievable shot.
And I swear to this day, thatball was still going up when it
hit the light tower.
And it was not on its descent.
Curt Gowdy (09:04):
A tremendous smash.
Only eight players have hit theball over the roof here in
Detroit.
And Jackson nearly hit it thenout of the ballpark.
Mike Koser (09:13):
By 1972, you made your way to the visiting team
clubhouse at Tiger Stadiumworking as a clubby.
Tell me about a typical day.
What did that look like for youback then?
What kind of stuff were youdoing behind the scenes as a
clubby in the uh in the visitingteam clubhouse at Tiger
Stadium?
Dennis Clothworthy (09:28):
So while we were in school, until you know
school got out for the summer,we would hurry up and get home.
I used to have to take a citybus to school, and we'd get
there somewhere between two andthree o'clock, depending on the
day.
It was a full day because theplayers would be coming in
within the next two hours.
So there was always somethingto do, ranging from sweeping the
(09:50):
floor, mopping the floor,putting the laundry back into
the lockers for each player, andall the laundry being underwear
and the uh undergarments underthe jerseys, you know, all
marked with the black uh markingpen so that you can identify
who's who, filling the towelrack, filling the pop machine,
and a cigarette uh cabinetfilled with cigarettes and ice
(10:13):
cream and sunflower seeds, uhscrubbing the toilets, washing
down the showers.
It was a busy day.
Mike Koser (10:21):
Yeah, and how much did you make per day back then?
Dennis Clothworthy (10:23):
A whopping $12.
Now that was on when we were inschool.
When we were out of school,we'd have to do pretty much the
same uh things, but we'd getthere by 11 to noon.
And you know, the games,depending on what time the games
ended, could we never got homebefore midnight, and typically
it was around one o'clock.
So that's about a buck an hour,right?
(10:44):
Yeah, that's about it.
Mike Koser (10:46):
Okay, so tell me about the visiting teams
clubhouse back then, what itlooked like, what it felt like.
I mean, this is the sameclubhouse where uh Babe Ruth
was, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams,uh Brooks Robinson, Mickey
Mantle, uh some of the all-timegreats.
Dennis Clothworthy (11:02):
You know, back then I I don't remember
barn doors being popular likethey are today.
You know, a lot of people havethem in their houses and
basements and stuff.
Well, there's this heavy barndoor type thing where it slid
from left to right, and therewas always a security guard in
there.
And when you walked in, therewas another wall, so you
couldn't see straight into thelocker room.
(11:22):
You kind of had to turn leftand then scoot around the uh
tiled wall.
And immediately, as soon as yougot around that tiled wall, the
first locker was there on theleft.
It was a rectangular-shapedclubhouse, and therefore a set
of lockers.
I'm gonna guess probably around15 to 18 lockers on one side,
(11:45):
another maybe 12 to 15 on theother side.
And the first set of lockers,when you walk in, uh, those are
primarily for non-pitchers, andthe other side of the locker
room, they put all the pitcherson that side of the locker room,
and then in the back corner,the manager and some and the
coaches.
The floor, I mean, think aboutit.
(12:05):
You know, I don't know whenthat floor went in, but it was
ancient.
It was extremely hard wood.
And you had to be careful withthose metal spikes because you
could slip on that floor realeasy.
There was no running out ofthere in full speed because you
could fall in, God knows whathappened.
Mike Koser (12:20):
Yeah.
Dennis Clothworthy (12:20):
Um, the showers were at the far end, the
restrooms at the far end, andabout halfway through the
clubhouse on the right side uhwas the uh trainers' trainer's
room, and that was probably thesize of maybe a 10 by 12
bedroom.
And there was a training tableand all his supplies that went
along with uh the needs of theday.
(12:41):
It was nothing special.
The the lockers were maybe 30to 36 inches wide and pretty
much like uh a little heaviermaterial than chicken wire, but
nonetheless, it had the tiledwalls in the back, and nothing
fancy by any stretch of theimagination.
Mike Koser (12:59):
Yeah.
So the Tigers wrapped up the1972 season with 86 wins uh and
faced the A's in the ALCS.
Game five was at Tiger Stadium.
Ernie Harwell (13:09):
Cloudy skies, the lights are on, it's cool, and
windy at Tiger Stadium.
