Posted on 03/24/2009 10:05:53 AM PDT by RckyRaCoCo
Baseball Hall of Famer George Kell has passed away. He was 86.
Kell, a Swifton native, played third base for the Philadelphia Athletics, Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, and Baltimore Orioles in the 1940's and 1950's. He was considered one of the best third basemen ever to play the game.
Kell retired from baseball and moved to the broadcast booth announcing the game on radio. Most of his years were spent broadcasting Detroit Tigers games. He was inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983. An announcement about his death is expected later today from Cooperstown, NY.
ping
Kell is a HOF’er who went in the same year as Brooks Robinson.
Only saw him on TV, bur was he good! Talk about making it look easy. Good hitter too.
RIP
He checked his mail daily and signed every autograph request. One of them he signed was for me. I used to send baseball cards for signatures to the old time players, with a self addressed stamped envelope. I forgot to put the card in with the letter, so he signed a three by five and returned it to me. I then sent another letter apologizing and he signed that one too. Mr. Kell’s brother, Skeeter also signed a 1953 Bowman Philadelphia Athletics card for me. They don't come any better than those two gentlemen.
For some of us, baseball is in our blood. Our blood just thinned a great deal. Rest in peace, Mr. Kell. Your new glove is waiting in Heaven. Great team they have up there. Us old time fans have our caps in our hands today.
I remember listening to George Kell and Ernie Harwell as a kid.
RIP
Me too.
I was lucky enough to be able to get the autographs of Ernie Harwell and his partner Paul Carey for free a number of years ago.
I got to hear George on tv with Al Kaline when the Tigers were still owned by John Fetzer and Dominos Pizza founder Tom Monaghan.
Me too. If they weren't the best broadcast team in the history of the sport, they were awful darn close.
Me too. Ernie WAS baseball in Michigan. I still remember hearing his voice coming from cars or houses when the Tigers were playing. Fond memories.
When local Fort Wayne TV would pick up some Tiger games in the late 60s he was on with someone after Harwell went full time to radio and before Kaline retired and went to the booth. I can’t find the name online and can’t remember who it was. Kell was great.
I heard the news earlier today, sad loss. Prayers to his family, friends and fans.
The sound of summer!
There are plenty of baseball fans in Southwestern Ontario like myself who have many fond memories of hearing “It’s a beautiful day for a ballgame” enunciated in that honeyed Southern drawl at the opening of another television broadcast of a Detroit Tiger match.
Thanks to people like George Kell, I had enjoyable summers (even when the Tigers were bad!) and a wonderful childhood.
“They’re gonna wave him in.”
Rest in peace, true gentleman!
I must have seen Kell play toward the end of his career, but don't recall it. Then again, I'm a National League fan, so I didn't particularly follow him.
I just looked up the guy's statistics - he was good but not great. If the guy was so tremendous, he wouldn't have been traded four times in the middle of different seasons. That would just about qualify him as a "journeyman" in an era before agents and free agents. Also, he never played for a pennant winning team, and only twice did his teams come within ten games or less of the pennant winner. So most of his career was spent in relative obscurity with mediocre or bad teams.
Did he deserve to be in the Hall of Fame? Very debatable. Even though it's not supposed to be considered as a factor, his long broadcasting career and friends gained from that might have been decisive in his HOF election..
I'm not knocking a guy whom I never met and just passed away, merely being objective in a strict baseball sense.
I am only commenting as one who has played the game. He was very good, As I said, he made it look easy. Moved better than Robinson.
“He hit it a mile!” I loved it when he and Kaline covered the games.
We’ll miss ya George! Always a Tiger for the ages...
“They’re gonna wave him in.”
I hear George's voice, saying it. Thanks.
Great memories. Condolences to George Kell's family and friends. R.I.P. Sir.
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