George Clyde Kell (August 23, 1922 – March 24, 2009) was an American

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

who played 15 seasons for the Philadelphia Athletics (1943–1946), Detroit Tigers (1947–1952),

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

(1952–1954),

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

(1954–1956), and

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

(1956–57). Kell went on to become a Detroit Tigers broadcaster for 37 years. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983. Kell was an All-Star for ten seasons. In 1949, he won the American League (AL) batting title hitting .343 with 59

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the ba ...

(RBI). In 1950, he hit .340 with 101 RBI and led the AL in hits and doubles. In 1951, he hit .319 with 59 RBI and led the AL in hits, singles, and doubles. He hit .300 or more for nine seasons. Kell struck out only 287 times in 6,702 at-bats during his career.

Baseball career

In college, Kell played for

Arkansas State Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

, where the baseball facility,

Tomlinson Stadium–Kell Field Tomlinson Stadium–Kell Field is a baseball venue located in Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States. It has been home to the Arkansas State Red Wolves college baseball team of the Division I Sun Belt Conference since 1993.Tomlinson Stadium—Kell Field
at admin.xosn.com, URL accessed June 25, 2010
Archived
06-25-10 George Kell

Kell was a ten-time All-Star, batted over .300 nine times and topped the league's third basemen in assists and

total chances In baseball statistics, total chances (TC), also called ''chances offered'', represents the number of plays in which a defensive player has participated. It is the sum of putouts plus assists plus errors. ''Chances accepted'' refers to the total ...

four times and in fielding percentage seven times. Kell entered the leagues with the Philadelphia Athletics as a September call-up in the 1943 season. He appeared in one game on September 28, facing the St. Louis Browns as the starting third baseman and batted third. The next year, he would play 139 games for the Athletics, and Kell batted .268 while having 138 hits while receiving a few votes for MVP. It was the first season that he would finish in the top ten in at-bats per strikeout, going 22.3 at-bats per strikeout to finish 8th in the American League. The following year, he would improve by batting .272 with 154 hits (30 doubles). In 1946 Kell played 26 games with the Athletics before being traded to Detroit on May 18 for

Barney McCosky William Barney McCosky (April 11, 1917 – September 6, 1996) was an outfielder in Major League Baseball. From 1939 through 1953, he played for the Detroit Tigers (1939–42, 1946), Philadelphia Athletics (1946–1948, 1950–1951), Cincinnati Re ...

. In the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

, he ranked in the top ten for batting average with .322 for the year (fourth) and on-base percentage with .372 (9th) alongside hits (168, 8th). Interestingly, he led the league in sacrifice hits with 15. He played 131 games at third base and led the league in putouts, assists, fielding percentage and double plays. He played 152 games in 1947 and hit .320 with 188 hits, garnering his first All-Star selection and finishing 5th in MVP voting. He was hampered by issues in the 1948 season, playing just 92 games while batting .304 with 112 hits, although he garnered MVP voting and an All-Star selection. He would bounce back in with his first and only batting title by batting .343, denying

Ted Williams Theodore Samuel Williams (August 30, 1918 – July 5, 2002) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, primarily as a left fielder, for the Boston Red Sox from 1 ...

his third

Triple Crown Triple Crown may refer to: Sports Horse racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing (United States) ** Triple Crown Trophy ** Triple Crown Productions * Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Tri ...

; until the final week of the season, Williams had led the batting race. On October 2, 1949, Kell went 2-for-3 while Williams was hitless in two official at bats. Kell's final mark was .3429, Williams' .3427. He had 179 hits while walking a career high 71 times with 13 strikeouts. One year later, Kell batted .340, leading the league with 218 hits and 56 doubles, but lost the batting title to Williams' teammate, Red Sox second baseman

Billy Goodman William Dale Goodman (March 22, 1926 – October 1, 1984) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) infielder who played 16 seasons for the Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox, and Houston Colt .45s, from 1947 through 1962. Go ...

. However, he led the league in numerous categories, playing 157 games while having 218 hits and 56 doubles to go with a .982% fielding percentage, which was the third time he did so. He led the league in hits for a second and final time the next year, having 191 in 147 games to go with 36 doubles while batting .319. It would be his last full year with the Tigers, as he was traded after 39 games alongside

Hoot Evers Walter Arthur "Hoot" Evers (February 8, 1921 – January 25, 1991) was an American baseball outfielder, scout, coach, and executive. Evers played professional baseball from 1941 to 1942 and 1946 to 1956, including 12 seasons in Major League Bas ...