Mike Koser (13:13):
And in the second inning, Reggie Jackson slid hard
into home, and it was clearright away that something was
wrong.
Ernie Harwell (13:19):
Jackson is now lying on his back in the
right-hand batters boxs.
Mike Koser (13:24):
He was hurt, couldn't get off the field on
his own, and I know that you,Dennis, remember what happened
next.
Dennis Clothworthy (13:30):
Yes, um, the trainer and manager Dick
Williams ran out to see himbecause he was having trouble
getting up.
And after, you know, a fewminutes here and there, they
they picked him up.
Reggie had put his arms on theshoulders of Williams and the
trainer and walked him over tothe visitor's dugout.
Ernie Harwell (13:46):
Gingerly, uh, Jackson is walking off the
field.
And unless he shows a good dealof improvement, I don't think
he'll be back in the lineup.
Dennis Clothworthy (13:55):
Now I was in the tunnel that uh right at the
end of the dugout beforeheading up into the clubhouse,
and I was in my street clothes,and I couldn't go into dugout,
you're not allowed in a dugoutwithout a uniform.
And they brought him to theedge of the dugout, and there
were three steep stairs to comedown, and a trainer saw me there
and he called out to me andsaid, Hey Dennis, come and give
me a hand.
(14:15):
And I did, and Dick Williamswent back to managing the game.
Here I am, I'm 15 years old.
I've got Reggie Jackson's armover my shoulder, and the
trainer on the other side ofhim, and we're slowly walking
him about, oh, I'm guessing 40feet or so to the stairs that
lead up to the clubhouse.
It ended up he had a pulledhamstring, and we took him into
(14:37):
the trainer's room.
For whatever reason, thetrainer asked me, he says, Um,
hey Dennis, stick around.
He says, I might need you tograb me something.
So we kind of helped Reggie geton it, lay back on his back on
the training table.
And the trainer says to Reggie,he says, Reggie, I'm gonna have
to diagnose, you know, how badyour injury is, so I'm gonna be
poking around in the back ofyour leg.
And he says, Dennis, giveReggie a towel.
(15:00):
So I grab a towel from thetowel rack right there, and uh,
Reggie puts it in his mouth, andthe trainer starts working on
his leg, and obviously it wasn'tjust a pulled muscle, it was a
torn hamstring.
Mike Koser (15:12):
He was in bad shape, yeah.
Dennis Clothworthy (15:13):
He was in bad shape, didn't play in the
World Series because of that.
And uh, as the trainer touchedthe sore spot, Jackson bites
down on the towel, and hehappened to be holding my left
hand because I was on by hisside, so I don't know if he
needed something else to grabonto besides the towel.
He squeezed my hand, and Iswear I thought he was gonna
pull my arm off.
(15:34):
So uh he was a strong guy andone of the few guys that I would
consider really built andmuscular for the day.
Mike Koser (15:41):
Yeah.
Now, uh, Dennis, here's thetough part about being a
visiting teams clubby.
After the A's won that series,Oakland is the American League
Championship team.
It was your job to hand out thechampagne as the players came
up the tunnel steps from thedugout.
Announcer (15:57):
are they thrilled as they go to the dressing room.
Mike Koser (15:59):
And as a hometown kid who loves his tigers, it was
a double-edged sword.
Dennis Clothworthy (16:04):
You know, Tigers were my team and
certainly wanted them to win,but you've kind of take got to
take that neutral attitude whenyou work in the visitors'
clubhouse.
Yeah.
And myself and the other twoclubbies were standing as they
come up the stairs, and therewere two or three, I can't
remember, two or three um55-gallon drums filled with ice
and champagne.
And here we are passing themout, and the celebration begins,
(16:26):
and they're just going nuts astypical locker rooms are when
they win, you know, somethinglike going to the World Series.
Mike Koser (16:33):
Yeah, and adding insult to injury though, after
the A's left that night, youguys were stuck cleaning
everything up without, by theway, without the benefit of
plastic sheeting back then,right?
Dennis Clothworthy (16:43):
That's correct.
Back then, the players didn'twear goggles to protect them
from the champagne.
Um, there was no sheeting onthe lockers.
Fortunately, the back of thelockers, as I mentioned earlier,
were made of little four byfour tiles.
