Born on today's date, Kurt Bevacqua. Of course, Kurt's claim to fame is that he was the 1975 Bazooka Bubble Gum Blowing Champ as commemorated on this card.
You gotta admit, that is some bubble! They don't make them like that anymore! And state of the art measuring equipment too!
That is certainly an impressive accomplishment but there has always been one thing that has bothered me about this contest. Take a look at the lower right hand part of the back of this card. Unfortunately, you might need a superstrong magnifying glass; you know the kind you used to incinerate ants on the sidewalk on sunny days.
Anyway, it reads, "Tigers & Pirates did not participate."
What the....?!
The Tigers did not participate?!
Why not?!
In 1975, the Tigers had Bill Freehan, Willie Horton and also Al Kaline was recently retired and any of them could have represented the Tigers as I am sure Kaline would have come out of retirement for something like this.
Al Kaline is even in the Hall of Fame! I bet he could have blown a great bubble and put non-Hall of Famer Kurt Bevacqua to shame!
But they didn't even try! How utterly disappointing!
I note that the Tigers finished 57-102 in 1975 and this was good enough for (gulp) last place in the A. L. East.
I am not surprised.
Buncha quitters.
