By David Fleet
Editor
Al Kaline recalled a game against Cleveland in 1955, the year he won the American League batting championship with a .340 average, when he was only 20 years old. He was playing right field when Indians’ pitcher Early Wynn, himself a fair hitter, lined a shot into right-center.
“I sure do remember that one,” Al said. “It was really just instinct.”
The graceful-fielding Kaline sprinted and cut off the ball before it could roll to the wall for a sure double, recalled Bill Haney, a Brandon Township resident and friend of Kaline. But he slipped on the wet grass and ended up on the seat of his pants. Wynn rounded first, saw Kaline go down and trotted towards second base, sure there would be no throw.
From a seated position, Kaline’s rifle-like arm fired a laser to shortstop Harvey Kuenn, who waited for the shocked Wynn to be tagged out.
Haney, a long time author who was involved in running the Gehringer-Kaline Meadow Brook Golf Classic, an annual event to raise funds to help preserve Meadow Brook Hall and support student-athletes, recently shared his memories of Kaline.
Kaline, a Bloomfield Hills resident died April 6, 2020.
He was 85 years old.
Kaline attended Southern High School, in Baltimore, Md. and bypassed minor league baseball. He joined the Tigers directly from high school as an 18-year-old “bonus baby” signee, with $35,000 ($334,459 in today’s dollars) to sign with the team. He played 22 seasons for the Detroit Tigers, where he won ten Gold Glove awards, selected to 18 All-Star Games, including selections each year between 1955 and 1967 and was a member of the 1968 World Championship Tigers. He recorded 3,007 hits, batted a career .297 and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980.
“Al told me he would do whatever was asked of him to make the (Meadow Brook Hall) event successful, so we met often and always found time to talk baseball,” said Haney. “I had written and produced documentary films on both Gehringer and Harwell which were used at the annual golf event and then provided to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Al and I would talk about Charlie’s glory days, Ernie’s legendary career and about his own reminiscences of the game.”
Because of the high regard throughout baseball for Al Kaline and Charlie Gehringer, Haney said there was a succession of sports legends of the game participating every year. From baseball, Hall of Famers Hank Greenberg, Sparky Anderson, Ernie Harwell, George Kell, and many Detroit Tiger stars. Other baseball luminaries included Commissioners Bowie Kuhn and Peter Ueberroth and popular announcers like Joe Garagiola.
Haney recalled in the early 1960s, John Wyatt a dominating relief pitcher for the Kansas City Royals.
“He (Wyatt) was often asked who was the batter he most feared in a tense situation,” he said. “His answer, “With the game on the line, you don’t want to see “The ‘Line” stepping into that batter’s box. That was Wyatt’s nickname for Al Kaline, a sentiment shared by other closers in the American League for Detroit’s No. 6.”
“Kaline would go down in baseball lore as one the finest defensive right-fielders ever to play the game, as well as a feared clutch hitter and a gracious ambassador over his six decades in America’s pastime,” said Haney.