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Ike Blessitt
Ike Blessitt didn’t have a lengthy big-league stay. But he had his day. And that’s a day nobody can take away.
A four-sport Hamtramck High School legend, Blessitt realized his major league dream with a cup-of-coffee call-up with the Detroit Tigers in 1972. He played the final month of the season in Tiger Stadium, then never returned to the big-league level. But he doesn’t need a stack of baseball cards or a 10-year stat sheet to beam with big-league pride. “You can’t go no higher, so that’s achieving something,” Blessitt said. “That’s what I talk to kids about these days, getting to that next level. Wherever you’re at, you should want to reach the highest level. And that’s something I can say I did.” The year after his big-league callup, he said he got in a fight with Tigers manager Billy Martin and was never the same. “Given the chance, I would’ve been a major leaguer for a longer period of time,” he said. “I felt like I was just as good as Stanley and Northrup and Horton and all those guys who were with the Tigers at that time. But I never got that chance.” All told, the opportunity he was given was four games going 0-5.
Redid the facegen. The "before" had an old suffic (-ike) instead of (-isi) Took the screenshots with '72 sideburns...
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