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Al Kaline, RIP
“There have been a lot of great defensive players. The fella who could do everything is Al Kaline. He was just the epitome of what a great outfielder is all about – great speed, catches the ball and throws the ball well.” –Brooks Robinson
The baseball world was saddened to lean this week of the passing of “Mr. Tiger,” Al Kaline. Al died at his home in Bloomfield, Michigan aged 85.
There’s no doubt Al Kaline was a great ballplayer. He had a 22-year major league career (1953-1974) all with the Tigers. Over his career, the 18-time All-Star batted .299, with 3007 hits (25th all-time), 1622 runs, 399 home runs, 1583 RBIs, a .367 on-base percentage, and a .480 slugging average. His OPS+ mark of 134 places him well above his contemporaries (100 being the major league average). An outstanding outfielder with a strong arm, Al won 10 Gold Gloves.
The 18-year-old Baltimore native made his major league debut right out of high school on June 25, 1953. His best season was 1955, as he became the youngest player at age 20 to win the American League batting title (.340) since Ty Cobb in 1907. He compiled 200 hits, 27 home runs, 102 RBIs, 121 runs, a .421 on-base percentage, and a .546 slugging average. He finished second to Yogi Berra that year in the MVP voting.
The inevitable comparisons to the “Georgia Peach” took a toll on the young Kaline:
“It hurt me a great deal. It put a lot of pressure on me because I was at a young age and the writers around here and throughout the league starting comparing me to Cobb. It put a lot of pressure on me.”
Al also led the league in slugging average (.530) and OPS (.940) in 1959. A hero of the 1968 World Series, he hit .379 with two home runs and eight RBIs, as the Tigers rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win their first World Series championship since 1945.
At the age of eight, Kaline had developed osteomyelitis and had a segment of bone removed from his left foot. The surgery left his foot scarred and permanently deformed, a condition that plagued him for most of his career. The condition prompted sportswriter Milton Gross to once remark:
“It’s hard to believe, but for all of his career with the Tigers while he has been called the perfect player, Kaline has bordered on being a cripple.”
Other career highlights include:
- Also in 1955, he became the 13th player to hit two home runs in the same inning; and the youngest to hit three home runs in the same game.
- On September 24, 1974, he became the 12th player to reach 3,000 hits, a doubleoff the Orioles’ Dave McNally.
- Al batted over .300 nine times and hit 25-or-more home runs seven times.
- Kaline also holds Tiger career records for games played (2,834), walks (1,277), and sacrifice flies (104). He finished his career with a .987 fielding percentage.
- He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980, becoming the tenth player in history to be inducted in his first year of eligibility.
- He was the 1973 recipient of the Roberto Clemente award.
Al retired soon after reaching the 3000 hits milestone. Immediately, he became the Tigers’ TV color commentator, a position he held until 2002. He remained a Tiger front office official until the time of his death. His 67 years with the Tigers is one of the longest tenures in major league history.
In 1998, Kaline ranked Number 76 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. His #6 has been retired by the Tigers. Cherry Street, which ran behind the left-field stands at Tiger Stadium, was renamed Kaline Drive in his honor in 1970.
RIP, Al Kaline
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Gary Livacari
Photo Credits: All from Google search
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