Al Kaline, the great Detroit Tigers outfielder who passed away Monday, was one of those ballplayers whom fathers held up as role models for their sons back in the day. His persona was that of the quiet, unpretentious All-Star, a man of great but understated confidence, good manners, sportsmanship, and a commitment to personal excellence. We know he was, like all men, much more complex than that public image. But unlike so many, he rarely, if ever, allowed his personality to overshadow his performance. He was a good one all right, one of the best outfielders to ever play the game, a multi-tool player who overcame physical handicaps to build a 22-year career, 18 times an All-Star, his career bookended by two events: a batting championship at age 20 and a world championship at 34.
In between he was often taken for granted; it was his fate to play right field at the same time as Henry Aaron, Frank Robinson, and Roberto Clemente, all of them, like Kaline, first-ballot Hall of Famers. In our lifetime it's Clemente's career to which Kaline's has regularly been joined in comparison. Kaline, though four months younger than Clemente, came up two years earlier and was already the reigning AL batting champion when Roberto took his first cuts. While it took a good decade for people to realize Clemente was a great player, Kaline experienced the opposite effect-- a decade later, sometimes folks outside Detroit had to be reminded he was still around, and still great.
Both rose to the occasion and played brilliantly in the World Series their teams won late in their careers. Clemente's heroic and tragic death, of course, elevated his public image far above Kaline's in the 1970s, and we would bet that 90% of baseball fans over the age of 50 today would name Clemente before Kaline in a discussion of the greatest right fielders of their youth. Overall, they're very close. Kaline has the edge as a hitter: more power, more walks, more speed, more runs and more RBI per season, a lifetime 134 OPS+ to 130. While excellent defensively-- he played center field as well as he played right field-- Kaline, like almost every other outfielder, pales in comparison to his NL rival, whose 12.2 defensive WAR ranks in the top five of all outfielders. (Did you know three of the top four in all-time career dWAR are Baltimore Orioles-- Belanger, Brooks, and Ripken? Al Kaline was born in Baltimore and early in his career, was known as the "Baltimore Greyhound" for his speed. But we digress. Frequently.)
There'as an excellent biography of Al Kaline at sabr.org. He ranks with Ty Cobb and Harry Heilmann as the greatest of Detroit Tigers outfielders. He's still the youngest batting champion in baseball history. After his 1974 retirement he remained with his team as a broadcaster and goodwill ambassador; all told, 47 years a Tiger. They named a street behind the stadium after him, and he lived in the Detroit area all his life. For those of you who never saw him play, there's some video from the 1968 World Series out there, in which he hit .379 with 8 RBI in seven games. A picture of grace and of determination on the baseball field, Al Kaline long ago earned his place as one of the game's immortals.
