The (Other) Mick

He was only a .241 hitter over a 14-year career, but Mickey Tettleton was a bad man with the bat.  A notoriously strong slugger with a feast-or-famine tendency, Mickey bashed 245 home runs, including four campaigns of 30 or more.  He also struck out over 1,300 times.

And he was also a big fan of Fruit Loops.  Hell, I suspect he still is.

Tettleton's most torrid home-run hitting years (1989-93) coincided with my Little League days, and his monster home runs would regularly be fodder for dugout chatter between my friends and me.  Seeing those Detroit Tigers highlights on SportsCenter was a big deal, because you never knew when Mickey was going to bounce one off the roof of Tiger Stadium.

Nintendo's RBI Baseball was always more fun when you chose the Tigers as your team, chiefly because Mickey could basically hit a long ball every plate appearance.  And, I can vividly recall picking Tettleton as my alter-ego when we'd stage a game of wiffleball home run derby in the backyard.

While I don't think I'd list him in my top 10 of all-time favorite players, I guess you could say my fandom of Mickey Tettleton dates back quite a few years and carries with it a lot of fun memories.  Which makes him an optimal subject for a player collection.  Going through the boxes of my pre-monopoly era cards and looking over my various Micks, it brought back all those days of yesteryear.

With that, I finally have added Tettleton to my official "Player Collections" tab up top.  Long overdue, I guess.  Making the spreadsheets and tacking the link onto the page isn't all that difficult.  And, I mean to add players onto the page quite often, but my time management these days has gone to pot.  Excuses, excuses, I know, but at least I've made a baby step in the right direction.

Sorry it took so long, Mickey, but better late than never.  A celebratory bowl of Fruit Loops may be in offing...

MK