Dennis Clotworthy's outstanding book Al Kaline's Last Bat Boy is a wonderful memoir of his growing up around the Detroit Tigers filled with warmth and humor and fascinating anecdotes about his time as the team's batboy in the early 1970s. During the 1974 season Clotworthy witnessed the end of an era with the release of fan favorite Norm Cash Kaline's 3 000th hit and of course his final at bat. That at bat occurred on October 2 against the Baltimore Orioles and was by all accounts unceremonious. Kaline was DH in that game and was nursing a shoulder injury and after his second at bat (a lineout to left) removed himself from the game. Clotworthy's account of that final game included this recollection: "Mr. Kaline simply took a seat in the dugout about midway along the bench. He had his Tiger warmup jacket on over his uniform. The stadium was eerily quiet and he was motionless as he stared out over the dugout steps and straight out toward right field where he had roamed for the past 22 seasons. Bill Fundaro and I respectfully kept our conversation to a quiet minimum. You could see that Mr. Kaline was taking it all in just one more time before he left the dugout. I actually felt sad for him. It was like a loss an ending no tomorrow. After maybe about ten minutes he came out of what seemed almost like a trance and began to look around to other areas of the stadium. It was time for him to leave the dugout and go into the tunnel that led to the clubhouse and join his teammates. Now what happened next is way beyond me. At least it's certainly nothing I planned. How I got the nerve to ask my question right at that moment I'll never know but ask I did. Maybe it was plain old genius on my part. Anyway as Kaline slowly got up from the bench and slowly headed toward the dugout tunnel I asked "Mr. Kaline may I have one of your bats as a keepsake?" He smiled looked at me and simply said "Sure." Well at that point opportunity certainly had knocked for me. There were two of his bats still in the bat rack along with the bats of maybe five or six other players. I had purposely not put his away because I had intended to ask him for one of his bats early in the game when it wasn't such a final final thing. There were two bats so which one do you think I pulled out of the bat rack and kept for myself? Yep I took the one he used when he flew out to left field in his second at bat of the game."