Lerrin LaGrow
October 11, 2006
The Detroit Tigers are currently battling the Oakland A’s in a playoff series for the first time since Bert Campaneris spiced up an otherwise forgettable 1972 series by tomahawking his bat in the direction of Lerrin LaGrow’s head. The incident prompted Tigers manager Billy Martin, long renowned for his gentlemanly demeanor and even-keeled temperament, to calmly step onto the field of play and politely interview Campaneris on his reasons for taking such an unusual course of action. After a period of spirited but highly respectful discussion, Campaneris and Martin agreed to accept their differences as invigorating evidence of the world’s rich tapestry of cultural and intellectual diversity. Some reports of the incident went to great lengths to capture Martin’s enthusiasm for this debate and all suchlike debates in general by stating in highly exaggerated and clearly figurative terms that he had to be “dragged screaming” from the presence of his esteemed conversational partner.
While there is no official consensus on the impact of this incident on the pitcher who sparked it by drilling Campaneris in the ankle, this 1976 card seems to suggest that the gradual but relentless impact of having narrowly avoided being brained by a Louisville Slugger may have edged Lerrin LaGrow in the direction of the black arts. As one who was simultaneously bored, confused, and creeped out by the Dr. Strange comics that Lerrin LaGrow apparently fell under the spell of, I am not qualified to comment on this with any authority, but my guess is that he has just uttered something along the lines of “By the hoary hosts of hoggoth” and is now attempting by hypnosis to shatter the mind of the photographer who hath deigned to try to capture his image with his mechanism of nefarious modernity.
Cardboard Gods 
1. The best part about this card, of course, is that LaGrow couldn’t even be bothered to take off his jacket….
I can’t believe this is the only video of Lerrin ducking out of the way of Campy’s throw
I think Campy threw the bat harder then Lerrin threw the pitch
It saddens me that there is hardly any footage of baseball prior to 1975.
All we really have to rely on are the CBG’s!
NFL did it right.
Thanks for passing that link along.
Baseball has always been a little slow about innovations, it seems. But it does make remembering the game more reliant on the written word, and I don’t mind that.
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2pRNQuKS40
I remember once reading an anecdote about the incident in Baseball Digest. When the A’s advanced to the World Series and they were playing in Cincinnati, Pete Rose supposedly took Campy aside and told him the bats didn’t carry to well in Riverfront Stadium.
Ah, footage of Billy Martin going berserk. My day is good now.