Likely few of Tigers fans remain alive today, who can still remember Cochrane's heydays as a Tigers catcher, and we older fans were very fortunate to see Freehan play in the 60s and early 70s, b/c afterward, only ex-Tigers Parrish and Pudge can truly compare to them offensively and defensively...although I still have some very fond memories of mostly backup-catching John B. Wockenfuss' flutey fingering at bats..heh!!
It obviously would be awesome if Avila can continue to grow into his role as the Tigers starting catcher, and someday become fondly remembered as being one of the top 5 Tigers catchers of all time. Not gonna be an easy chore for him to do so, but I remember just a couple of years ago, when it looked like the Tigers had virtually nothing coming through the pipeline, after Pudge left, and we fans had the likes of perhaps Treanor, Ryan, Skelton, Sardinha, Laird (although he is back(up) with the team again) and Rabelo, all of whom were at best adequate defensively behind the plate, and mostly Mendoza-like on offense at the plate. Pretty damned grim prospects @ catcher, that is, until Avila blossomed last season. I will continue to hope that Alex will be "the main man", for at least during the time that the Tigers' currently wide-open window of opportunity in contention and their appearances in possible postseason series still remains.
