It seemed as though Al Kaline was born to play right field. He played it with a consistent excellence that was not matched by anyone else in the American League during the 1960s.
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| Al Kaline |
Fifteen times an American League All-Star, Kaline won 10 Gold Gloves for his play in right field. Seven of those Gold Gloves were earned in the 1960s, when Kaline dominated that award by winning it from 1961 through 1967. Between 1957 and 1967, the only season when Kaline didn’t win a Gold Glove was 1960, when he spent most of the season as the Detroit Tigers’ center fielder. (During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Gold Glove for center field belonged to Jim Landis of the Chicago White Sox.) When the Tigers acquired Bill Bruton in 1961, Kaline returned to his natural position in right field and resumed his standing as the league’s best.
Kaline was not blessed with blazing speed or a gun-like arm. But he was baseball smart and made the most of his considerable athletic abilities (just as he did in the batter’s box). He was graceful in every aspect of his game. His throwing accuracy was deadly to careless base runners.
Kaline spent all of his 22 major league seasons with the Tigers. In addition to his defensive accomplishments, Kaline had a career batting average of .297, winning the American League batting title by hitting .340 in 1955. At age 20, he remains the youngest batting champion in major league history. He retired with 3,007 hits.
Kaline was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980.
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