Credits: Sports: Ballgame by Laurie’s Scraps Designs
Page 1 journaling:
Al Kaline died today on the 6th, his retired Tigers number. The loss of a Hall of Famer in April will not get a moment of silence all through baseball this year. Perhaps no season so far is because for the gentle man known as Mr. Tiger, a moment is just not enough.
Al Kaline was special to me in so many ways. When my mom was a little girl h was her favorite Tiger at the beginning of his carer. (She even had is rookie card!)
My mom told me the 1968 World Series is probably why I became a huge baseball fan. In 1968 World Series games weren’t all night games and Thursday, October 10, game 7, was day game. My dad was at work, the baby was asleep and mommy was watching the game with the toddler “watching with her” in her playpen next to the couch. When the Tigers won my mom picked me up and dance around the living room with me and celebration. I have no problem excepting the baseball means joy and that's how I became a baseball fan.
Al Kaline hitting a homer in the1968 World Series
Me, in my Kaline jersey, at the 2013 ALCS
I went to a 1984 World Series game with my mom
Page 2 journaling:
When I was a little girl Kaline was my favorite Tiger at the end of his 22 year career.
There was a point in my adult life where I started the custom of "take Mommy out to the ballgame" every Mother's Day. That tradition started with a Tigers game. She absolutely loved that!
Since I was a teenager I wanted to one day have an orange tiger striped cat to name after our Kaline. In 2005 David and I were found by an orange stripey kitten that became our Alexis Kaline. When I got this fantastic picture of her I really thought about mailing a copy of it to the man she was named after. I'm kind of sad now that I didn't.
In 1996 and 97 I worked in the scoreboard operations for the Tigers. Al Kaline was in the front office at that time. I didn't get to meet him, Mom and I had season tickets for his Rockers indoor soccer team, I met Mike Ilitch a couple of times. I knew him as Mike although everybody that worked for him called him Mr. Ilitch. I always thought if there was anyone at Tiger Stadium that should be addressed as Mr., it was Mr. Kaline.
