Alan Trammell

He became the first Tiger to collect 200 hits and 100 RBI in the same season since Al Kaline did it in 1955.

Trammell also became the first shortstop to hit at least .340 with 20+ home runs and 100+ RBI in a season in big league history.

Despite his efforts, Trammell finished second to Toronto's George Bell in the MVP voting (332–311).

Alan Stuart Trammell (born February 21, 1958) is an American former professional baseball shortstop, manager and coach and member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame as a player.

His entire 20-year playing career in Major League Baseball (MLB) was with the Detroit Tigers.

The Detroit Tigers selected him in the second round of the 1976 MLB draft.

While playing for the Tigers' farm team in Montgomery of the Southern League, Trammell played his first game with teammate Lou Whitaker before the two infielders were promoted, making their major league debut at Fenway Park together, during the second game of a double-header on September 9, 1977, the first of nineteen seasons together.

Both players became regulars at their positions the following season.

Trammell batted .300 in 1980 as he made the All-Star team for the first time.

Having hit .258 in both 1981 and 1982, Trammell won the 1983 MLB Comeback Player of the Year Award in the American League.

In 1983, he batted .319 with 14 home runs, 66 runs batted in and 30 stolen bases.

Trammell and Whitaker made a cameo appearance on the television show Magnum, P.I., starring Tom Selleck, during the 1983 season.

Selleck's character, Thomas Magnum, was a Tigers fan (as is Selleck himself).

The Tigers enjoyed a championship-winning season in 1984, when they started the season 35–5 and led the American League wire-to-wire en route to winning the World Series.

Despite a season-long battle with tendinitis in his shoulder which caused him to miss 23 regular season games, he finished fifth in the AL batting race with a .314 mark and ranked eighth in on-base percentage (.382).

In the 1984 American League Championship Series against the Kansas City Royals, Trammell hit .364 with one home run and three RBI.

Finally, in the World Series, he hit .450 (9-for-20) against the San Diego Padres, including a pair of two-run home runs that accounted for all of the Tigers' scoring in a Game 4 victory.

Detroit won the series 4–1 and Trammell was named World Series MVP.

In 1985, after two consecutive years of batting not lower than .314, Trammell was hampered by injuries and posted only a .258 batting average.

He underwent postseason surgery on his left knee and right shoulder.

The following season, a fully healthy Trammell hit 21 homers and stole 25 bases, becoming only the second player in Detroit history to hit 20+ home runs and steal 20+ bases in the same season.

(Kirk Gibson was the other, while Curtis Granderson and Robbie Grossman later joined the club.) Trammell also set a career-high with 75 RBI.

Trammell won a World Series championship in over his hometown San Diego Padres, earning Series MVP honors, and an American League East division championship in 1987.

Although his arm was not overpowering, he had a quick release and made accurate throws, ultimately winning four Gold Glove awards.

Trammell's defense perfectly complemented his double-play partner, Lou Whitaker.

The two formed the longest continuous double-play combination in major league history, playing 19 seasons together.

At the plate, Trammell was one of the best-hitting shortstops of his era and won three Silver Slugger awards.

In 1987, asked by manager Sparky Anderson to replace the departed Lance Parrish as cleanup hitter, Trammell responded with his best major league season, hitting a career-high 28 home runs to go with a career-high .343 batting average (ranking third in the AL).

In addition, Trammell appeared among the league leaders in most other AL offensive categories: third in hits (205), tenth in RBI (105), tied for fifth in runs (109), fourth in total bases (329), fifth in on-base percentage (.402), eighth in slugging average (.551), sixth in on-base plus slugging (.953), fifth in OPS+ (155), and tied for fifth in game-winning RBI (16).

In September, he batted .416 with six homers and 17 RBI and put together an 18-game hitting streak in which he hit .457.

On the penultimate day of the regular season, he hit a walk-off single against the Toronto Blue Jays to help his team take the AL East division lead, which they clinched the next day.

After the season finale, Whitaker gave him second base, on which he had written: To Alan Trammell, 1987 Most Valuable Player, from your friend Lou Whitaker.

Trammell followed up with a .311 season in 1988, though a stint on the disabled list limited him to 128 games that year.

He was named the 1989 American Legion Graduate of the Year.

Following the 1990 season, in which he hit .304 with 89 RBI in 146 games, Trammell suffered a long string of injuries that reduced his production over his final years.

Trammell later served as the Tigers' manager from 2003 through 2005.

Trammell has served as a special assistant to the General Manager of the Detroit Tigers since the 2014 season.

He also served as the interim manager for the Arizona Diamondbacks during the final three games of the 2014 season.

He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018.

Trammell attended Kearny High School in San Diego, California, and played American Legion Baseball.