Letter to the Editor: Dutch memories with Al Kaline

Forty-eight years ago this month Detroit Tigers baseball player Al Kaline was in Holland.

He was the Grand Marshall in the Tulip Time Saturday parade. During his time in Holland, he was presented with a pair of wooden shoes. Those beautifully decorated shoes are now on display at the Holland Museum. Also shown is another pair given to him in Detroit in 1959 by a group of local young boys. My sons noticed Al Kaline’s memorabilia was up for auction a couple years ago. They decided the best place for them was to bring them back to Holland! Holland museum officials are pleased to have them shown as part of Tulip Time history. The wooden shoes will be on display through the month of May.

My son reached out to Mark Kaline via Twitter and he had this to say: “This is exactly what my father would have wanted. Sounds like they found the perfect home! Enjoy the memories …”

Robert J. Dykstra

Holland

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Letter to the Editor: Dutch memories with Al Kaline