And Jack Hand, the clubhousemanager, my boss, said, We're
not cleaning this place uptoday.
He said, We'll just come backtomorrow.
(17:03):
You know, season's over at thatpoint with nobody coming in.
And that's what we did.
The next day we came in andcleaned it all up.
But I might add, uh Angel Mangual, the backup second baseman,
saw myself and the two otherkids, clubbies, standing there,
and he comes over and he handsit, he says, Come on and
celebrate with us.
So he gives us each a bottle ofchampagne.
I'm 15 years old.
(17:23):
I never opened up a bottle ofchampagne in my life.
And uh I open it up, it pops, Itake a little swig, and here I
am.
I'm squirting Sal Bando, JoeRudi, Reggie Jackson, and he's
standing there in a towelwrapped around his waist and
nothing else, and on crutches,Vida Blue, and I mean, it's just
(17:44):
Burt Campaneris and Jim CatfishHunter, and I'm hosing him down
with as much as I could with abottle of champagne.
Mike Koser (17:51):
It's so great.
By 1973, you were chosen as thevisiting team bad boy at Tiger
Stadium.
Now, think about the players inthat era that you were in
contact with regularly (17:59):
Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer, Fisk, Yaz,
Dick Allen, Rod Carew, HarmonKillebrew, and Nolan Ryan.
Ernie Harwell (18:08):
One of the great games Nolan Ryan pitched was
right here.
You remember when uh he waspitching his second no-hitter of
the season and struck out atotal of 17 Tigers.
That was in 73.
Mike Koser (18:20):
So in 1973, Nolan Ryan threw the second no-hitter
of his career, this one at TigerStadium, pitching for the
California Angels.
Couple of details here areimportant.
The visiting dugout at TigerStadium was on the first base
side.
Behind home plate sat the ballman, and those pieces came
together just right that night,July 15th, 1973, and set you up
(18:42):
to walk away with an incrediblepiece of memorabilia.
Tell me what happened thatnight.
Dennis Clothworthy (18:48):
I knew it around the fifth inning.
Everybody knew there was achance that Ryan could pitch an
O here.
He was just the Tigers weremissing the ball by six inches
to a foot.
Ernie Harwell (18:58):
Ryan sets and delivers.
he swings and misses.
Dennis Clothworthy (19:02):
It was crazy.
He was just mowing them down.
So I said, you know, this isamazing.
I could be part of history.
I came up with the idea that ifthe Tigers were up and Ryan was
pitching and the ball, therewas a foul ball hit down the
right field line, there was anusher there sitting on a stool.
I said, if the ball didn't gointo the stands, he typically
would pick it up and throw itback to me.
(19:24):
I would jump out of the dugoutin front of the dugout, he'd
throw it to me on a roll, and Iwould turn around and toss it
back to uh the ballman behindhome plate, Bill Fendero.
And uh so on this occasion,about the seventh inning, sure
enough, foul ball down the rightfield line.
Uh Usher tosses it to me.
But rather than just turningaround and throwing it to Bill,
(19:45):
the ballman, I looked at theball and looked at Bill and I
shook my head left and right ina no fashion.
Mike Koser (19:53):
Like you're telling him the ball's no good, and
you're taking it out of play.
Dennis Clothworthy (19:56):
That's correct.
I took the ball and put it inmy first baseman in the dugout,
and that happened again thefollowing inning.
So now I've got two baseballsthat were pitched by Nolan Ryan
during his second careerno-hitter.
And after the game, I took himinto the clubhouse and I had him
completely signed by the uhAngels team, and uh including
(20:20):
Nolan Ryan, of course.
Mike Koser (20:22):
Wasn't that game where the one where Norm Cash
walked up to the plate to faceNolan Ryan with a table leg
instead of a bat?
Was that the one?
Dennis Clothworthy (20:30):
Yes, it is, exactly right.
Announcer (20:32):
Now Ryan is one out away from the no-hitter, but
both Stanley and Brown hit theball hard here in the ninth, and
now it's Norman Cash.
Dennis Clothworthy (20:39):
Norm Cash walks up to the plate, and Ron
Luciano is the home plateumpire, and he was quite a
character back in the day.
And Cash just walks upcasually, you know, swinging the
bat by his side.
Announcer (20:50):
Ryan waits for Cash.
