I grew up in rural Michigan, and I got to see the middle and late stages of Al Kaline's career. He was steady... never a hot-head. He was the definitive "we" ballplayer who didn't put his personal statistics above winning the game. He typically let ball four sail past him, and if a single was easier to get than a home run and the single was enough for the time, he became a singles hitter. If he didn't get the devastating hit because he walked, there were the formidable hitters Norm Cash and Willie Horton who might make the walk to Kaline just another Tiger run scored. He made no mistakes in the field, but he had a throwing arm that many pitchers could envy for reliability. He turned many many would-be doubles into singles followed by outfield assists... and forced base-runners to be satisfied with a single, which kept the double play in order if he didn't quite catch the ball.
If I had been a baseball player I would have modeled myself upon him if possible.
He ended up just one home run short of 400...
If I had been a baseball player I would have modeled myself upon him if possible.
He ended up just one home run short of 400...
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.