RIP Al Kaline
 

One of the heros of my childhood, when all I knew about bikes was how to patch an inner tube and that my bike set me free. I never walked again, if I could ride. I was a Detroit Tigers fan, living in Massachusetts and NYC. I had a "real" (wool?) cap and an Al Kaline autographed (mass-production) bat that was my pride and joy. The days of Stratamatic Baseball...Amazing, he was a year​​​​​​ younger than my father. RIP

Yes, Al Kaline was one of the heroes when I was a young boy and devouring all I could about the best baseball players. Al Kaline, Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, and for a north-side Chicago kid it was Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, Glen Beckert, Fergie Jenkins... It seems like it was a simpler time then but I suspect that was not really the case. Still... I'm missing baseball this spring.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ab6266e5c.jpeg
Owned this card since 1973. Had it autographed around 1980.

I grew up in Detroit and was fortunate to watch him play many times. He will be remembered !

Rest In Peace indeed. I was 11 years old and living in Detroit in 1968, the year the Tigers beat the Cards in a very exciting Series. Kaline was a huge part of that gritty team; he certainly was the face of the franchise during those years.
The Tigers World Series victory was exactly what the city needed following the riots and tension of 1967. I have a lot of memories of listening to the Tigers games that seemed to be playing everywhere on the radio that magical summer.
Thanks Al; you were one of the great ones!

Remember watching that series in class, elementary school, if we behaved that morning we got to watch the afternoon games on the classroom television set. Even though I was a serious Cards/Bob Gibson fan, I respected Detroit that year, Kaline was one of the players my father really liked, we watched games together when he was at home during each year's series, and my first fielder's glove was a Kaline model. Another giant from my childhood has left us, sad indeed.

Bill

They weren’t cutting us any of that kind of slack in the Detroit elementary school I went to. All of the World Series was played in the afternoons then; I remember tearing home as fast as I could run to try to catch the games from the 5th inning on.

(un)fortunately not old enough to have seen most of the 60's giants of baseball in person-except at the tail end for a few-but devoured the local (and substantial) library for every
baseball bio/book they had. grew up reading about kaline. koufax. gibson. clemente. mantle. flood. the sf willies. drysdale. marichal. yaz. frank robinson. brock. killebrew.
elston howard. freehan. banks. mclain. brooks robinson. wills. santo. ford. aaron. if i could set the time machine and head back for a week (preferably two) from this era...if i hadda
pick a year...prob 1965 or 1966, i would catch a baseball game every day. what a great era of talent and players.

My dad was not a spots fan except for open wheeled racing. He raced micromidgets before i was born. However i loved watching baseball on tv. Al kaline, harmon killebrew and karl yaztremski were my favorites...

He was great ballplayer. But his accomplishments extended well beyond baseball. For example, how many people even know that invented the alkaline battery?

^^^^^ IIRC, his teammates called him "Salty", because of what his name spelled.

Yeah, the '68 series was a seven-game squeaker, IIRC, they came back from being down 3 games to 1. They also won the division in '72, and an in-law relative of mine worked for the team organization at the time. She got me a baseball autographed by ALL of them, Kaline, Norm Cash, etc. Alas, even in storage out of the light, it has faded considerably.

I was an Orioles fan as a kid and I collected a ton of Tops baseball cards. My friend and I traded back and forth to complete our American League team rosters. I remember Al Kaline, he was the Tigers to me.

It wasn't a big deal, we caught maybe two or three innings before dismissal bell. I only lived 3 blocks from the school, straight west on the sidewalk and hang a right, fourth house on the right. My dad always took vacation time off to paint our house during the series and watch those afternoon games.

His office crew had a pool for the series every year, he won the only time ever, on a Saturday afternoon game that Detroit took, 11-1, IIRC. We watched that one until the last out, never found out how much he won, probably a fiver at best. Baseball games were always watched back when it was not the wall to wall sports coverage that is crowding the channels now. Saturdays were Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese calling the afternoon game. Old Dizz Charcoal Briquettes were big sponsors. Mom fixed hot dogs for us every weekend, man I can taste them still.

Bill

I played my best ball with an Al Kaline autographed glove. AK was the only American Leaguer I liked. It was Dodgers all the way for me, until they moved.