Why Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker Deserve to be in the Hall of Fame

(Photo by Rick Stewart/Getty Images)

I read the other day that Cal Ripken, Jr. said that Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker deserve to be in the Hall Fame as a tandem.

I watched these two kids play their entire careers in Detroit. You might argue that their numbers aren’t Hall of Fame worthy. After all, Trammell hit only .285 over a 19-year big league career, with only 185 homeruns and 2,365 hits.

Lou Whitaker batted .276, hit 244 career homeruns and amassed 2,369 hits.

“Sweet Lou” and “Tram” came up together in late 1977. In 1979, when Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson took over managing the Tigers, he called them lightweights and didn’t expect them to last long in the major leagues.

And all they did for the next 18 years was hit, field, turn double plays and, oh yes, hit some more.

Sometimes career statistics can be misleading.

Consider that in 1984, the season Detroit started 35-5, Trammell battled tendonitis to finish fifth in the AL batting race with a .314 batting average. In the American League Championship Series that year, against the Kansas City Royals, Trammell hit .364 with one homerun and three RBI; while in the World Series he was 9-for-20 against the San Diego Padres, including a pair of two-run homeruns that accounted for all of the Tigers’ runs in a Game 4 win. Trammell was named World Series MVP.

In 1985, Trammell became only the second player in Detroit history to hit 20 homeruns and steal 20 bases. Kirk Gibson, Trammell’s team mate during those years, was the other. Curtis Granderson has since become the third.

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