44th Annual Diamond Classic: LSJ Names the Top 10 Moments

They've been playng the Diamond Classic in Lansing for more than 40 years. In my day, it was the penultimate baseball experience. The diamond, Lansing's Municipal Park, was the only public park devoted exclusively to baseball. The infield, outfield, the warning track, the electronic scoreboard, and the PA announcer were big league luxuries that were rarely, if ever, present in the baseball diamonds where we played.

The game described below is number one in the Lansing State Journal's Top Ten Games in the parochial, yet serious, history of the Classic.

Unexpected gem

1968 - Eastern’s Tom Kiroff, a little-used pitcher at the beginning of his senior season, threw the first no-hitter in tournament history in the semifinals over East Lansing. The win came amid a string of 29 2/3 scoreless innings he threw at the end of that season

I played for East Lansing. We were no hit. I didn't play. I played first base behind the Ruthian Jimmy Brandstatter, a larger-than-life legacy from what was arguably the first family of East Lansing High School sports. Jimmy deserved to play. He was big, powerful, and avuncular.

I remember the day as being dreary and cold. We sat in the first-base dugout with our hands stuffed deep in our jackets. We kept up the chatter to keep warm and encourage our mates.

Kiroff had our measure that day. He triumph was splashed all over the sports pages. Later that summer during an anonymous summer league game that was played on a sultry night in Sycamore Park, we faced TK again. Big Jimmy was off to the UofM. We beat Kiroff and his team pretty damn good. Years later I found a journal that I'd been keeping from that summer. I kept records of where I'd been, what songs I liked, and on one page there was a notation that read: "went 2 for 3 off Kiroff."

Nice to meet up with you again Tommy, wherever you may be.

Click the headline for the Top 10 moments in Diamond Classic History.