The famed #6 of the Tigers waited...
...waited for his chance to be in a World Series.
Year after year the Tigers had to deal with the Yankees, who they could not overtake. Then it would be the Twins in 1965 and the Orioles the next year. In '67 the Tigers lost to the Angels on the last day of the season to fall just a game short of the Red Sox.
But then in 1968, it all came together for Detroit. Denny McLain won 31 games, Mickey Lolich 17. Amazingly, Kaline was just a part time player that year, as Jim Northrup played 105 games in right field. Kaline, meanwhile, played 70 games in right, 5 in left and 22 at first base.
The problem here was Ray Oyler. Despite his 111 games for the Tigers that year at shortstop, he batted .135. Needless to say, Mickey Stanley, the centerfielder, would be at short as the World Series started. Northrup moved to center, Kaline back right.
The Tigers could do little with the Cardinals, Bob Gibson in the series opener. Kaline fanned three times, as Gibson K'd 17. Kaline, did however, hit a tremendous double to left in the sixth to move Dick McAuliffe to third with 2 outs. Gibson then fanned Norm Cash to end the inning. Kaline's K's, if you want to know, were in the 1st, 4th and 9th inning. The 9th inning one was Gibson's 15th.
After going 2 for 5 in game 2 (an 8-1 Tiger victory), the Tigers came home for games 3, 4 and 5.
Game 3 was a game of homeruns, and in the bottom of the 3rd with McAuliffe on first, Al faced Ray Washburn. The Tiger fans went wild when Kaline put in deep to left for a 2-0.
Alas, it was a game of homeruns. Tim McCarver would hit a 3 run homerun off reliever Pat Dobson, putting the Cardinals up 4-2 in the 5th. McAuliff's homerun in the bottom of the frame brought the Tigers to within one, but Orlando Cepeda's 3 run shot put the game out of reach in the 7th.
Game 4 was all Bob Gibson, as the Cardinals rolled to a 10-1 win. However, Kaline made a play that I will never forget in the 4th inning.
The Cardinals speedster, Lou Brock, tripled with no one out. Then Curt Flood flied out to right.
It was a short fly, but one that Brock could have scored on against many a right fielder.
But Al fired a perfect strike to home, right on the money. Brock dared not challenge his arm.
Imagine that: you've got the fastest runner in the game, showing the great arm a lot of respect by not going home.
It's a play, when you look in the box scores of a game that, doesn't show up, other than, "A fly ball to right". But what that doesn't say is that Kaline had a arm that was respected by everyone, even the fleet footed Brock.
Brock would score anyway, as the next batter, Roger Maris, grounded out.
Kaline got two meaningless hits that game, and the Tigers were now down 3 games to 1. Were they dead? Don't you dare think so!
Game 5 had the Tigers down 3-0 early, but Kaline's single in the 7th brought home the tying and eventual winning run. The Tigers would win, 5-3.
In game 6, Kaline was the big bat of the game, as Kaline was 3/4 with 3 runs scored and 4 runs batted in. Kaline had two of his hits in the third inning, as the Tigers scored 10 runs. In the 5th, Al added a homerun. It was down to one last game!
They had to beat Bob Gibson, 6-0 in his last 6 World Series starts! The odds seemed dim. But Mickey Lolich was 2-0 in the series, and matched Gibson in 0's on the score sheet until the 7th.
Then Detroit got a break.
Mickey Stanley and Kaline went out, and Gibson had retired 20 of the first 21 batters he faced. But suddenly, Norm Cash and Willie Horton singled. Northrup was up, and he sent one to center, where Curt Flood misgudged it, (He later said he lost sight of it in the white shirts behind home plate). The Tigers added another run before the innings was over. 3-0 Tigers!
In the ninth, the Tigers nipped Gibson for another run, and the Cardinals finally got on the board when Mike Shannon homered in the St Louis half. But when McCarver popped out to Bill Freehan, the Tigers were World Series Champions!
They would not have done it without Kaline. Taking nothing away from Lolich's 3-0 record, it was Kaline who hit .379 (second on the team to Cash), 2 homeruns (tied for first with Northrup), 8 RBIs (again tied for team lead with Northrup) and 6 runs scored (tied for team lead with Horton). Amazingly, Kaline did not draw a single walk in the Series!
But it was typical of Kaline, who did so much but didn't get noticed. In his career he only once lead the league in hits, batting average and total bases, and that all came in 1955. A guy by the name of Mantle made it tough to lead the league in much of anything the next year.
Al did, however, lead the league in S% and OPS, plus also IBB in 1959. In 1963, he again lead the league in IBB.
He ended his career with a .297 batting average, 399 homeruns, and 3007 hits. A shame he couldn't hit one more homerun, as Al Kaline would have been the first player to have 3000 hits and 400 homeruns. That honour would go to Carl Yastrzemski.
In 1980, Al received his highest accolade when he was inducted into the Hall Of Fame.
References
World Series Of 1968. Dir. Dick Winik. Perf. Curty Gowdy, Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals. Major League Baseball Promotion Corp., 1968. DVD. Narrated by Curt Gowdy. DVD released in 2002.
Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. http://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. 17 Sept. 2011.
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