Detroit Tigers Legend Lou Whitaker Honored With Name on Baseball Park of His Childhood

Former second baseman Lou Whitaker is one of the most beloved Detroit Tigers players of all time.

Partnered with shortstop Alan Trammell, Whitaker led the Tigers to the 1984 World Series title and has long been discussed as a candidate for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

On Friday, June 28, it was announced that Whitaker has received an entirely different type of honor, but one that could be just as meaningful.

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Hooker Field in Martinsville, Virginia, was christened "Hooker Field at Lou Whitaker Park" in a ceremony hosted on Friday by the Martinsville Mustangs of the amateur Coastal Plain League, according to a report from CardinalNews.org of southern Virginia.

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The ballpark was built in the 1930s and named for local man Jim English until the 1980s, when Hooker Furniture Co. purchased the aging facility, revamped it and renamed it Hooker Field.

Whitaker first played at the ballpark in 1967 after returning from a lawn care job on the other side of town.

A local man named Henry Clay Eggleston encouraged the then-10-year-old Whitaker to show what he could do on the baseball diamond.

Whitaker said he and his friends spent "all of their childhood" at the ballpark and that they practically lived in it, according to Robert Anderson of CardinalNews.org .

Full details, including more photos of Whitaker and the rest of the ceremony, can be found in the CardinalNews.org article here .

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