Al Kaline

Indeed, Kaline had missed much of the 1968 season nursing a broken arm while the Tigers were roaring to the top of the American League standings. But he recovered in time to take his place in the World Series, which pitted the Tigers against the National League St. Louis Cardinals. The "Cards" had taken the three of the first four games of the series, placing the Tigers in a precarious position. But in the seventh inning of Game Five, with the Cardinals leading three to two, the Tigers put men on all three bases. Kaline stepped to the plate and singled to center field, driving in two runs and earning the hitter a standing ovation. The single gave Detroit a five-to-three win. The Tigers rallied to take Game Six. The Detroit team went on to win the tiebreaking Game Seven, clinching the Tigers' first World Series victory in decades—and providing much-needed emotional lift for the city of Detroit following a year marked by racial strife and rioting.

Kaline's fielding skills in the outfield were unsurpassed. He "made playing right field into an art form," wrote a contributor to BaseballLibrary.com. "Never a wasted motion, never a wrong decision." Kaline once played 242 consecutive games without a single outfield error. In a 1994 wire article for the Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, George Puscas recalled the artistry of Kaline's glovework: "The best throw I ever saw was one Kaline made from the rightfield fence down the line to home plate, on the fly, to nail a Yankee runner.… Yankees poured from the dugout not to protest the call, but to applaud Kaline." Only Kaline and Joe DiMaggio, added Puscas, "are viewed as the near-equal of all the outfield greats who proceeded them."

But it was his batting that won Kaline the most acclaim. He celebrated his 2,500th hit in June, 1970. Four years later, on September 24, 1974, Kaline tallied his 3,000th hit in his hometown, Baltimore. By now a senior member of the Tigers organization, Kaline continued to play out the 1974 season. When it was over he retired, having logged 3,007 hits, 399 home runs, and a .297 lifetime average. He was also one of the highest-paid ballplayers of his day, earning $92,000 per year by 1970.

Could this soft-spoken slugger possibly have accomplished more? No less an authority than Ted Williams thought so. The legendary hitter included Kaline among the greats—like Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle—who might have reached Williams's legendary batting average. "I used to think that Al Kaline could hit .400, or Mantle," wrote Williams in his autobiography. "But Mantle missed the ball too much … And time ran out on Kaline and Mays."

Staying close to his game, Kaline joined the Detroit Tigers broadcast team and served as a commentator, along with fellow teammate George Kell, for many years. In 1999 he once again donned his uniform to mark the end of an era—the last day of 90-year-old Tiger Stadium, which had been closed in favor of a new ballpark in Detroit. Detroit Free Press writer Steven Crowe attended the September ceremony and reported that Kaline's introduction sparked a 76-second standing ovation. Showing uncharacteristic emotion, the hitter "stepped back from the microphone, cleared his throat, took his hat off, lowered his head," noted Crowe. Then "Mr. Tiger" recovered and "delivered a superbly fitting and brief farewell."