Al Kaline dead at 85
2020 is the fucking WORST
Crap. Al was the MAN.
Wow. Sad. Still remember seeing him make throws from the right field corner back to home plate. Who does that is this age of sports?
Team player. Don't think he ever cracked $150k per year as a player. Class all the way.
Prayers for him, his family, and the Tiger community.
RIP Mr. Tiger.
An artist in right field, and a consistently good hitter throughout his career.
Definitely a sad day for all of us Tigers fans.
https://www.wxyz.com/sports/detroit-tigers-legend-al-kaline-dies-at-the-age-of-85
"Al Kaline, the legendary Detroit Tigers outfielder who played for more than two decades, has died at the age of 85. It’s not clear what caused his death."
https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2020/04/06/al-kaline-dies-detroit-tigers/505371001/
"Al Kaline, who in a long and unique Detroit Tigers lifetime grew from youthful batting champion to Hall of Famer to distinguished elder statesman, died Monday afternoon at his home in Bloomfield Hills. He was 85.
A cause of death was not immediately available. John Morad, a close friend of the family, confirmed the news to the Free Press after speaking with Kaline's youngest son, Mike."
The family has not announced a cause of death, but there was no news that Kaline had been ill. They just said he died this afternoon at his home in Bloomfield Hills.
RIP Mr. Tiger, #6
Sad in so many ways.
Man, he'll be missed. He and Gordie are two pillars of Detroit sports - legends who somehow exceeded their professional exploits with their grace and goodwill.
I know a LOT of people who have great stories about their interactions with Al Kaline - I don't know anyone who ever said a bad thing about the man.
Had the good fortune to meet him and all the Tiger stars as a little kid after the '68 series at the Capuchin dinner (thank you dad!) - I was a little tyke, but remember how kind and approachable he was.
RIP Mr. Tiger
Yep, Kaline and Howe, my two sports heroes growing up are now gone.
Most every kid had an Al Kaline bat. Mine was 29 ounces. Great hitter, and an even greater fielder.
Had the opportunity to caddie for him once. Terrific fellow, and if my memory serves me correctly, actually used a baseball grip.
Too many stories to tell, but I vaguely recall that with the dawning of free agency, Kaline was offered a $100,000 salary by the Tiger brass, yet turned them down and signed for $95,000, stating that no ball player was worth six figures.
Haha, I had tons of those yellow "bat day" bats with Tiger autographs - dad would take me, sis, and his much younger brother - and I got to keep all the bats. Had a couple of "Kalines".
He was so graceful and such a natural athlete; I'll bet he was a damn good golfer.
RIP Mr. Kaline Great ball player Great human being, met him twice and I was just in awe of how he handled himself.
I can't even wrap my mind around this.
We can't even gather at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull for a vigil, or a game to pay tribute.
Can anything suck more than this?
His playing days were before my time but I grew up listening to him and George Kell call games, and came to learn what an icon he had been as a player. There aren't many guys who served the same franchise for decades like he did. He was an institution here.
Been with the Tigers organization for 66 years, since he signed with them at age 18, I believe.
That is incredible. How many in any field spend that long with one company?
The only ones that come to mind for me are Vin Scully and Tommy Lasorda.
Pretty rare air up there.
My favorite Al Kaline story. When my dad was younger, he passed away 2 years ago, he looked a lot like Al Kaline. We were at a demolition derby and a guy kept asking my dad if he was Kaline. Dad kept saying no. The guy kept it up. And asked for an autograph. So my dad grabs the paper and pen and signs it James Fisher. This must have been 1974 or 1975.
RIP Mr. Tiger.
Loved your story about your dad. I took my car to a shop between A2 and Ypsi in the early 90's and the mechanic asked me if I was Al Kaline. I said no, but he called another mechanic over and he said "Holy shit! You look just like him!" I told them that as far as I was concerned, that was a pretty high compliment, since Al was always my sports 'hero' growing up, just like almost every other kid my age. We used to fight over the #6 jersey whether it was Little League or high school. He really was The Man to a whole generation of Michigan kids.
Got his autographs so many times when the Tigers' plane returned from road trips at Willow Run. Still have them. Soft spoken, considerate, friendly. The night he shook my hand I was maybe 10, but it was the high-water mark of my childhood. Those trip to the airport really cemented my relationship with my father. Really didn't want to wash that hand that night.
This is all too sad. I just assumed he'd go on forever, and I'll always remember that effortless swing of his, the gracefulness of him running down a ball in the outfield, or the runners that sometimes thought of trying for an extra base on him, but never had the nerve to try.
