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The baseball world is mourning the lack of a participant who made historical past with the Detroit Tigers.
Mickey Lolich, remembered because the Tigers’ hero within the 1968 World Collection, has died, the Tigers introduced. He was 85. Lolich is the final MLB pitcher to win three video games within the league’s championship sequence, the World Collection. He was named World Collection MVP that 12 months.
The Tigers stated Lolich’s spouse knowledgeable the franchise that Lolich was not too long ago in hospice care. The reason for loss of life was not launched.
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FILE – On this Oct. 3, 1968, file photograph, Mickey Lolich of the Detroit Tigers is proven pitching in the course of the second sport of the World Collection in opposition to the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri. (AP Photograph/File)
Lolich is No. 23 on the all-time profession strikeouts checklist with 2,832 punchouts.
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Lolich was an unlikely star of the Tigers 1968 title run. Throughout a reunion of the World Collection group, he recalled how supervisor Mayo Smith had despatched him to the bullpen for a lot of August. He returned to the Tigers’ beginning rotation and was 6-1 within the remaining weeks.
“I used to be having a number of issues, however I had been a beginning pitcher ever since 1964,” stated Lolich, who was upset concerning the bullpen transfer. “I keep in mind telling him, ‘If we win this factor this 12 months it’s going to be due to me.’ However I used to be solely speaking concerning the season. I wasn’t speaking concerning the World Collection.
“I received my revenge again within the World Collection,” he stated.

FILE – Mickey Lolich, pitcher of Detroit Tigers poses for a photograph, March 1968. (AP Photograph, File)
Lolich pitched Sport 7 after solely two days of relaxation. He figured he would get a Corvette from Common Motors for being the Collection MVP however needed to accept a Dodge Charger GT as a result of Chrysler was the sponsor in 1968.
“Nothing in opposition to Chargers, nothing in any respect,” Lolich stated in his ebook, “Pleasure in Tigertown.” “It’s simply that I already had two of them in my driveway.”
Since Lolich, solely two pitchers have gained three video games in a single World Collection: Arizona’s Randy Johnson in 2001 and Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2025. However they pitched fewer innings and received their third victories in reduction.

FILE – Former Detroit Tigers pitcher Mickey Lolich throws out the ceremonial first pitch earlier than a baseball sport between the Tigers and the Pittsburgh Pirates, March 30, 2018, in Detroit. (AP Photograph/Carlos Osorio, File)
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In an announcement, the Tigers expressed condolences to Lolich’s household and stated his legacy “will eternally be cherished.”
After his baseball profession, Lolich went into the doughnut enterprise within the Detroit suburbs, making and promoting them for 18 years.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
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