You can yet see him stepping to home plate at Tiger Stadium.
He taps his bat once, moves smoothly into a tune-up swing, then gets a first luscious pitch. And in a blur as fast as a rattlesnake’s strike, he drills the ball on a line into right field, or as often happened, on a rising arc that crashes into Tiger Stadium’s right-field upper deck.
A half-inning later, he sucks in a ground ball at second base, and in another portrait of fire and efficiency, whips a bulls-eye to first base.
Sunday could deliver a fresh scene celebrating "Sweet Lou" Whitaker’s baseball elegance: An announcement that Whitaker has, like his 20-year Tigers mate at shortstop, Alan Trammell, joined the shrine of those forever hallowed at the Baseball Hall of Fame.