Green: A rainy day at Briggs Stadium cost Kaline No. 400, and a young sportswriter No. 1

Detroit — Only a special few of us in my generation could hit the curveball.

I could never hit it.

Al Kaline could.

So I did the next best thing. I became a sportswriter. And I admired the guys who could hit the curveball.

Al Kaline could hit anything the pitchers of the 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s threw.