Arguably the best baseball player to emerge during the WWII player shortage ... George Clyde Kell, born August 23, 1922, in Swifton Arkansas - his father was a semi-professional ballplayer, and a barber ... Kell flashed a great glove at third base, and consistently hit over .300 during his long career, which included several American League teams such as the Philadelphia Athletics (1943-1946) - Detroit Tigers (1946-1952) - Boston Red Sox (1952-1954) - Chicago White Sox (1954-1956) and Baltimore Orioles (1956-1957) ... after his playing career ended, he spent more than 30 years as a broadcaster, the majority of which was with the Detroit Tigers ... George Kell was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veteran's Committee in 1983, along with Brooks Robinson, a fellow Arkansan. At the Cooperstown induction ceremony, Kell said that he found it incredible that he and Robinson had both came out of Arkansas, and "traveled the same path to this place."
During George Kell's stellar baseball career, he played a total of 1,795 games - had 6,702 at-bats - scored 881 runs - had 78 homeruns - 870 RBI - 51 stolen bases - .414 SLG - .367 OBP - .781 OPS - 110.4 OPS+ ... was an All-Star 10 times ... had a career batting average of .306 with 2,054 hits ... hit at least .300 in 9 seasons, and led the league's third basemen in fielding percentage 7 times ... in the book entitled "We Played The Game" Kell said, "I took as much pride in fielding as hitting. I became a complete player. I knew when to take the extra base. I knew about the outfielder hitting the cutoff man. I knew when and how to bunt. I knew when to hit-and-run" ... a magic moment came for Kell in 1949 when he edged out Ted Williams for the batting title by less than two ten-thousandths of a point - .34291 to .34276 - thus denying Williams a third Triple Crown ... Kell was an excellent third baseman, the best in the American League, until Brooks Robinson replaced him with the Baltimore Orioles in 1958.
In 1958, George Kell began his career in broadcasting by filling in for Dizzy Dean behind the microphone on CBS's "Game of the Week" ... in the book "For the Love of the Game" Kell said, "I'd never done any bro
adcasting and was scared to death" ... his first assignment was a pregame interview with New York Yankees Manager Casey Stengel ... as Kell related it: "Stengel just talked his head off. I opened the show and asked him a question and he talked two or three minutes. Then I asked him another one, and by the time he got through with that, they were signaling me to break for a commercial. At the end of the show, I went up into the booth and I got a call from the guy in New York who had hired me, and he said: 'It was great. Absolutely great.' All I could think was, 'My God, I didn't do anything'" ... by 1959, he had joined the Detroit Tigers broadcast crew, teaming up with Van Patrick, then with the great Ernie Harwell on TV and radio from 1960 to 1963 ... Harwell's articulate, melodious Georgia drawl has been described as "a smooth ride on the the river of baseball's heritage" ... at first, only a few games during the season were televised ... Ernie and Kell took turns each calling half of the game on TV, the other half on radio ... after a year away from the booth, Kell took over the full-time TV duties in 1965, later joining Al Kaline, the Detroit Tigers Hall of Fame outfielder, while Ernie stayed in the booth were he felt most at home ... George Kell retired from broadcasting in 1996 ... he died in his sleep on March 24, 2009, at his home in Swifton Arkansas."He's a seven-day-a-week ballplayer." --Red Rolfe
"On warm, humid nights through transistors and earphones, they whisper to us -- like lovers across a pillow. On hot, sunny days, through stereo speakers in the back of the car, they shout at us like happy children on the way to summer camp. They are the local baseball announcers, for the local teams, on the local radio stations, as much a sound of summer as the singing of birds, the chirping of crickets, and the hissing of lawn sprinklers." --Joe Lapointe, New York Times
--sja
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