You were the best, Al. Condolences to your family. A really tough day.
That's a great story. My dad loved to tell the story about being mistaken for Al Kaline, right up to his last days.
One of my 1960s Tiger heroes!
Fun fact: Al skipped the minors, went straight from HS to the Tigers. Legendary!
RIP Al Kaline. Thank you for being a Tiger!
Within days of his High school graduation. Amazing.
My all-time favorite Tiger, as is probably true for many of us who grew up in Michigan in the 60s. My first number on my jersey in pee-wee ball was #6, and I wanted to play in right field--coaches made me be an infielder, though. Al was a class guy all the way, whether as a player, an exec, or as an announcer. RIP Mr. Kaline.
RIP, Mr. Tiger.
I never saw him play - he was before my time. I only saw him live on the WDIV broadcasts.
But from everything I've read, there's one moment of his career that sticks out the most:
Game 5 of the World Series, on a Monday afternoon at Tiger Stadium. Cardinals lead the series 3-1. It's the bottom of the 7th, 3-2 Cardinals lead, Al Kaline comes up in the 7th with the bases loaded and 1 out.
Everyone remembers Game 7 of the World Series. But if Kaline fails here, there likely is no Game 7. The Cardinals would take a lead going into the 8th and it's likely they close out the World Series in 5.
I read a book by George Cantor about the 1968 Tigers. He wrote about how everyone in the stadium sensed that this was THE win-or-lose moment. It was the 167th game of the season and the season essentially was coming down to this at-bat.
The result: a single into right. 2 Tigers score, the Tigers take the lead, 4-3. In fact, the Tigers would never trail in the World Series again.
Incredible. It's a bit like Yzerman's Game 2 end-to-end dash and bank shot goal late in the 3rd period in the 1997 WCF against the Avalanche. Without the Kaline single or Yzerman goal, everything else after likely never happens.
The great ones always deliver in THE win-or-lose moment.
I was AT that game - again, thank you dad (RIP).
Most of it's pretty hazy, but I remember Bill Freehan blocking the plate to tag out Lou Brock - of course, I was half a mile away in the center field bleachers, but it was still incredibly exciting!
Yep - that was a key moment of that game too. Top of the 5th in a 3-2 game. Brock incredibly didn't even slide into home plate!
I can only imagine what it was like to be AT that game. Must have been awesome. Great memory! Baseball is so incredibly good in those win-or-lose, tension and drama filled games.
It was fantastic. Even better, I was able to return the favor and take dad to a WS game in '84.
Tigers only win once every generation, but those victories sure are sweet.
Can't you still hear the echo of paper cups being stomped walking out of Tiger Stadium?
Awesome on 1984! Which game were you at?
I loved Tiger Stadium. I remember the paper cups! There's something about baseball and making memories.
My first ever MLB game was my Dad and I: Friday August 17, 1984 at Tiger Stadium. I had recently turned 7.
The baseball game itself wasn't anything noteworthy --- Detroit beat a lousy Mariners team by pounding out a bunch of singles against Mike Moore. But seeing Tiger Stadium live was like the greatest thing ever. And wow was I lucky getting to experience a World Series champion team just as I was becoming aware of the world around me.
For the rest of my youth and early adulthood, I saw mostly lousy Tiger teams. But as I came of age, I must have made 10-20 trips a year down to The Corner. Oh my God, did I see a lot of bad baseball. Including some from the aforementioned Mike Moore!
Went to games 3 and 4, but took dad to game 3.
I also managed to see the Tigers here in SF in 2012 WS - game 1, where Fat Panda hit 3 dingers.
Another great memory was the '71 all-star game. 6 future hall of famers hit HRs, and Reg Jax hit what many say was the longest HR ever (or would have been if not for the light tower) - sat in upper deck left field for that one, and damn near got Killebrew's HR ball.
Tiger Stadium was a great place. My great-grandpa saw Cobb, gramps saw Ruth and Greenberg, dad watched Mantle and Kaline, and I saw guys from Lolich and McLain to Morris, Trammell and Sweet Lou.
As a teenager, one of those usher dudes in the green suits always recognized me, and if he hadn't yet gotten rid of them, would sell me his front row seats, right next to the visitor's dugout - at face value, which wasn't that much back then.
Great memories - and Mr. Kaline was prominent.
JFC—Honor Blackman and Al Kaline on the same day. My childhood is draining away.
I read in one of the articles (Freep or Det News) that he had recently suffered a stroke.
