Mickey Lolich, 1968 World Series MVP for Detroit Tigers, dies at 85

DETROIT (JN) – Mickey Lolich, the durable left-hander whose three complete-game victories carried the Detroit Tigers to the 1968 World Series title, has died at 85, the club said. His wife informed the team that he died Wednesday following a short stay in hospice care. No cause of death was released.

Lolich’s name is etched into baseball history for a feat that has become almost unimaginable in the modern era: winning three complete games in a single World Series. In October 1968, with the Tigers facing the St. Louis Cardinals and the formidable Bob Gibson, Lolich outlasted the sport’s most dominant pitcher of the time and was named Series Most Valuable Player.

For Detroit fans, the enduring image came at the final out of Game 7. Catcher Bill Freehan tossed aside his mask to secure a foul pop-up from Tim McCarver. Lolich leapt into Freehan’s arms, a spontaneous celebration that captured a championship season and a pitcher’s improbable rise from supporting role to central figure.

From bullpen setback to October hero

The Tigers’ 1968 staff was headlined by Denny McLain, a 31-game winner during the regular season. Lolich, meanwhile, had been relegated to the bullpen for much of August by manager Mayo Smith before returning to the rotation. He went 6–1 in the closing weeks and entered the postseason in strong form.

Years later, Lolich recalled the frustration of the demotion and the confidence he retained. “I was having a few problems, but I had been a starting pitcher ever since 1964,” he told the Detroit Free Press in 2018. “I remember telling him, ‘If we win this thing this year it’s going to be because of me.’ But I was only talking about the season. I wasn’t talking about the World Series.”

In the Series, Lolich posted a 1.67 earned run average and took the mound in Game 7 on just two days’ rest. He prevailed over Gibson on the road, sealing Detroit’s first championship since 1945.

A workload from another era

Lolich’s World Series performance is often cited as a benchmark for pitcher endurance. Since 1968, no pitcher has matched three complete-game wins in a single Series. Two pitchers have won three games in a Series since then — Arizona’s Randy Johnson in 2001 and Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto in 2025 — but both secured their third victories in relief and threw far fewer innings.

The contrast underscores how dramatically pitching usage has evolved. In Lolich’s era, starters were expected to finish what they began. In 1971, he threw 376 innings, struck out 308 batters, and went 25–14, finishing second in American League Cy Young Award voting. He followed with a 22–14 season and 250 strikeouts in 1972.

For his career, Lolich compiled a 220–192 record over 16 seasons, including postseason play, with 2,832 strikeouts. That total ranks him among the top strikeout pitchers in major league history and fifth among left-handers, according to Baseball-Reference. Despite those numbers, he was never elected to the Hall of Fame.

Life beyond the mound

Born in Portland, Oregon, Lolich spent nearly all of his career in Detroit, pitching for the Tigers from 1963 to 1975 before brief stints with the New York Mets and the San Diego Padres. He stepped away from baseball after 1976 but returned for two seasons in San Diego in 1978 and 1979.

His post-baseball life was as distinctive as his pitching career. Lolich ran a doughnut shop in the Detroit suburbs for nearly two decades, personally making and selling the pastries. In his memoir, Joy in Tigertown, he wrote with characteristic humor: “I doubt any other ballplayer has ever made that transition — from the diamond to doughnuts. But I did.”

He also recalled the lighter side of his World Series fame. Expecting to receive a Chevrolet Corvette for being Series MVP, he instead was awarded a Dodge Charger GT because Chrysler sponsored the event that year. “Nothing against Chargers,” he wrote. “It’s just that I already had two of them in my driveway.”

A lasting place in Detroit history

In a statement, the Tigers expressed condolences to Lolich’s family and said his legacy “will forever be cherished.” For a franchise defined by eras and icons, Lolich’s October performance stands as one of its most celebrated chapters.

His role in 1968 also reflects a broader moment in baseball and American sports history, when the demands placed on pitchers and the expectations of endurance were markedly different from today. Lolich’s three complete games are not only a statistical achievement but a window into how the game was once played.

More than half a century later, the image of him embracing Freehan after the final out remains a touchstone for Tigers fans — a snapshot of triumph, resilience, and the quiet determination of a pitcher who seized his moment on the sport’s biggest stage.