When Al Kaline was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980, a snippet from his speech served as a good reminder to just how much respect he had for the art of the game and the standards and rules to which players were held.
“If there is one accomplishment for which I am particularly proud, it is that I have always served baseball to the best of my ability. Never have I deliberately done anything to discredit the game, the Tigers, or my family. By far, being inducted into the Hall of Fame is the proudest moment of my life.”
And it's for this reason, among many others, that Jeff Daniels viewed Al Kaline as his childhood hero and was so saddened and moved to hear of Mr. Tiger's passing earlier in 2020. It's that way of performing within your craft, too, that inspired Daniels to do what he does with such excellence.
“As I grew older and went through acting and the industry, there’s Hollywood and commercialization of being an actor,” Daniels told Bill Francis of the Baseball Hall of Fame. “Then there’s the art of it and the respect you have for those who came before you who were great and those who will came after. You find a place for yourself in the midst of all these great actors from before you and now.
“It was the same thing with baseball. Kaline had such a respect for the game. The game was bigger than he was. And you don’t always see that today whether it’s in baseball or movies or acting or Hollywood or in politics. And he had a respect for the game that he carried with him. He was certainly aware that he was on everyone’s version of the Detroit Tigers’ Mount Rushmore, but he always looked you in the eye; he never made you look up to him. He had such class, such elegance and such a respect for a game that was bigger than he was. And I didn’t realize that until later.”
Daniels explained just how much Kaline meant to him and more in this phone interview after the Hall of Fame contacted the famous actor regarding a song he wrote in tribute to the longtime Tigers outfielder, one of many offerings made from the baseball community in his memory.
The song, simply titled "Al Kaline," tells a story of a young Daniels receiving the legend's bat at Tiger Stadium back in the 1960s. Like many other things that evoke a sentimental feeling out of the actor, he decided to reach for his guitar — "it's like a music diary," he says — and turn back the clock to his childhood.
“I remember the turnstiles, I remember Bat Day, I remember the guy just turning and grabbing a bat. He may have heard me say something about Kaline to my dad,” Daniels said. “He handed me the bat and it was an Al Kaline bat. It’s the magic wand, it’s the sorcerer’s sword. You clutch it you your chest.
And I still have it. It’s hanging up in my basement down there in the man cave.”
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