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Ralph Kiner
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Ralph Kiner's Message to the Fans
BiographyRalph McPherran Kiner (born October 27, 1922) is an American former Major League Baseball player and current announcer. Though constant injuries forced his retirement from the game after only ten seasons, Kiner's tremendous slugging output during his short career outpaced nearly all of his National League contemporaries between the years 1946 and 1954. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975
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Outfielder
Born: October 27, 1922 (1922-10-27) (age 85) Santa Rita, New Mexico Batted: Right Threw: Right MLB debut April 12, 1946 for the Pittsburgh Pirates Final game September 25, 1955 for the Cleveland Indians Career statistics AVG .279 HR 369 RBI 1105 Teams Pittsburgh Pirates (1946-1953) Chicago Cubs (1953-1954) Cleveland Indians (1955)
Career highlights and awardsLed National League in home runs for seven consecutive years (1946-1952). Led Major League in home runs for six consecutive years (1947-1952). All Star Games (6) 369 Career Home Runs 1019 career RBIs Averaged 14.1 at bats per home run or 7.1 home runs per 100 at bats--seventh best all-time
Member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame Elected 1975 Vote 75.41%
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Playing careerKiner was born in Santa Rita, New Mexico, and grew up in Alhambra, California. He made his major league debut on April 16, 1946 with the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1947 he gained notice for hitting 51 home runs. Many of Kiner's homers were hit into a shortened left-field and left-center-field porch at Forbes Field, originally built for Hank Greenberg and known in the press as "Greenberg Gardens"; then retained for Kiner and redubbed by the media as "Kiner's Korner". Kiner would later use that expression as the title of his post-game TV show in New York .
In 1949 Kiner topped his 1947 total with 54 home runs, falling just two short of Hack Wilson's NL record. It was the highest total in the major leagues from 1939 to 1960, the highest National League total from 1931 to 1997, and made Kiner the first National League player with two fifty-plus seasons; Kiner also matched his peak of 127 RBIs. From 1947 to 1951, Kiner topped 40 home runs and 100 RBIs each season. His string of seasons leading the league in home runs reached seven in 1952, when he reached 37. This was also the last of a record six consecutive seasons in which he led Major League Baseball in home runs, all under the guidance of manager Billy Meyer and Pirate great Honus Wagner. He was selected to participate in the All-Star Game in six straight seasons, 1948 to 1953. He holds (by himself) the major league record of 8 home runs in 4 consecutive multi-homer games, set in September, 1947.
A quote variously attributed to Kiner himself, and to teammates talking about Kiner, was "Home run hitters drive Cadillacs and singles hitters drive Fords." [1]
On June 4, 1953, Kiner was sent to the Chicago Cubs as part of a ten player trade. This was largely due to continued salary disputes with Pirate general manager Branch Rickey, who reportedly told Kiner, "We finished last with you, we can finish last without you."
He played the rest of the 1953 season and all of 1954 with the Cubs, and finished his career with the Cleveland Indians in 1955, a back injury forcing him out of baseball at that point. He retired at the age of 32. At the end of his ten seasons he had amassed 369 home runs and 1019 runs batted in to go along with a career .279 batting average.
Kiner was not known for speed. In contrast to radio's "Quiz Kids" or the 1950 Phillies "Whiz Kids", according to Chicago columnist Mike Royko the 1950s Cubs had an outfield "that was so slow they were known as the Quicksand Kids." Hank Sauer, Frank Baumholtz and Kiner played left, center and right fields respectively. (One More Time: The Best of Mike Royko, University of Chicago, 1999, p.29-31)
Broadcasting careerIn 1961, Kiner made his way into the broadcast booth with the Chicago White Sox. The next year, Kiner, along with Lindsey Nelson and Bob Murphy, started announcing the games of the expansion New York Mets on WOR-TV in New York. One of his duties was to do a post-game show known as "Kiner's Korner".
As an announcer, Kiner gained additional renown for his often unintentionally funny utterances. He was prone to mis-speaking the names of players; for instance, he called Dwight Gooden "Greg Goossen" and Darryl Strawberry "Darryl Throneberry", in each case referring back to Mets players of the 1960s. He also once addressed Gary Carter as "Gary Cooper." In addition, he came up with colorful phrases such as "Two-thirds of the earth is covered by water and the other third is covered by Garry Maddox" and "If Casey Stengel were alive today, he'd be spinning in his grave." He also said that Nolan Ryan's fastball had been clocked at 200 miles per hour (!) and noted that Hall of Fame ceremonies were scheduled for "July 31 and 32."
During one broadcast, something went wrong with the sound and Kiner said, "we are experiencing audio technicalities."
Despite a bout with Bell's palsy, which left him with slightly slurred speech, Kiner is still broadcasting, entering his 45th year of doing Mets broadcasts as of the start of the 2007 baseball season, though only as an occasional guest analyst on Mets' broadcasts on SportsNet New York (SNY). He is the only broadcaster to survive all of the Mets history, due to Nelson leaving the Mets for the San Francisco Giants in 1979 and Murphy's retirement in 2003. (Nelson died in 1995 and Murphy in 2004.) His traditional home-run call -- "it is gone, goodbye" or "that ball is gone, goodbye" -- is a signature phrase in baseball.
LegacyKiner was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975, and the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 1984. The Pirates retired his uniform number 4 in 1987. The Sporting News placed him at number 90 on its 1999 list of "The 100 Greatest Baseball Players," and he was one of the 100 finalists for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team that year. The Mets honored him with an on-field ceremony on "Ralph Kiner Night" at Shea Stadium on Saturday, July 14, 2007, where they handed out photos of Ralph Kiner to the first 25,000 fans. Tom Seaver also gave a commemorative speech recalling Kiner's legacy. Besides Tom Seaver, other guests of note were Yogi Berra, Bob Feller, and broadcaster Ernie Harwell. As a present from the Mets, Kiner received a cruise of his choice for him and his wife for his dedication to the team. [1][dead link]
TriviaFootage of Kiner hitting a homer in Forbes Field can be seen in the 1952 film "Angels In The Outfield".
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NotesOf the 103 players who have been inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame by the writers' association, Kiner probably came the closest to not getting in. He was elected in 1975, his final year of eligibility, and received 273 votes--the amount required for induction was 272. He was also the only player voted in that year. Had he just missed making the writers' cut, it's likely he would have been voted in by the Veterans' Committee, as were other players who just barely missed on the first go-round.
References1. Heyman, Brian (2007-07-15). Kiner honored before Mets game. The Journal News. Retrieved on July 15, 2007.
**** Source: Wikipedia.org at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Kiner
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