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Actually the 1st two SS's I really remember included one guy who wasn't even really a SS:  '68 Series, Gibson's Cards vs. McLain's Tigers.

Tigers played MIckey Stanley at SS, after a career in CF.  OK, he did have a handful of SS starts near the end of that year, but he was basically a noob at the position.  Made sense, though:  Got Oyler's dismal bat out of the lineup and it let them go with Northrup in CF and Kaline-Horton on the corners.  Those guys OPS+'ed 129-146-165 that year~  Stanley was a hack, comparitively, at 102.  Oyler and Traceweski were 20 and 43!  Facing Gibson a possible 3 times would make you want to load up your offense.  I've always thought Mayo Smith's move of that year's Gold Glove CF'er to SS for the Series, to give him some more pop, was one of the neatest managing moves ever.  Detroit, of course, wins the Series, with Lolich whooping Gibson in the finale.  Good stuff!

The Cards had glove-ematician Dal Maxvill at SS, and his career 57 OPS.  He was a 91 guy in '68, however, his career year.  '68 was so pitcher dominated that Maxvill got to 91 with a combined 14 XB hits (one homer) out of his 116 total hits.  

One of the advantages to being a teacher's kid was that I could watch some of these games downstairs in the teachers' room at school.  Did the same in '69, a Series I remember even more well.

If the M's had made the Series in '01, could you imagine Lou moving his GG CF, Mike Cameron, to SS so he could get Stan Javier in the lineup?  Well, actually he would have just played McLemore at SS, but you get the idea.

Saw my first color TV sporting event in '68, as well: Late January:  Game of the Century, with Elvin Haye's Houston Cougars vs. Lew Alcindor's UCLA Bruins.  Super Bowl II was held just 6 days earlier, sometime in-between my dad had got our first color TV.  Pretty cool stuff!

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