Each week, The Detroit News will look back at events and people from past sports moments, enlarging on experiences that might have been forgotten with time, or revisiting behind-the-scenes drama that never made it into print or on airwaves.
This was a diagnosis in August 1980, that sounded more like a death knell for a rookie baseball player named Kirk Gibson. And just as much for the Tigers, who wondered if their diesel-powered outfielder was perhaps done with baseball at age 23.