Cash wants perhaps a lighterbat.
Dennis Clothworthy (20:54):
And Luciano bends over and he looks at Cash
and goes, Norman, I can't letyou bet with that thing.
He says, Why not?
I'm not gonna hit the guyanyway.
Okay, Cash walked up there withan old board bat.
Announcer (21:08):
That wasn't a bat at all.
It looked like an old fungo.
Well, leave it to Norman for alittle levity, and Ron Luciana
is breaking up behind the plate.
Dennis Clothworthy (21:17):
So he tosses uh table leg, whatever it was,
back to the dugout.
The other bat boy gets him theum his bat, and sure enough, he
pops up, which is better thanwhat he did in his first three
times at bat, because he struckout all three times, uh and then
he popped up to end the game.
Mike Koser (21:33):
Dennis, when the 73 season wrapped up, you got moved
over to the Tigers Clubhouse.
And I mean, sure, that job wasgreat, but for a Detroit kid,
the real dream I think was beingthe team's bat boy.
And just like the title of yourbook says, when the 74 season
kicked off, you became Al Kaline's last bat boy.
Tell me about the moment thatyou put on the Tigers uniform
(21:56):
for the first time.
Dennis Clothworthy (21:57):
I'm waiting anxiously in the in the
clubhouse as the players arecoming in.
I'm just in heaven, right?
I mean, imagine being 16 yearsold and here's your team.
And uh I'm sitting at my lockerand I'm just looking at my
uniform and I'll tell you howfortunate I was.
On one side of me was MickeyLolich.
(22:17):
And John Hiller was in thelocker on the other side of me.
But it was amazing putting onthe white home uniform of the
English D.
And I was in awe, simply put, Iwas in awe, and I still am to
this day.
Mike Koser (22:32):
Let's talk about the the Tigers Clubhouse for a
minute.
You mentioned where your lockerwas.
Can you just take us insidethere for a second and and uh
give us the scene, the the heavyclubhouse door?
I mean, Jack Hand's storageroom with the wire cage door,
the layout, yeah, that kind ofthing.
Dennis Clothworthy (22:48):
Sure.
Like the visitors' clubhouse,it had a uh heavy barn door that
slid off to the side, and thenyou had a little bit of a
hallway here, uh, and you couldlook straight into the
clubhouse, unlike the visitors,and the Tigers Clubhouse was
more square than rectangle.
And as you walked in, um, onthe left, there was a wall, and
behind that wall was themanager's office, and that year
that happened to be Ralph House.
(23:09):
Now, when I say manager'soffice, this thing might have
been 10 by 10.
And after games, you'd have 12,15 uh reporters in there and
they're crammed in elbow toelbow.
It was hilarious.
But once you got past thatlittle hallway, there was a
short row of lockers to theright, and behind my lockers,
there was the room that youspoke of where Jack Hand, the
(23:31):
manager, kept all hisincidentals.
He kept everything in theresunflower seeds, cigarettes,
everything you could think of.
And then as you walk in thelocker room to the left, next to
the uh Ralph Hawk's office, thecoaches had their lockers
there, and then the rest of theinfielders, outfielders were
mixed in.
And if you walk straight intothe tire clubhouse, the far left
(23:54):
corner where the back wallmeets the left wall was a double
locker.
And this locker was typicallyreserved for the uh well, well,
in this case, it happened to beAl K alne, the prominent player
on the team, or maybe moreseniority.
That was his locker.
Mike Koser (24:09):
So that first night, you head down those 12 steps or
so from the clubhouse into thetunnel and out through the
dugout.
And you mentioned in your bookthat one of the absolute best
parts of being the Tigers batboy was shagging fly balls
during batting practice at TigerStadium.
I mean, I can't even imaginewhat that was like.
Dennis Clothworthy (24:26):
That was just awesome.
I used to take infield practiceonce in a while.
Also, Norm Cash.
There were days he didn't,let's say he didn't feel like
practicing, and so he'd ask meto go sub during infield
practice.
So here I am, and I was apretty good ball player, and I'd
do infield practice with theplayers just before the game.
But in the outfield, I'd go incenter field most of the time,
(24:49):
and Mickey Stanley was alwaysout there, and you know, three
or four other players, a coupleof pitchers out there, and we
used to take turns, and Mickeywould tell me once in a while,
okay, you got the next one thatcomes out to center field.
