Al Kaline Leaves Rich Legacy For Fans Who Loved Him As “Mr. Tiger”

Hall of Famer Al Kaline, who spent his entire 22-year career with the Detroit Tigers, left a rich legacy when he passed away Monday at age 85.

A Baltimore native who reached the Detroit Tigers as a teenager without ever playing in the minors, Kaline was only 20 when he became the youngest batting champion in baseball history in 1955, his first full season.

En route to 3,007 career hits, he made the American League All-Star team 18 times and led the Tigers to a world championship in 1968. The 6-1, 175-pound rightfielder, who played first base late in his career, was a player from 1953-74, a broadcaster from 1965-2001, and a Tiger front-office official from 2001-20.

He hit 399 home runs, more than any other Tiger, and had more hits than any Detroit player not named Ty Cobb. A 10-time Gold Glove recipient who once threw out a runner from a sitting position, Kaline was the first man to have his number (6) retired by the team. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first try in 1980.

“We’ve lost an icon,” said Alan Trammell, who reached the Hall of Fame in 2018 after a 19-year career spent exclusively in Detroit. “He will always be ‘Mr. Tiger.’”

Long-time Tiger pitcher Justin Verlander, who won the 2019 American League Cy Young Award while pitching for the Houston Astros, was also quick to remember him.

“Such a kind and generous man who meant so much to so many,” Verlander wrote of Kaline on Twitter. “I hope you knew how much I enjoyed our conversations about baseball, life, or just giving each other a hard time. I am honored to have been able to call you my friend for all these years.”

The late Charlie Dressen, who managed Kaline with the Tigers from 1963-66, once called Kaline the best player he ever managed – quite a compliment from a man who also managed Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron.

“For all-around ability – I mean hitting, fielding, running, and throwing – I’ll go with Al,” Dressen said.

When Kaline hit .340 to win the 1955 American League batting crown before he was old enough to vote, the Tigers knew they had an exceptional talent. But he never made more than $110,000 a year – a plateau he reached in his final season of 1974 – because he retired two years before the advent of free agency.

It was in 1974 that he became the 12th man to join the 3,000 Hit Club. The first Tiger to do it since Cobb, he was the first American Leaguer to do it since Eddie Collins in 1925.

Kaline caught another Hall of Famer who played during the Roaring ‘20s when he played in at least 100 games for 19 consecutive seasons, an American League record. He carved a niche of his own in the baseball record book by playing 242 consecutive games in the outfield without an error.

“You almost have to watch him every day to appreciate what he does,” said former World Series MVP Johnny Podres of Kaline, a teammate with the Tigers. “You hear about him, sure, but you really can’t understand until you see him, He just never makes a mistake.”

He never hit more than 29 home runs in a season or had more than 128 runs batted in but was widely admired for his consistency. When it counted most, Kaline came through; his .379 batting average against the St. Louis Cardinals in the seven-game 1968 World Series included two home runs and eight runs batted in.

He finished second in the American League batting race in 1959, 1961, and 1963 and third in 1966 and 1967. He was also second in runs batted in twice, in 1956 and 1963, and second in the voting for Most Valuable Player in 1955 and 1963.

He came closest to taking home the MVP hardware in 1955, when he polled 201 votes, just 17 behind winner Yogi Berra of the Yankees.

“I owe everything to baseball,” Kaline once said. “Without it, I’d probably be a bum.”