Ken Keltner

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Ken Keltner
Runs batted in
852
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Kenneth Frederick Keltner (October 31, 1916 – December 12, 1991) was an American professional

Cleveland Indians where he was a seven-time All-Star player and was a member of the 1948 World Series winning team. He played his final season for the Boston Red Sox.[1]

Keltner was notable for being one of the best fielding third basemen in the 1940s and for helping to end

Cleveland Guardians Hall of Fame in 1951.[3] In 2001, he was voted one of the 100 greatest players in Cleveland Indians' history by a panel of veteran baseball writers, executives and historians.[4]

Baseball career

Born in

runs batted in.[1]

On August 20, 1938, as part of a publicity stunt by the Come to Cleveland Committee, Indians' catchers Frankie Pytlak and Hank Helf successfully caught baseballs dropped by Keltner from Cleveland's 708-foot-tall (216 m) Terminal Tower.[5] The 708-foot (216 m) drop broke the 555-foot, 30-year-old record set by Washington Senator catcher Gabby Street at the Washington Monument.[2]

In

infield single to start the rally.[7] Three batters later, he scored on a groundout before Ted Williams followed with a two-out, game-ending, three-run home run.[7]

Two weeks later, in a game against the

walked and grounded out in his other two plate appearances, as the record-setting hitting streak came to an end.[2] Keltner joined the United States Navy in 1945 and missed an entire season while serving in Hawaii.[2] He returned to play for the Indians in 1946, earning his sixth All-Star selection in the process.[9]

Keltner had a career-season in

slugging average, helping Cleveland earn a first-ever one-game playoff against the Boston Red Sox.[10] The Indians won the game 8-3 behind knuckleballer Gene Bearden, with the help of Keltner's single, double, and 3-run home run over the Green Monster in Fenway Park.[11][12] The Indians then went on to defeat the Boston Braves in the 1948 World Series.[13]

Due to injuries, Keltner appeared in only 80 games in 1949.[2] A .232 average with eight homers and 30 runs batted in prompted the Indians to release him after the season, replacing him at third base with Al Rosen.[2] He played with the Red Sox in 1950, appearing in only eight games as a third baseman and one as a first baseman (his only major league fielding appearance anywhere other than 1,500 games played at third base).[2] Keltner concluded his major league career at only age 33. He played one more season in the minor leagues with the Sacramento Solons in 1951 before retiring as a player.[2]

Career statistics

In a 13-season major league career, Keltner played in 1,526

at bats for a .276 career batting average along with 163 home runs and 852 runs batted in.[1] Keltner had 69 triples, 308 doubles, accumulated 39 stolen bases and scored 737 runs.[1] He led American League third basemen four times in assists, five times in double plays, twice in fielding percentage and twice in range factor, ending his career with a .965 fielding percentage.[1][2] At the time of Keltner's retirement, only Willie Kamm and Heinie Groh had higher career fielding percentages among retired major league third basemen.[14]
Keltner made 7 All-Star teams in 13 seasons. When he left the Indians, he was in the Top 5 in many of their all-time hitting records.

Post-playing career

After his retirement as a player, Keltner served as a

Baseball Hall of Fame. While he was never a popular candidate, his candidacy gave rise to the Keltner List by Baseball historian Bill James - a list of questions designed to guide thinking on the Hall of Fame. James ranked Keltner 35th all-time among third baseman in his Historical Baseball Abstract.[17]

Keltner died in his home state of Wisconsin at age 75 of a heart attack.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Ken Keltner Statistics and History". Baseball-Reference. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved August 23, 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Ken Keltner at the SABR Baseball Biography Project , by Jim Nitz, Retrieved 20 July 2010.
  3. ^ "Cleveland Guardians Hall of Fame". mlb.com. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  4. ^ "Top 100 Greatest Cleveland Indians Players". Cleveland State University Library. Retrieved 2022-10-20.
  5. ^ Anderson, Bruce (March 11, 1985). "When Baseballs Fell From On High, Henry Helf Rose To The Occasion". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved May 7, 2017.
  6. ^ 1940 All-Star Game at Baseball Reference
  7. ^ a b c 1941 All-Star Game at Baseball Reference
  8. ^ Hauck, Larry (July 18, 1941). "Two Ordinary Hurlers End DiMaggio's Streak". The Calgary Herald. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
  9. ^ 1946 All-Star Game at Baseball Reference
  10. ^ 1948 American League Batting Leaders at Baseball Reference
  11. ^ "Bearden, Boudreau, Keltner Share Honors as Indians Win". The Milwaukee Journal. October 5, 1948. p. 8. Archived from the original on May 4, 2016. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
  12. ^ October 4, 1948 Indians-Red Sox box score at Baseball Reference
  13. ^ 1948 World Series at Baseball Reference
  14. ^ Career Leaders in Fielding Percentage for Third Basemen at Baseball Reference
  15. ^ Ken Keltner at the Wisconsin Sports Hall of Fame Archived 2010-12-23 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ 100 Greatest Indians at http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com
  17. ISBN 0-684-80697-5
    .

External links
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