Tuesday, April 26, 2011

#130 Al Kaline

#130 Al Kaline
See? I promised big names this week, and I was true to my word, though we'll call Commish Bob's tongue-in-cheek guess of Frank Bertaina close but no cigar. Al Kaline is the only Baseball Hall of Famer (that I know of) who has a pH value higher than 7.3. Correct me if I'm wrong, baseball/chemistry nerds.

Fun facts about Al Kaline:

-A native of Baltimore, MD, Al went from Southern High School to the major leagues as a $35,000 bonus baby.

-As an 18-year-old rookie in 1953, he appeared in 30 games as a late-inning replacement, collecting 7 hits in 28 at-bats (.250) with 9 runs scored, a home run, and a pair of RBI.

-Kaline was Detroit's starting right fielder in a sophomore, but took a quantum leap the following season at age 20 (1955). He batted .340 to become the youngest player to win a batting title, beating out fellow Tiger great Ty Cobb by a single day. He also paced the A.L. with 200 hits and 321 total bases. He led his team with 121 runs scored, 8 triples, 27 home runs, 82 walks, and a .421 OBP and .546 SLG. His 102 RBI ranked second on the club to Ray Boone. The young slugger made the first of 15 All-Star teams, and was narrowly edged out by Yogi Berra for MVP honors.

-That 1955 campaign started with a bang, as he went 4-for-5 with 3 homers and 6 RBI in a 16-0 romp over the A's on April 17. It was Detroit's sixth game of the year.

-He never did win an MVP, though he was a top-ten finisher nine times. Another second-place finish came in 1963, when he batted .312/.375/.514 with 27 homers and 101 RBI. The numbers show that there were no standout candidates that year, but Elston Howard benefited from putting up a .287/.342/.528 line with 28 home runs and 85 RBI while catching 132 games for the American League Champion Yankees. He won the award in a rout.

-His greatest virtue as an outfielder was his strong and accurate throwing arm, which helped him collect 10 Gold Gloves in his career.

-When the Tigers finally reached the World Series in 1968, Al was 33, but he didn't show his age. The veteran batted .379 (11-for-29) with 2 home runs and 8 RBI to help deliver the Motor City's first baseball championship since 1945. A two-run single off of Nelson Briles in the seventh inning of Game 5 gave the Tigers the lead for good.

-Even in his late thirties, Kaline remained near the league-average in production. He was able to play 147 games in his farewell season of 1974 while DHing full-time, batting .262 with 65 walks, 13 home runs, and 64 RBI. He collected his 3,000th career hit off of Baltimore's Dave McNally in a road game on September 24, a fourth-inning double. Even though he didn't accomplish the feat in front of a home crowd, he was at least able to do it in his home town.

-He spent his entire 22-year career with the Tigers, batting .297 with 498 doubles, 399 home runs, and 1,583 RBI.

-Al had his #6 retired by the Tigers in 1980, the same year in which he was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a first-year honoree. He has remained a part of the Detroit organization ever since, serving as a color commentator on TV broadcasts until 2002. He's been a front office consultant and an instructor since then.
#130 Al Kaline (back)

6 comments:

  1. I bet you could ask a thousand baseball people and not one would have anything bad to say about Al Kaline. That, and the fact that he's a Balmer guy, make him a real favorite of mine. Too bad there were no Orioles when he was signing, we might have had another Hall of Famer to brag about.

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  2. Bob - Of course if the O's had Kaline in right field, they might never have been tempted to trade for Frank Robinson. There's a reason for everything.

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  3. Yeah, I thought about that. We'd have made it work if we somehow had them both. Frank played some in left. Baseball lends itself to What if' fun.

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  4. Well, if the O's had had Kaline in RF, they might have won a pennant before 1966.

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  5. alkaline--the only player named after a battery

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