Lewis Matlin

As a baseball “lifer,” Mr. Matlin was a first-hand witness to many of those

memory-making experiences during a career that spanned more than four decades.

And he spent his life sharing those magic moments with anyone who loved the

game.

Mr. Matlin died on December 21 of natural causes at home in Roseville, MI. He was 96 years old. He is survived by wife, Donelda, daughter Terri Ann Cantrell, son David A. K., daughter in law Dana, grandchildren Katie (Justin Stute), Ryan (Misty Cantrell), Kisa, Ross and great grandchildren Emmett and Alice.

While Mr. Matlin considered his family to be his most precious gift, he was passionate about baseball and all the people who served the game at the major and minor league levels. He was one of those colorful baseball characters known as well for his cigars, rumpled suits and interminably long hours at the park as he was for the non-stop yarns he could spin about players, games, and all things connected to baseball.

“Lew was special and it’s a shame that every fan didn’t have a chance to meet him,” said Dan Ewald, former Detroit News baseball writer and public relations director for the Detroit Tigers. “He had a steel trap mind for facts, figures and every little anecdote that breathed life into the game. If a writer needed to come up with an off-beat feature story in a hurry, all he had to do was talk to Lew. The game doesn’t breed characters like him anymore. And today it’s a little poorer for that loss.”

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Mr. Matlin was an apprentice reporter for the Los Angeles Examiner before entering the Army in 1942. He was honorably discharged as a master sergeant in 1946 after earning a bronze Star and Army Commendation Medal with Cluster for his service during World War II.

Mr Matlin got his first baseball job with the Bakersfield (CA) club in 1948. He worked for eight different minor league teams in various managerial positions before landing his first major league job with the Seattle Pilots in 1969. He then worked for the Milwaukee Brewers before joining the Detroit Tigers in 1971 where he served as Director of Special Events. He also handled Group Sales, the Speakers Bureau, scoreboard operation and marketing. He retired in 1990 working in professional baseball over six decades.

“It was impossible to visit any club in the big leagues and not run into an army of people who had gotten to know Lew somewhere along the way,” Ewald said. “His gift for recalling baseball history, American history, presidential history and world history was staggering.”

Upon retirement from baseball, Mr Matlin served as a volunteer for the Detroit Public Library serving the National Automotive Historical Collection. He also volunteered his time serving the R.B.I. organization that helps to promote amateur youth baseball in the nation’s largest inner-cities.