Johnny Lipon John Joseph Lipon (November 10, 1922 – August 17, 1998) was an American Major League Baseball shortstop for the Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Browns and Cincinnati Redlegs over the course of nine seasons (1942; 1946; 1948–1954). T ...

and

Dizzy Trout Paul Howard "Dizzy" Trout (June 29, 1915 – February 28, 1972) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher from to , most notably as a member of the Detroit Tigers team that finished ...

to the

for

Walt Dropo Walt is a masculine given name, generally a short form of Walter, and occasionally a surname. Notable people with the name include: People Given name * Walt Arfons (1916-2013), American drag racer and competition land speed record racer * Walt B ...

, Fred Hatfield,

Don Lenhardt Donald Eugene Lenhardt (October 4, 1922 – July 9, 2014) was an American outfielder, first baseman, third baseman, scout and coach in American Major League Baseball. In his playing days, he stood tall, weighed , and threw and batted right-hande ...

Johnny Pesky John Michael Pesky (born John Michael Paveskovich; February 27, 1919 – August 13, 2012), nicknamed "The Needle" and "Mr. Red Sox", was an American professional baseball player, manager and coach. He was a shortstop and third baseman during a ...

and

Bill Wight William Robert Wight (April 12, 1922 – May 17, 2007) was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played from through for the New York Yankees (1946–47), Chicago White Sox (1948–50), Boston Red Sox (1951–52), Detroit Ti ...

. His tenure with Boston saw the team engage in attempts at stealing signs involving the scoreboard, and it wasn't long after his trade to Chicago (done on May 23, 1954 for Grady Hatton and cash) that management asked him about the system. He worked with teammate Bob Kennedy, general manager

Frank Lane Frank Charles Meyers LaneCorbett, Warren: ''Frank Lane,''

...

, and the ballpark crew on a system that used the scoreboard to flash a light (i.e. a one or a zero) for a certain type of pitch while Kennedy had binoculars to see signs. Reportedly the scheme persisted long after Kell left the team in 1956 (the White Sox won the pennant three years later). He spent the 1954 season playing mostly at third and first base with minimal time in the outfield. With 97 games, he batted .276. He continued this positioning for 1955, although he played 128 total games while batting .312 with 81 RBIs on 51 walks and 36 walks. He went through one more early season-trade with 1956, where he played 123 games while batting .271 with 115 hits with 33 walks and 37 strikeouts while being traded by the White Sox after 21 games on May 21, going with Mike Fornieles, Connie Johnson and

Bob Nieman Robert Charles Nieman (January 26, 1927 – March 10, 1985) was an American professional baseball player and scout. An outfielder, he spent all or parts of a dozen Major League Baseball seasons with the St. Louis Browns (1951–52), Detroit Tig ...

to the

for

Dave Philley David Earl Philley (May 16, 1920 – March 15, 2012) was an outfielder who played in Major League Baseball. A switch hitter who threw right-handed, he debuted on September 6, and played his final game on August 6, . He was born in Paris, Texas. ...

and Jim Wilson. He would spend time at third base while sharing time with second-year third baseman and fellow Arkansan Brooks Robinson (also a future Hall of Famer). He batted .271 for the year while having 115 hits and 48 RBIs with 37 strikeouts to 33 walks (marking the second and last time he had more strikeouts than walks, with the only other one being in 1944, his first full year). He made it to the All-Star Game that year, his ninth selection. 1956 was the tenth and final time that he ranked in the top ten for at-bats per strikeout, in which he went 11.5 at-bats between strikeouts. He closed his career out in 1957, hitting .297 in 99 games while collecting his 2,000th hit during the year and making another All-Star Game while striking out 16 times with 25 walks. In his career, Kell batted .306, with 78

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s and 870

, 881 runs scored, 2054 hits, 385 doubles, 50 triples, 51 stolen bases, a .414

slugging average In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at bats for a given player, ...

, and 621 walks for a .367 on-base percentage. He posted a career .971 fielding percentage. Kell played 1,795 games, but he never played for a team that made the postseason or the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

. Kell was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1983. A quote from his induction speech at the Hall of Fame goes as follows, "I have suspected for a long time that George Kell has taken more from this great game than he would ever be able to put back. And now today I know that I am more deeply in debt than ever before."

Broadcasting career

Following his retirement as a player, Kell worked as a

play-by-play In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

announcer for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

television (1958) and the Tigers (1959–1963, 1965–1996). Kell also called the 1959 National League tie-breaker series for ABC television with Bob DeLaney, the second 1962 All-Star Game for NBC Radio with Jack Quinlan, the 1962 National League tie-breaker series for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

television with

Bob Wolff Robert Alfred Wolff (November 29, 1920 – July 15, 2017) was an American radio and television sportscaster. He began his professional career in 1939 on CBS in Durham, North Carolina while attending Duke University. He was the radio and TV vo ...

