ARLINGTON, Texas -- George Kell's life as a Major League Baseball player with five teams and broadcaster for CBS and the Detroit Tigers has taken him all over the country many times the last 50 years.
But Kell always comes home to Swifton.
This article appeared in the May 23, 1991, edition of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Swifton is where Kell was born in 1922 and has continued to maintain a permanent home, no matter where his baseball travels have taken him.
"Swifton is an anchor for me," Kell said recently when he came to Arlington Stadium to broadcast a series between the Tigers and Texas Rangers. "A lot of people ask me why I've always lived in Swifton. Even my brother, Skeeter [who lives in Pine Bluff] says, 'Goodness gracious, how could you stay there all the time?'
"But it's home to both me and my wife [Charlene] and our families. Living in Swifton just seemed like the normal thing to do. All my ties are there."
Kell's ties to Swifton, which has a population of 859, are so strong that he was going to end what has become a 38-year association with the Tigers by declining to broadcast the team's games in 1964 because it kept him away from home too much.
"I'd been a full-time announcer for five years, but I had promised my family I'd quit traveling so much and be home," Kell said. "My wife and kids had followed me all over the country for 15 years as a player and they couldn't do it anymore.
"The Tigers obviously had been satisfied with my work and they couldn't believe I was going to quit."
John Fetzer, then Detroit's owner, became convinced after talking with Kell's wife.
"I took her up to Detroit for the last series of the year and we sat and talked with Mr. Fetzer and she started talking about family and church and Swifton and all that," Kell said. "And Mr. Fetzer said, 'I can't compete with that.' But then he said, 'Go on home and we'll work something out.' "
The Tigers brought Kell back in 1965 on a limited basis-- 40 to 50 games per season -- and he's been broadcasting for the team ever since.
"This way, it's perfect," said Kell, who drives 95 miles from Swifton to Memphis, to catch flights for Tigers games at home and on the road. "Very seldom am I gone for more than four or five days in a row and I'm home for 75 percent of the summer."
Kell takes some good-natured kidding about his attachment to Swifton.
"We'll be in New York and see a tall building and I'll tell George, 'There's probably more people in there than in all of Swifton,' " said Al Kaline, Kell's broadcast partner since 1976. "He'll just laugh."
Kaline, who visited Swifton in 1983 to speak at a banquet honoring Kell at the end of his 10-year tenure on the Arkansas State Highway Commission, said he can understand why Kell has made the tiny Arkansas town his home.
"It's a very nice place and they think the world of George there, which they should," Kaline said. "I know George likes what he's doing for the Tigers, but he also likes to go back to Swifton and get his peace and quiet.
"He's got the best of both worlds. He goes on the road and everybody knows him and asks for his autograph, and then he goes home and he's just like everybody else."
Said Kell, "I'm not a celebrity in Swifton. And that's the way I like it."
Kell has a satellite dish in his backyard at home so he can watch the televised Tigers games that he doesn't work. That helps keep him from missing a beat on his Detroit broadcasts despite living in Arkansas.
"George comes in from Swifton and turns it on like he's been doing every game all year," said Kaline, who lives in suburban Detroit. "It amazes me how he does it."
Kell and Kaline, both former Tigers stars who are in the Hall of Fame, take a no-nonsense approach to their broadcast. They give fans the facts and let the game speak for itself.
"We have a conservative style," Kell said. "Tiger fans are knowledgeable and they don't need someone screaming and hollering."
Kell said he never has tried to sound like anyone other than himself -- advice he received from Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell more than 30 years ago.
Said Kell, "Ernie told me, 'Don't try to be like me or Harry Caray or somebody else. You've got a good voice and good knowledge. Just be yourself and you'll be fine.' "
Kell got his first broadcasting experience in 1957, his final season as a player when he was with Baltimore. He was injured for three weeks and spent some time in the radio broadcast booth with Harwell, who at the time worked for the Orioles.
"George came up to the press box one day and was just standing around and I said, 'Why don't you sit with us and find out about these free hot dogs and hamburgers,' " said Harwell, who has been with the Tigers since 1960. "He did a couple innings of play-by-play and seemed to like it and did a good job. He was just a natural."
Harwell said Kell has become such a fixture in Detroit as a television broadcaster but that many younger Tigers fans didn't realize he also was a great player for the team.
"But then when he went into the Hall of Fame, a lot of people were reminded of that," Harwell said.
Kell, a right-handed hitting third baseman, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1983 to honor his 15-year career [1943-57] with the Philadelphia Athletics, Tigers, Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox and Orioles.
Kell finished with a lifetime batting average of .306. He won the American League batting title in 1949 when he edged Ted Williams .3429 to .3427 by going 3 for 3 on the final day of the season against Cleveland pitchers Bob Lemon and Bob Feller -- both Hall of Famers.
Kell played for the Tigers for six seasons from 1946-51 and was voted the team's greatest third baseman in 1969. He also was a member of the American League All-Star team 10 times.
"You never knew how to play him," said San Francisco Giants scout Grady Hatton, a third baseman who played against and with Kell in the Major Leagues. "He'd look one way and hit the other. He could really handle a bat."
Kell originally signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1940 at the age of 17, but he was released before the 1942 season by their Durham, N.C., farm team.
"I was really devastated," Kell said. "I thought I was through."
But Kell signed with a Lancaster, Pa., minor league team a few days after his release and in 1943 led all of baseball with a .396 batting average.
Philadelphia Athletics owner and manager Connie Mack then bought Kell's contract at the end of the 1943 season.
"The rest is in the book," Kell said.
Mack traded Kell to Detroit early in the 1946 season despite the fact he was hitting .299 for the Athletics.
Kell began his broadcasting career with CBS in 1958 by working on the network's Game of the Week. The next year, he became a member of the Tigers' broadcast team.
In 1989, Kell was added to the Tigers' Board of Directors. He is the only former player to be so honored.
"That shows you how much George is respected in Detroit," Kaline said.
Kell, who will turn 69 in August, looks much younger and shows no signs of slowing down in his role with the Tigers.
"I'm having as much fun as ever," Kell said. "I still look forward to going to the ballpark."
And then returning home to Swifton.
From The Files
As the coronavirus pandemic keeps sports sidelined, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette takes a look at some of the memorable events and figures of the past.
Sports on 04/10/2020