31st all-time with 3,007 hits.
He retired with 399 career HRs. I saw an interview with him once where he said that if he had known he was only one away from 400 when he was thinking about retiring, he would’ve played one more year.
Some years ago read that he didn't know he was at 399. He didn't even take what would have been his last 2 at bats. He could have easily got that 400th. If he had, he would have been only the 4th player to hit 400 home runs and 3000 hits in their career. (others were Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Stan Musial) There are still only seven today.
Not only that, he earned 10 Golden Gloves. He was, and still is, the only payer to achieve those 3 three milestones,
He also hit for average - just shy of the .300 mark (.297). He really could do it all.
I played one season of Little League ball with Al's son Mark (and Hank Aguirre's son, Rance). He always stayed in the background at our practices and games, didn't want to call attention to himself. RIP to Mr. Tiger, #6 -- my first pro sports hero.
I fucking quit.
I knew this day was coming soon, but it is still shocking. He was great on and off the field.
One of the most overlooked HOF greats. His photo is next to "class" in the dictionary. Had the pleasure of meeting him after a round at Oakland Hills, took time to shake my hand and sign my scorecard for an autograph.
This makes me want to cry.
One of the smooooothest baseball player I have ever seen. #6
My 2 TRUE Al Kaline stories. He was just a bit before my time but my dad was a huge fan of his and talked about him often, about him throwing runners out at first from right field. I woulda been 5 when he retired. Of course I grew up watching him and Kell call games.
They retired his jersey between games of a Sunday double header on my birthday - Aug 17th and don't remember the year, had to be very late 70's or early 80's. Vs. the A's and it was a rainy day with maybe 2 delays during both games. After the jersey ceremony I found myself in the "concourse" for lack of a better term and there comes Kaline walking from the field to some other area where he could get to the booth or somewhere else. He was flanked by two huge bodyguards who were pretty much swatting everyone away who was running up and asking for autographs and there was a big throng gathering and moving with them. No one was getting autographs and they were walking at a pretty steady clip. I was very close and noticed a kid sorta my age duck underneath one of the bodyguards and get in front and ask if he could shake his hand. Of course Kaline did. I followed that lead and did the exact same thing. Got a hand shake and then they were down some ramp and gone. Got to brag about that for awhile.
When I was a bit younger than that I got something electronic for X-mas. I asked my parents why did it take Al Kaline batteries? They laughed. I didn't understand why.
The last of the Tiger voices from my childhood. Ernie, Paul, George and Al. All were great and their voices were the voices of summer.
RIP.
A great ballplayer and a great, classy gentleman. He will definitely be missed!
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!!!!!!
RIP Big Al. You were a class act all the way.
IMO, the greatest fielding right fielder in American League history. Along with Roberto Clemente (NL) one of the two greatest in ML history.
I'm just old enough to remember his latter playing days, in the early 70s. Back when Billy Martin was our coach. I still remember how exciting that '72 season was when we hung on against the Red Sox to win the east division. Too bad the Oakland series did not go better for us. RIP Al, also I really enjoyed his color analyst role in the broadcast booth when games were televised.
The last Tiger game I went to, Kaline hit a solo home run. Been a while. He was always a favorite and somewhere I have many baseball cards with his face on them.
I was lucky enough to watch his entire career. He was worth the price of admission to watch him play right field. He used to tap his glove on looping liners that he he knew he couldn’t get to and freeze the runner at first half way to second. He would then play it on one hop and force the runner at second. I met him at a card show a few years ago and told him I was at the game he hit 2 homers in the same inning. A very rare accomplishment. This one hurts. Just like Gordie Howe. They were sports royalty in this town and both perfect gentlemen. RIP #6.
Another hero gone. I played Western Michigan high school baseball and wore that Tiger’s #6 proudly. Great memories growing up idolizing Al Kaline. God bless him and may he Rest In Peace.
Anyone else notice he died on a April 6 ... guess his number was up today. Crazy times.
Met Mr. Kaline on a couple of occasions. Always a classy guy. RIP
One of the greatest compliments you can give Al Kaline
When he went into the baseball Hall of Fame in 1980,he was only the 15th player in history (til that point) to go into the Hall of Fame his first year on the Ballet
Every first-ballot Hall of Famer in MLB history
Al Kaline was the first "bonus baby" in MLB agreeing to a contract at 17 ,but couldnt sign til he was18,the first under 20 year old to sign a MLB contract of $35 000+
I wore #6 in baseball every year but two, from 10 to 18.