Ralph Kiner, Hall Of Fame Slugger, Voice Of New York Mets, Dies At 91

Ralph Kiner, one of the greatest sluggers of all time and a member of baseball’s Hall of Fame, but who became even better known as a broadcaster, passed away Thursday surrounded by his family at his home in Rancho Mirage, California. He was 91 years old.

In many ways, though he retired in 1955, Ralph Kiner was the first of the modern-era sluggers, specializing in the long ball. Unlike his contemporaries Ted Williams, Stan Musial and Joe Dimaggio, Kiner posted unspectacular batting averages. He was a slow runner and mediocre outfielder.

But he belted home runs at an astonishing rate.

While back injuries restricted the career of Ralph Kiner to a mere 10 seasons, he blasted 369 home runs in that short time. He ranks sixth among the all-time leaders in home run rate, swatting a round-tripper every 14.11 at-bats in his career. Of all players who retired prior to the 1990s so-called “steroid era,” Ralph Kiner was second in at bats per home run only to Babe Ruth.

Among right-handed hitters in that group, no one knocked balls out of the park at a better clip than Ralph Kiner.

Kiner began his Major Leauge career with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1946, when the team was a perennial cellar dweller. Ralph Kiner led the National League in home runs for each of his first seven seasons.

His prodigious home run output made him one of the highest-paid players of his era, leading him to utter to his most famous quote: “Home run hitters drive Cadillacs, singles hitters drive Fords,” an adage on which he fashioned his career.

But with the Pirates languishing in the National League basement almost every season, Pirates General Manager Branch Rickey traded Ralph Kiner to the Chicago Cubs, reportedly telling the slugger, “We finished last with you, we can finish last without you.”

After a season-and-a-half in Chicago, Kiner finished his career with the Cleveland Indians, his only season in the American League.

Off the field, Ralph Kiner had a reputation as something of a playboy and ladies’ man in his younger days, palling around with stars such as Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope while dating famous women — including on at least one occasion, Elizabeth Taylor when she was 17 and Kiner 27. He married three times.

But it was as a broadcaster for the New York Mets that Ralph Kiner would gain even greater fame. He started with the franchise in its first year, 1962, when the Mets recorded the worst won-loss record of all time, winning just 40 games and losing 120 as they played games in Manhattan’s Polo Grounds.

His “Kiner’s Korner” segment was one of the first to feature regular post-game, sit-down interviews with players discussing the game that just finished.

Kiner remained with the Mets as a regular broadcaster through their ups and downs in their Flushing, Queens, ballpark, Shea Stadium, through the club’s two World Series championships in 1969 and 1986. He remained a first-string broadcaster until 1998 when he was stricken with Bell’s Palsy, a facial-muscular disorder that renders speaking difficult.

His schedule was trimmed to 40 games then. But even up until the 2013 season, he would join the broadcast booth for several games per year.

On learning of his death Thursday, Mets owner Fred Wilpon called Ralph Kiner, “one of the most beloved people in Mets history — an original Met and extraordinary gentleman.”