So on this one occasion, I'msure most people remember uh
Mickey Stanley.
He had a knack of turning theopposite direction when the ball
was coming at him and justchase it down.
(25:10):
Well, you know, I'm I'mpretending I'm Mickey Stanley on
this occasion and the ball'sover my head.
I reach up with my left hand,my glove hand.
Well, I didn't realize theflagpole was about five feet
away from me.
Mike Koser (25:23):
And for those who don't remember, the flagpole was
in play at Tiger Stadium.
It's on the field.
Dennis Clothworthy (25:29):
Exactly.
And I run right into it nosefirst.
I hung on to the ball, I fallto the ground.
The players, you know, youthink to come to see if I'm
okay.
Oh no, they're laughing at melike crazy.
The ushers in the stands andleft field are clapping for me
because I hung up and onto theball, and the players are just
(25:50):
laughing.
They're just giving me a hardtime.
Mike Koser (25:52):
That flagpole still standing today.
The Detroit Police AthleticLeague built a field right there
on the corner.
Yeah, that's the one piece ofTiger Stadium that's still left.
Dennis Clothworthy (26:01):
And my nose imprint is still there also.
Mike Koser (26:03):
Dennis, you had an on-deck circle routine.
Can you walk me through that?
Dennis Clothworthy (26:07):
Yeah, there was always a kneeling pad back
then, uh about a one-inch bymaybe 15-inch square kneeling
pad.
The players wanted to kneeldown.
There was also a donut,obviously, that you slip over
the bat to add weight to thebat.
And there was also a uh aweighted bat, which was just so
you didn't have to use thedonut, it was just a heavy bat.
(26:28):
Uh, a towel, a pine tar rag,and a rosin bag.
And this was something that Iput out at the beginning of
every inning, and I would uhremove it, obviously, when the
uh visiting team came up.
Mike Koser (26:42):
For those who spent a lot of time at Tiger Stadium,
you knew that the ball club, itsplayers, and its staff members
were not the only residents.
There were plenty of rats, andthat largely had to do with the
trapdoor and gate 14.
Dennis Clothworthy (26:55):
That's exactly right.
Um the trapdoor, there was ahuge room, and the trapdoor you
referred to was at the top ofthis room, which was basically
the upper deck.
So whenever the ground crew orthe stadium workers swept the
aisles with, you know, all thepopcorn and hot dog remains and
cups and everything else,everything was taken to this one
(27:16):
area near gate 14.
They'd opened a trapdoor andall this garbage was falling to
this room.
I'm gonna say maybe it was abig room, maybe like 30 by 30
square.
And then, you know, the garbagetrucks would come in with a
front loader and shovel up uhall the garbage and put it in
the trucks and take it away.
Well, I was taking the garbagefrom the clubhouse one time to
(27:39):
this area I'm speaking of, andit's about halfway full with
garbage.
And as I do, I turn a garbagecan over and out comes a rat
running from underneath a bigpile of garbage right between my
legs.
And those rats also used tocongregate on the field on the
tarp.
For whatever reason, if therewas going to be a you know a
chance of rain, the ground crewwould cover the infield and the
(28:02):
rats would go out there andthey'd just be 100, 150 of them
running around.
And we just ride out there in agolf cart.
One of us would have a broom,one of us would have a BB gun,
and we we'd go running drivearound the infield.
Mike Koser (28:16):
It's crazy too.
You know, the reason why I waslike that, part of the reason
was that uh I think the trashguy only came like once a week,
right?
So this stuff would just sitthere.
Dennis Clothworthy (28:24):
That's exactly right, and would sit
there.
And can you imagine the feelthat you know, pieces of hot
dogs and buns and oh yeah, whoknows?
Mike Koser (28:32):
I'm sure it I'm sure it smelled terrible too.
Dennis Clothworthy (28:35):
It did, it absolutely did.
And the other thing, uh, weused to ride the golf cart.
There was a golf cart that oneof the ground crew guys, we'd
ask him to leave the key in it.
We'd go riding around in themiddle of the night while we're
waiting for the when I was inthe visitors' locker room, we're
waiting for the team trucks tocome in from the airport, and
we'd take the golf cart and wego up and down those ramps.
