Although he never gripped the baseball bat on the home plate, Fred Knorr can be credited with having a hand in the Tigers’ legacy.
The wooden baseball bat displayed in a glass case near the entrance of Saga belonged to former Detroit Tigers baseball player Al Kaline and was given to the College by the Knorr family.
Fred Knorr ’37 became part owner of the Detroit Tigers in 1956. At the time, the Tigers were still playing as a segregated team and began a six-year losing streak when other Major League teams started integrating their teams.
As Brooklyn signed on Jackie Robinson, and Cleveland Satchel Paige, the segregated Tigers descended from winning the World Series in 1945 to last place in the American League in 1952.
Leading a group to buy the Tigers for $5.5 million, Knorr began the Tigers’ integration by sponsoring 17 African-Americans to play in Detroit’s minor-league system.
Al Kaline was a key contributor to the Tigers’ comeback when Knorr was part-owner.
“Kaline was one of the best if not the best player on the Tigers’ team at the time,” said Burt Folsom, professor of History at Hillsdale College and author of an article on the desegregation of the Tigers in the 1950s.
Kaline played his entire 22-year professional baseball career with the Tigers and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility — the tenth player in history with such an honor.
For Folsom, it is fitting for Hillsdale to display Kaline’s baseball bat.
“Hillsdale College is committed to excellence and has always been committed to integration,” Fulsom said. “Al Kaline was a very good baseball player, one of the best players in the 50s and 60s and played on an integrated team, of which Fred Knorr was a major owner and Hillsdale grad.”
“The Kaline bat is a very nice thing for Hillsdale to have.”
