Al Kaline
Birth Name:
Albert William Kaline
Birth Place:
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Profession
Actor
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
- Skipped the minor leagues, going directly from high school to playing for the Detroit Tigers
- 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
- 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