How we didn't run into a pole,I have no idea.
(28:58):
But you know, at 15, 16, youdon't think of those things.
Mike Koser (29:01):
No, you think you think you're invincible, yeah.
Dennis Clothworthy (29:03):
Absolutely.
Mike Koser (29:05):
Today, every time a ball hits the ground, it's taken
out of a game and and manytimes given to a fan.
That seems almost inconceivablebased on what you experienced
as a bat boy in 1974, right?
Dennis Clothworthy (29:17):
Yes, yes.
You know, there was a bag thatwas for the game used balls that
the umpires and the ballmen uhhandled, and then there was a
similar bag in our in the TigersClubhouse uh that would they
use for batting practice.
And there was a stadiummanager, his name was Ralph
Snyder, and he sat about sevenrows up from the field just to
the left of home plate, thirdbase side.
(29:39):
And one of my one of my jobdescriptions was to make sure if
a foul ball went along thewall, I did everything possible
not to let the fans bend overthe wall and pick up the ball
and take it home with them.
So, on occasion where a fanwould get to it before me, you
know, I'd get booed by the fansif I picked it up before the
(29:59):
fans.
But I would get complimented byRalph Snyder for not letting
the ball get into the stands andthe fan take it home with him.
And when I see it today, I meanit's just unbelievable.
They weren't, they would hide.
The players would hide if theywere trying to give a ball to a
fan out in the during battingpractice or something like that.
And today they're just throwingthem in left and right.
(30:19):
You can't even let it hit theground at all and they toss it
out of the game.
Mike Koser (30:23):
September 24th, 1974, the Tigers were on the
road in Baltimore.
Ernie Harwell (30:28):
The Tigers and the Birds here in Baltimore
tonight on a cool, clearevening.
That's it for now Ernie Harwellsaying.
See you at game time.
Mike Koser (30:36):
Al K alne in his final year was going for hit
number 3,000.
And in the fourth inning, hegot it.
Dennis Clothworthy (31:27):
The ground crew put together this
wheelbarrow.
They took a plank of wood oneach side, fastened it to each
side of the wheelbarrow, screwedit in, nuts and bolted it in,
whatever.
It was painted in blue, darkblue, with the numbers 3,000 in
white on each side.
My job was to take thewheelbarrow from the entrance
where the ground crew enteredthe field, walk in front of the
(31:50):
tiger dugout around to the homeplate area, and position the
wheelbarrow between home plateand the pitcher's mount.
In that wheelbarrow were threecanvas bags, typical bags that
they used to use at banks forcoins and things like that.
And my job was to, once I gotup there, while the announcer
was announcing what was takingplace, the announcer announced
(32:13):
that each bag contained $1,000silver dollars commemorating the
3,000 hits that Kaline had justachieved.
I was to pour the uh bags open,open up all three bags, and
pour them into the wheelbarrowwhile everybody, of course, was
cheering for Al Kaline.
Mike Koser (32:28):
What a what a great moment.
Kaline's 3,000th hit came in ingame 154 that year.
A few days later, he would playthe final game of his career.
That day provided so manymoments that Dennis, I know you
will never forget.
Can you talk to me about thatthat special day?
Dennis Clothworthy (32:45):
Certainly.
So it was the final homestand.
It was October 2nd, 1974, andeverybody knew that this was
gonna be it.
Um, Kaline was never gonna puton that home uniform again, and
illustrious career was gonna beover.
Only, if I remember correctly,4,061 people showed up that day.
(33:07):
It was misty, a slight drizzle,I get it, a little chilly.
But how could that possiblyhappen?
Yeah.
I mean, I know the team wasbad, but that's all that were
there.
The game ends unceremoniously,and myself and Bill Fondero,
who's in the in the dugout withme, bringing the ball bag over,
and we're very respectfullyquiet, and Kaline's the only
(33:29):
other person in the dugout.
And he's sitting there, he'sgot his tiger jacket on, and
he's taking it all in.
He's looking out into thestand, and we just kept it at a
bare minimum conversation.
We just wanted him to have histime.
And after a few minutes, he gotup, he stood on the first or
second step of the dugout, andhe kind of did a 360, and he
(33:51):
just took a look around theentire stadium, and that was it.
I don't know where I got thecourage to say this, but I
called over to him, I said, Mr.
