Al Kaline Biography

Fast Facts

• At the age of 20, he became the youngest player in the MLB to ever win a batting title
• Was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980
• His father, a broom maker by trade and a semiprofessional baseball player by passion, began working with him when he was young to develop a pitcher's arm
• As a child, he threw a ball 173․5 feet at a contest during a picnic festival, and when the disbelieving judges ordered him to throw it again, certain there was an error in the measurement, he threw it 175 feet
• Skipped the minor leagues, going directly from high school to playing for the Detroit Tigers
• Quote: "I owe everything to baseball․ Without it, I'd probably be a bum․"
• Quote: "People ask me, was it my goal to play in the majors for 20 years? Was it my goal to get 3,000 hits someday? Lord knows, I didn't have any goals․ I tell them, 'My only desire was to be a baseball player․'"
• A right fielder who played for the MLB's Detroit Tigers
• Was known for his offensive consistency on the baseball field
• Became the fourth American League player to hit two home runs in a single inning in 1955