Did the Tigers tamper with Ralph Houk in September of 1973 by inviting him to become their manager while he was still managing the New York Yankees? I long ago suspected that was true. So, briefly, did the American League.  But no evidence ever surfaced to prove it.
    Now we will never know. With the passing on Wednesday of Houk, at age 90, both he and former Tigers' general manager Jim Campbell, who died in 1995, have taken that secret to their graves.
    Back in the fall of '73, there were accusations and speculation that Campbell and the Tigers had broken the rules.
    It was no secret that Houk and Campbell, both career baseball men from the old school, were friends. It was only natural that they would talk. And those conversations would eventually have focused in their respective situations.
    Campbell, fed up with Billy Martin's antics and insubordination, had fired the fiery Tigers' manager in early September of 1973. Meanwhile, in New York, Houk, the no-nonsense battle-hardened "Major" who had earned the Silver Star, a Bronze Star, and a Purple Heart during World War II and who had led a battalion of Rangers during the Battle of the Bulge, had become fed up with new Yankees' owner George Steinbrenner's constant meddling.
    When Houk quit as the Yankees' skipper, much to Steinbrenner's surprise, minutes after the final game of the '73 season -- which, ironically, was against the Tigers -- Campbell hired him almost immediately.
    Both men insisted everything was done on the up-and-up. The suggestion of impropriety, they said, was simply sour grapes on the part of the Yankees over unceremoniously losing  their manager.
    The story had a short shelf life, especially after the AL conducted a cursory investigation and dismissed the charges.
    But I still believe that deal was secretly hatched sometime in mid-September, after Campbell canned Martin but before Ralph resigned.
    Houk managed the Tigers for five mostly miserable years from 1974 through 1978, winning 363, losing 463, never finishing higher than fourth in the AL East.
    The patient yet firm Houk was the perfect antidote in the wake of the tempestuous Martin as the Tigers embarked on an overdue rebuilding program after trying in vain to coax one more championship out of their aging 1968 team.
    Personally, I found Houk a treat to cover -- even after he threw his spikes at me during spring training, sailing his shoes inches above my head as I sat in a chair in front of his desk in his Marchant Stadium office after I had sharply criticized the Tigers' lackadaisical performance in my column the previous day.
    I ducked. The spikes missed. Hopefully, Houk was a better shot with a rifle during World War II than he was with his shoes.
    But I knew Houk, who never criticized his team publicly, was using me for target practice to send a message to his players, who were seated just outside his open office door.
    "Boy, is the manager ever mad," the players must have thought. "We had better play harder or he'll throw his spikes at us."
    The next day, when I walked into the Tigers' dugout, Houk just cackled. "Everything okay, captain?" he asked.
    I understand what he meant. "Everything's fine," I replied.
    And neither of us ever mentioned those flying spikes again.