Kaline, he turns around, turnshis head, looking at yeah.
I says, May I have one of yourbats as a keepsake?
He smiled at me and he says,Sure.
And that's all he said.
(34:12):
And he walked up into thetunnel and I proceeded to the
bat rack and he had two bats inthe rack that day.
Some players have three bats,four bats.
They just, you know, never knowwhich one they're gonna use.
He only had two in the bat rackthat day.
And of course, being the batboy, I knew exactly which bat he
had used when he flew out theleft field, and therefore, I was
(34:35):
the owner of uh Al Ka line'slast official bat he used uh in
his career.
Mike Koser (34:40):
That's incredible, and what a what a great piece of
uh of memorabilia.
So, Dennis, in 1976, Bird Manieswept through the city of
Detroit.
And after a magical Mondaynight in June, it captured the
entire country when Mark theBird Fydrich pitched against the
Yankees on national televisionon ABC's Monday Night Baseball.
Announcer (35:04):
He's won seven in a row.
Bob Uecker (35:22):
You know, I've never I've never seen a ball game
like this, Mark.
I gotta ask you one thing.
Have you ever have you everheard a more emotional response
from a crowd than we had heretonight?
Mark Fydrich (35:31):
Well, I never played under this many people
before in my life.
Mike Koser (35:34):
What the country saw that night, we had never seen
before.
A pitcher talking to abaseball, having a full-on
conversation with the baseball,and then manicuring the dirt
like it was his own backyardgarden that he was desperately
trying to take care of.
Warner Wolf (35:51):
He is a character.
Some people refer to him as aneccentric.
He will pat the mound, he'lltalk to the ball, he'll
congratulate his players afteran excellent play.
Mike Koser (36:01):
And with within a year, Fydrich was as big as any
rock star uh on the cover ofRolling Stone, sold-out
stadiums.
I mean, on nights that hewasn't pitching at Tiger
Stadium, they'd sell 10,000tickets.
On nights that he did pitch,there'd be 50,000 people in the
stands.
He was a true phenomenon.
Dennis Clothworthy (36:23):
He was something else, and there's
never been anybody like him.
And you can ask anybody inbaseball, nobody approached the
game like he did.
But after all is said and done,that was him.
This was not an act.
It was the way he psychedhimself up every time he pitched
the game.
Mark Fydrich (36:41):
Well, when I passed him on, I'm just keeping
it so I don't, you know, gettingthat guy's run.
I want to dig my own hole andmy own landing point and all
that, because I have my ownthing.
And then I'm just gettingmyself psyched, telling it,
don't let up now.
Just go as hard as you can, ashard as you can.
And if they burn you, they burnyou.
That's you know, life.
Dennis Clothworthy (36:56):
He would literally, yeah, you've seen
videos of him.
If you haven't, YouTube MarkFydrich, it's hilarious.
He's talking to the ballbetween each pitch.
And then what he's saying tohimself is settle down, keep it
low, keep it inside, whatever hewas attempting to do with each
pitch.
Well, the rest is history.
He went on to have a uh rookieof the year, had a tremendous, I
(37:20):
forget how many uh completegames he had.
I think it was 24, if Iremember correctly, and which is
unheard of by teams nowadays,much less a uh single pitcher.
After the first few starts outin the bleachers, which were
tickets, you know, only sold onthe day of the game, there was
no advanced uh ticket sales forthe bleachers.
He got so bad that they'd haveto delay the game a little bit
(37:41):
because people were lined updown the street.
And so what they started doingwas selling tickets early that
morning because they didn't wantthe streets crowded and people
getting in late.
Nobody wanted to miss this guypitch.
Mike Koser (37:53):
Uh, before the world knew him as the bird, before
the bird was as big as hebecame, there was a night in May
of 1976 that you shared withhim.
You got a chance to hang outwith him.
Dennis Clothworthy (38:05):
Yes, I did.
Um, the week prior to May 8th,Tom Veryzer, a shortstop for the
Tigers, uh, knowing that Iworked in uh I had connections
in the ticket office, if youwill, asked me if I knew anybody
at the Olympia Stadium wherethe Red Wings played, uh, in the
ticket office that could gethim tickets for Paul McCartney
and Wings Over America tourconcert.
