Lenny Green, who helped the Tigers nearly win the American League pennant in 1967, died Sunday morning, said his former Tigers teammate, Willie Horton.
A native Detroiter who played at Pershing High, Green died on his 86th birthday. Green played 12 seasons in the big leagues, beginning with the Orioles and Washington Senators before they relocated to Minnesota as the Twins. He was an outfielder and speedy left-handed batter who came to the Tigers from the Twins in the summer of '67 as a stand-in for Al Kaline, who had fractured his finger on the dugout bat rack with an angry shove following a frustrating at-bat.