Of all the great baseball players who played for the Detroit Tigers over the course of their 120 seasons, there has been none greater than Al Kaline. From the time he was signed straight out of a Baltimore high school in 1953 until his passing in 2020, no other player or person better personified the title “face of the franchise”.
Even in his 80’s, the cameras would pan to Kaline, now a special assistant to the general manager and a fixture in the booth above home plate at Comerica park. He was never far from Tigers’ baseball.