A few things to write about ...

Just writin'

Cleveland in '94 when Jack Morris was with the Tribe. He's visiting with his old friends from Detroit, Alan Trammell (see first part of the blog below), Mickey Tettleton, and Kirk Gibson. 

I used to read the Detroit News when I was in second grade. I didn't read it all the time. But, by fourth grade, my mom would stop on the way to school and I would buy a Detroit News. My grandpa was good friends with the sports editor at the time, Joe Falls. I had the thrill of meeting Mr. Falls a few times. In the summer of 1983, I remember meeting him and talking about the up and coming Detroit Tigers. I asked him if he thought Alan Trammell or Lou Whitaker would have the best batting average on the Tigers because they had been tied or close much of the year. I don't remember what he said, but I know that I said I thought they would tie. I don't know why I thought that. One of them hit .320 and the other hit .319. And when I was 11 back then, I could recite every single teams roster and statistics. I wish that I had that amount of room in my brain today.

I never considered myself a leader when I was a kid. I don't know if I thought I was a follower, but I didn't consider myself a leader. I guess when the neighborhood kids were around to play with the Tonka trucks, there were rules. One of the first rules was you could only play with one at a time. The neighbor kids understood this. It's just the way that it had to be. I don't really know why. I don't think that was leadership out of a four year old, though, I think it was management. I first was called a leader by my varsity baseball coach my sophomore year when he asked me to step it up as a leader. Then, my journalism and English teacher started to say I was a leader. Back then, I don't think we talked a great deal about leadership.

Last night was the season finale for the TV show The Glades, which is like a bad habit that Lori and I have. We watch the show every week and have even re–watched shows on Netflix. It's actually a hokey show that doesn't seem to be about a whole lot … but we love it. The protagonist, Jim, was shot in his new house (a surprise for his fiancé) on the day of his wedding. That's how it ended. We look forward to season finales because it usually mean the end of the school year. We still watch CSI (we took a hiatus just after Gil left and before D.B. came to town — maybe that was when the show tried to jump the shark but sank …), Criminal Minds, The Mentalist, and a couple other shows. We record them on our DishNetwork system and watch them as we can while ignoring the commercial interruptions.

I bought a lot of cool souvenir helmets at Tiger Stadium. There's no longer a Stadium there. 

I have a collection of the old school batting helmets that used to cost $3 at Tiger Stadium. I have almost every team, including some that no longer exist. I don't have any of the '90s expansion teams and haven't really looked at the helmets in 25 years. I still think they're cool and would love to display them. The greatest thing is that I have the Detroit Tigers alternate "D" helmets from the '70s. I think I'll display the helmets someday because they are a great conversation piece. I have lots of baseball hats too, but they've all been well–worn.

Paul Caputo is a blogger who has a cool collection of helmets. You can find out more about him and read his work at www.bloggerstobenamedlater.com. Thanks to Mr. Caputo for allowing me to use his photo on the blog. One of the best logos ever, an M and a B that looks like a mitt makes for a great helmet.