May Autograph pick-ups

[Scott Garner]

Not vintage, but I just completed a fun mini-autograph project that I have considered doing for a while now.

The summer of 1968 was an important one for me and baseball. I spent a good portion of the summer of 1968 vacationing in Michigan with my grandparents.

Even though I'm from So Cal and the California Angels were the team that I usually rooted for, the Detroit Tigers became "my second favorite team" in 1968. I attended my first game at Tiger Stadium that year and followed many of their games on TV that summer. The Tigers had a group of characters on the '68 squad that had swagger. Too cool!

1968 also was the "Year of the Pitcher" and Denny McLain became the last pitcher to ever win 30 games (the first in over 30 years in baseball). During Denny's 31st win he served up the legendary Mickey Mantle's second to the last HR as he was winding down his legendary HOF career in late September.

Perhaps like many families, my grandparents made a ritual of saving all of their old automobile license plates in the garage of one of their cottages up on Lake Huron. Although my grandfather passed away a few years ago, I'm fortunate enough to still have a grandmother that will be turning 102 soon.

Anyway, a few years ago I was eyeballing the 1968 set of license plates.
It dawned on me that it would be cool to have Denny McLain sign my grandparent's license plate with his ubiquitous 31-6 inscription. This would be a perfect memorial to the summer of '68 and the World Champion Detroit Tigers that sparked my interest in the game!

Here is how it turned out for those that care to look: