Many of today's baseball fans may never have heard of Kell, but he is primarily remembered for outlasting the great Ted Williams for the 1949 batting crown. It was one of the closest batting title races ever. Kell hit .34291, Williams hit .34276.Williams led Kell most of the season, but Kell overtook him on the final day, going 2 for 3 while Williams was hitless in two at-bats. Kell lost the batting title to Williams' teammate, Billy Goodman, the following year.
In 15 major league seasons, Kell hit better than .300 in nine of them.
Following his retirement, Kell was a broadcaster for the Detroit Tigers (the team for which he played from 1947-1952) every year but one from 1959 to 1996.
About five years ago, Kell was injured in a car accident, but was able to walk with the assistance of a cane. No cause of death has been confirmed, but, considering his age and health, it seems likely to be natural causes. He passed away in his sleep.
I'll admit the thing I find most intriguing about Kell is the place where he died — Swifton, Arkansas, in Jackson County. It's the place where he was born in 1922.
I grew up in Arkansas, but, until today, I had never heard of Swifton before. Apparently, there is a good reason for that. The northeast Arkansas community had only 871 residents when the 2000 Census was taken. Wikipedia differentiates between the cities and towns in Jackson County — and Swifton is listed as one of the four "cities" in the county.
To give you an idea of how small Jackson County is, none of the other three "cities" had a population that exceeded 3,000 when the Census was taken — but, compared to Swifton, they must be perceived as veritable metropolises.
Kell apparently loved Swifton. He lived there throughout his broadcasting career, maintaining an apartment in Little Rock to make it easier for him to catch flights to cities where the Tigers were playing.
Anyway, Swifton is less one resident tonight. And baseball has lost another hero.
No comments:
Post a Comment