Playing Career
In college, Kell played for Arkansas State University, where the baseball facility, Tomlinson Stadium–Kell Field, is named after him.
A solid right-handed hitter and a sure-handed fielder, Kell was a 10-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. He won his only batting title in 1949 (.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's .3427. 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.
In his career, Kell batted .306, with 78 home runs and 870 runs batted in, 881 runs scored, 2054 hits, 385 doubles, 50 triples, 51 stolen bases, a ..414 slugging average, and 621 walks for a .367 on base percentage.
Kell was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1983. A memorable quote from his induction speech at the Hall of Fame goes as follows, "I have always said that George Kell has taken more from this great game of baseball than he can ever give back. And now I know, I am deeper in debt than ever before."
Read more about this topic: George Kell
Famous quotes containing the words playing and/or career:
“Living toys are something novel,
But it soon wears off somehow.
Fetch the shoebox, fetch the shovel
Mam, we’re playing funerals now.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“It is a great many years since at the outset of my career I had to think seriously what life had to offer that was worth having. I came to the conclusion that the chief good for me was freedom to learn, think, and say what I pleased, when I pleased. I have acted on that conviction... and though strongly, and perhaps wisely, warned that I should probably come to grief, I am entirely satisfied with the results of the line of action I have adopted.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)