Friday, July 30, 2010

Life

I have not been here in a while due to life in general. My youngest graduated HS and is starting college in the fall. I have been swamped at work. No time to sit back and enjoy life. Fortunately I have been able to keep tabs on others and get some great cards from Stats on the Back, which I will hopefully show off sometime soon.

Oh, and the Tigers can't score a run from 3rd with less than two outs. I seem to have a good memory of this same situation from back in the mid 90s. Oh, well. They are doing the best that they can, and when they stop giving maximum effort is when the fans start to get on them. That's what I want is maximum effort.

That leads me into today's post.

Willie Horton was one of the first stars that I can remember as a kid. I don't remember seeing him play as a Tiger, but I do have memories of people complaining when they traded him away. That made me think he was one of the all-time greats. As the years went by I found out how good he was, and how much me meant to the city of Detroit. I read stories about him hitting a home run over the roof during a High School game. During the riots of 67 Horton went into the neighborhood in his uniform and tried to get the crowd under control. This was a man who grew up in Detroit and took pride in his city, it was his city. These stories make me wonder if that type of civic pride is still around today. How many home grown players are with their teams, and would risk their lives to save their home?

Horton's number is retired. It was retired as much for what he did off of the field as what he did on the field.