John Rapson: What Hall of Famer Al Kaline Taught Me About Dignity and Dying

The man, the myth and our shared mortality.

Al Kaline at bat in 1970. Kaline spent his entire 22-season Hall of Fame career with the Detroit Tigers and was known affectionately as “Mr. Tiger.” (AP)

I’ve never been a huge baseball fan. I think the height of my fandom was in 1971, when I came home from Candlestick Park with a Wille Mays bobblehead my dad bought for me. It sat on the windowsill in my bedroom for years, the paint chipped and peeling from bobbling so much. It eventually disappeared, like most things do. What doesn’t disappear is the grace that people share with others. The thought came to me the other night when my 10-year-old son and I were watching the Yankees play the Guardians in the division playoffs. I didn’t really care who won or lost. The joy came from sharing the game with my son. Somewhere around the seventh inning, my mind turned to Willie Mays, and then to John Rapson, a friend, musician, teacher, and lifelong Detroit Tigers fan who wrote this remarkable essay not long before his death from cancer at the…