Al Kaline

Al Kaline is one of those players who makes you realize how rare genuine excellence really is. He went straight from high school in Baltimore to the Detroit Tigers at 18, never spending a single day in the minor leagues, and then spent every one of his 22 major league seasons in a Detroit uniform — that kind of loyalty feels almost mythological by modern standards. Winning ten Gold Gloves in right field wasn't a fluke; the man had a cannon for an arm and moved like he was born wearing a glove. He hit .340 in 1955 to become the youngest American League batting champion ever, at just 20 years old. The Tigers finally got their World Series ring in 1968 and Kaline was a big part of why. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1980, he remained a beloved ambassador for the game until his passing in 2020 — the definition of a franchise cornerstone done right.

Name (English)

Al Kaline

Name (Japanese)

アル・ケーライン

Reading

ある・けーらいん

Born

December 19, 1934 – April 6, 2020

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Sagittarius / Dog

Origin

Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Occupation

baseball player

High school

Southern High School

Awards & achievements

• Rawlings Gold Glove Award
• 1980 National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B1%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B3

Tags

• Maryland
• baseball player

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.