A Tiger Legend

It was on this day in 1983 that George Kell was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Growing up, George was the broadcast partner of Al Kaline for the Detroit Tigers TV games from 1965-1996. He reminded me a lot of Ernie Harwell in that he always sounded friendly and had plenty of stories. He actually broadcast some radio games with Ernie. He had quite a career as a player, too.

He began his career with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1943. He moved to the Detroit Tigers in 1946 and went on to play for the Chicago White Sox, Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles. In his career, Kell batted .306, with 78 home runs and 870 RBI’s, 881 runs scored, 2054 hits, 385 doubles, 50 triples, 51 stolen bases, a .414 slugging average, and 621 walks for a .367 on-base percentage. He posted a career .971 fielding percentage. Kell played 1,795 games, but he never played for a team that made the postseason or the World Series.

Other highlights:

10-time All-Star (1947–54, 1956–57)
Eight consecutive .300 seasons (1946–53)
AL batting champion, led the majors in batting average (1949)
Holds record of the fewest strikeouts for a batting champion (13, in 1949)
Twice led the league in hits and doubles (1950–51)
Hit for the cycle (June 2, 1950)
Had 6 hits in a game (September 20, 1946)
Top 10 in AL MVP vote (1947, 1949, 1950)

One of my favorite George Kell quotes is “Never let yourself get fooled by the same pitcher on the same pitch on the same day.”

The other great quote came on this day in 1983. During his Hall of Fame Induction speech he said, “I have suspected for a long time that George Kell has taken more from this great game than he would ever be able to put back. And now today I know that I am more deeply in debt than ever before.”