, the

1962 World Series The 1962 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1962 season. The 59th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff that matched the defending American League (AL) and World Series champion Ne ...

for NBC Radio with

Joe Garagiola Joseph Henry Garagiola Sr. (February 12, 1926 – March 23, 2016) was an American professional baseball catcher, later an announcer and television host, popular for his colorful personality. Garagiola played nine seasons in Major League Basebal ...

, and Games 3–5 of the

1968 World Series The 1968 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1968 season. The 65th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between American League (AL) champion Detroit Tigers and the National League ...

(for which the Tigers were the home team) for NBC television with

Curt Gowdy Curtis Edward Gowdy (July 31, 1919 – February 20, 2006) was an American sportscaster. He called Boston Red Sox games on radio and TV for 15 years, and then covered many nationally televised sporting events, primarily for NBC Sports and ABC S ...

. Kell initially called Tigers games on both radio and television, splitting the play-by-play with

Van Patrick Van Patrick (August 15, 1916 – September 29, 1974) was an American sportscaster, best known for his play-by-play work with the Detroit Lions and Detroit Tigers. Patrick, self-nicknamed "The Ole Announcer", called Lions games from 1950 until hi ...

(in the 1959 season) and then with

Ernie Harwell William Earnest Harwell (January 25, 1918 – May 4, 2010) was an American sportscaster, known for his long career calling play-by-play of Major League Baseball games. For 55 seasons, 42 of them with the Detroit Tigers, Harwell called the actio ...

. Following the 1963 season he briefly retired from broadcasting, citing a desire to spend more time at his Arkansas home; after a one-year absence, Kell was persuaded to return in 1965 working the (then-infrequent) TV games exclusively while Harwell did radio. Kell's television partners included Ray Lane, Larry Osterman, and (beginning in 1975) fellow Hall of Famer and former Tiger

Al Kaline Albert William Kaline ( ; December 19, 1934 – April 6, 2020), nicknamed "Mr. Tiger", was an American professional baseball right fielder who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Detroit Tigers. For most of his career, Kali ...

color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main ( play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and ...

, the latter pairing lasting for the remainder of Kell's broadcast career.

Personal life

Kell served for ten years on the

Arkansas State Highway Commission The Arkansas Department of Transportation (ArDOT), formerly the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, is a government department in the U.S. state of Arkansas. Its mission is to provide a safe, efficient, aesthetically pleasing and e ...

(1973–83) and owned a car dealership, George Kell Motors, in Newport. Kell's brother, Everett "Skeeter" Kell, played the 1952 season for the Philadelphia Athletics. Kell and his wife Charlene were married for 50 years until her death from cancer in 1991. Bestselling author Elmore Leonard, in the 1990 anthology ''Cult Baseball Players'', wrote that Kell was his favorite player. When the novelist threw out the first pitch at a June 15, 1999 Tigers game at Tiger Stadium, Leonard wore a No. 21 jersey that was presented to him by the Tigers in an homage to Kell (who wore the number for four of his seven seasons).

Death

Kell died at age 86 in his sleep in his hometown of Swifton, Arkansas, on March 24, 2009.

Fox Sports Detroit Bally Sports Detroit (BSD) is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group that operates as a Bally Sports affiliate. It provides coverage of local sports teams in the state of Michigan, primarily focusing on those in Metro ...

, by then the Tigers' local TV rights holder, honored Kell with re-airings of the special ''FSN Basement: All Star Edition 2005'' featuring interviews with Kell and Al Kaline, each recalling his memories of playing for the Tigers and working together in the television booth. It re-aired several times during the week following his death.Tigers Fans, FOX Sports Detroit Mourn the Passing of George Kell

Highlights

* 10-time All-Star (1947–54, 1956–57) * Eight consecutive .300 seasons (1946–53) * Led league in batting average (1949) * Holds record of the fewest strikeouts for a batting champion (13, in 1949) * Twice led the league in hits and doubles (1950–51) * Hit for the cycle (June 2, 1950) * Had 6 hits in a game (September 20, 1946) * Top 10 in AL MVP vote (1947, 1949, 1950)

References

External links

, o

*
George Kell Oral History Interview (1 of 2) - National Baseball Hall of Fame Digital CollectionGeorge Kell Oral History Interview (2 of 2) - National Baseball Hall of Fame Digital Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kell, George 1922 births 2009 deaths American League All-Stars American League batting champions Baltimore Orioles players Baseball players from Arkansas Boston Red Sox players Chicago White Sox players Detroit Tigers announcers Detroit Tigers players Detroit Tigers scouts Major League Baseball broadcasters Major League Baseball third basemen Members of the Arkansas State Highway Commission National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Philadelphia Athletics players People from Jackson County, Arkansas Television in Detroit