George Clyde Kell (August 23, 1922 – March 24, 2009) was an American Major League Baseball third baseman who played 15 seasons for the Philadelphia Athletics (1943–1946), Detroit Tigers (1947–1952), Boston Red Sox (1952–1954), Chicago White Sox (1954–1956), and Baltimore Orioles (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 (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. While lacking home run power, Kell was an outstanding contact hitter. He struck out only 287 times in 6,702 at-bats during his career, averaging just 26 strikeouts per 162 games.
Baseball career
In college, Kell played for Arkansas State, where the baseball facility, Tomlinson Stadium–Kell Field, is named after him.
Kell was a ten-time All-Star, batted over .300 nine times and topped the league's third basemen in assists and total chances four times and in fielding percentage seven times.
Athletics
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).
Tigers
In 1946 Kell played 26 games with the Athletics before being traded to Detroit on May 18 for Barney McCosky. In the American 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). He also led the league in sacrifice hits with 15. On September 20 of that season, Kell went 6-for-7 with 4 runs and 3 RBI in a 15-1 rout of the Cleveland Indians. 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 his third Triple Crown; 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 (leading to a career-high .424 on-base percentage), and he struck out only 13 times all season.
One year later, Kell batted .340, leading the majors with 218 hits and 56 doubles, but lost the batting title to Williams' teammate, Red Sox second baseman Billy Goodman. However, he led the league in numerous hitting categories, played in 157 games and had a .982 fielding percentage, which was the third time he had topped .980. He scored 114 runs and had 101 RBI. Kell's 56 doubles were the most by a Tiger since Charlie Gehringer had 60 doubles in 1936 and remains the third-most by a Tiger player as of 2022.
He led the league in hits for a second and final time the next season (1951), 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 in 1952 alongside Hoot Evers, Johnny Lipon and Dizzy Trout to the Boston Red Sox for Walt Dropo, Fred Hatfield, Don Lenhardt, Johnny Pesky and Bill Wight.
Red Sox, White Sox & Orioles
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, 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).