(38:27):
And I said, Tom, I said, I doknow people, I said, but that
thing sold out.
I said, but I can get us in, wejust won't have any seats.
Because, what do you mean?
I said, Well, by this time,over the years, myself and a
friend of uh mine, Victor, weactually found out that the
usher is at the door.
All you had to do was take up afake ticket from a previous
(38:49):
game that's typically torn inhalf, hand it to the usher.
The usher would pretend likehe's tearing it, give it back to
you, and you would walk intothe stadium.
And we'd go in and we'd watchthe Red Wing games back when
they were the dead wings andthey had four or five thousand
people in the stands and theywere terrible.
And we used the same method.
I I told Veriser, I can use thesame method to get us into the
(39:13):
concert.
He says, That's fine with me.
So Tom Veryzer and I, uh, afterSaturday afternoon game, the
concert was at night, he said,let's go to Lindell AC, a famous
watering hole where a lot ofthe visiting team players hung
out and sometimes the tigerplayers as well.
He said, Let's go grab a burgerand a beer.
So we did.
And about 20 minutes later,Mark Fydrich walks in the door
(39:38):
and he comes hobbling in and hecomes in over the table, hey,
hey, TV, and Tom Veryzer and heyDennis, he knew me because I
worked in the ticket office.
He's what are you guys doing?
And Veryzer was a verylaid-back guy, and he just
calmly told him what I justexplained.
And he says, Oh man, can youget me in?
Can you get me in too?
He's screaming all excited.
(39:58):
And Veryzer goes, I don't know.
Let me Dennis, can you get himin?
I said, Yeah, we should be ableto do that.
So we have our burger andbearers, we get in the car.
I'm driving.
I had my 76 Ford Elite, and TomVeryzer's in the front seat,
passenger side, two-door car,and Fydrich's just sitting right
behind him.
And Veryzer's got the windowall down.
(40:19):
And as we're approachingOlympia Stadium on Grand River,
Fydrich's just trying to stickhis neck out the window, hooting
and hollering at every girlthat walked by.
Hey, you want to go to aconcert with us?
And Veryzer's like, shut up, wecan't get everybody in.
The bird is just going nuts.
So we went to the show and umwe ended up sitting on the
(40:40):
stairs only because I mentionedto the usher there, because he
tried to kick us out.
And I said, Hey, these guysplay for the Tigers.
This is Tom Veyzer and MarkFydrich.
And nobody knew who Fydrich wasback then.
Prior to that date of the 8th,he had pitched one inning on
April 20th in relief.
If he would have been yellingand hooting and hollering after
(41:01):
his notoriary, I can't imaginethat the car might have been
flooded with girls just tryingto jump in.
Mike Koser (41:07):
Yeah.
What just an incredible storyand a night I'm sure you will
never ever forget.
Dennis Clothworthy (41:12):
Not at all.
Never.
Mike Koser (41:14):
Hey Dennis, the book is excellent, and uh I
encourage people to check itout.
Al Kaline's uh Last Bat Boy,one of my favorite reads from
this past year.
Love spending some time withyou today.
Dennis Clothworthy (41:25):
Well, thank you very much.
I enjoyed.
I love talking that era ofbaseball.
Thank you, Mike.
I appreciate your time.
Mike Koser (41:31):
Yeah, what a great storyteller.
And the book is is really oneof my favorites.
I loved it.
Dennis Clothworthy (41:35):
Thanks again.
Mike Koser (41:36):
All right, take care, man.
The book is called Al Kaline'sLast Bat Boy, and it's available
now on Amazon and definitelyworth checking out.
A couple of quick notes beforewe wrap up.
First, every kid who lovesbaseball dreams of one day being
on a Topps baseball card.
And that dream came true forDennis.
The 1975 Topps Tigers teamphoto card, technically of the
(41:58):
1974 team, features Dennis inthe second row from the bottom,
third from the right.
In the book, he writes thatbeing on this team card has to
be one of the best things tohappen to be in baseball.
And here's something else.
Over the years, Dennis becameclose friends with legendary
broadcaster Hall of Famer, thelate, beloved Ernie Harwell.
Every year, without fail, Erniesent Dennis a birthday card and
(42:22):
a Christmas card.
A small gesture that reallyspeaks volumes about both men.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.