COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) Humbled by his surroundings and modest about his own abilities to stand shoulder to shoulder with the greats of the game, Alan Trammell tried to put the moment in perspective.
”I couldn’t have dreamt it any better,” Trammell said Thursday as he sat in the plaque gallery at the Baseball Hall of Fame. ”I think I’m dreaming, to be honest with you. It sounds good – the Hall of Fame and Alan Trammell. My God, who wouldn’t like that?”
Trammell was in Cooperstown, along with his wife Barbara, for an orientation visit in advance of his induction in July. Trammell and former Detroit Tigers teammate Jack Morris were selected in December by a veterans committee. They will be enshrined along with Jim Thome, Chipper Jones, Trevor Hoffman and Vladimir Guerrero, who were elected in January by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
A second-round draft pick in 1976, Trammell became a favorite in the Motor City for two decades, playing in 2,293 games for the Tigers. A consistent all-around producer at shortstop from 1977-96, he finished with 185 homers and 1,003 RBIs and was a six-time All-Star. He also earned four Gold Glove Awards and three Silver Slugger Awards.
Trammell hit a pinnacle in the 1984 World Series, hitting two home runs in one game and batting .450 to cop MVP honors in Detroit’s five-game triumph over the San Diego Padres. Three years later he finished second in AL MVP voting after hitting .343 with 28 homers and 105 RBIs while batting cleanup. A seven-time .300 hitter with a .285 career batting average, Trammell’s .977 fielding percentage ranks sixth among shortstops with at least 2,000 games played. He’s also one of only 52 Hall of Famers who spent their entire careers with one team.
”You look at the back of my baseball card and it says one team. That’s pretty cool,” Trammell said. ”When it got to a certain point into my career, then it started becoming, `You know what? It would be pretty special if I could wear this uniform my whole career.’ And it did work out that way.”
Trammell, who turned 60 three weeks ago, was clearly awestruck by the moment.
”It’s overwhelming, to be honest with you,” he said. ”As somebody who has been a sports junkie my whole life, baseball first and foremost, and to now just to say that you’re part of that group, it’s hard to comprehend. Each day there are moments where it crosses my mind and I smile to myself and I say, `Tram, you are now on the Dream Team.’ For individual accomplishment it doesn’t get any better than that.”
During his Hall of Fame tour, Trammell marveled at the evolution of baseball gloves and bats. He also watched a video of Tigers teammate Kirk Gibson slug an important homer against the Padres in the 1984 World Series, checked out a military helmet from Disco Demolition Night , a game his Tigers played at Comiskey Park against the White Sox in 1979, and looked at a second base he used with longtime double-play partner Lou Whitaker from their final home game in 1995.
As a player, Trammell helped the Tigers post 11 consecutive winning seasons from 1978-88. Besides the World Series win, he helped Detroit win the AL East title in 1987, when he narrowly was beaten for the AL MVP award by Toronto’s George Bell.
”If I graded myself as a player, I did a lot of things,” said Trammell, back with the Tigers as a special assistant to the general manager. ”Maybe nothing great, but a lot of things well.”
Trammell also served as Detroit’s manager from 2003-05 and as a hitting coach and adviser to the team, and he spent four seasons as a bench coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
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