After leading the National League in home runs in 1952 for the seventh consecutive season, Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Ralph Kiner was told he’d have to take a pay cut. When Kiner objected, general manager Branch Rickey said, “Son, we can finish last without you.” The Pirates did just that the following season, having traded Kiner to the Chicago Cubs. But Kiner later said his “experience with losing” with both the Pirates and the Cubs helped him land a broadcasting job in 1962 for the expansion New York Mets, a role that would outlast and even outshine his prolific playing career.
Signed right out of high school in Southern California, Kiner spent two years in the minors before enlisting in the Navy, said The New York Times. Returning from World War II, he joined the Pirates and quickly produced “a concentrated display of power exhibited by few other sluggers.” His 54 home runs in 1949 remained unmatched in the National League until the “steroid era of the 1990s.” His 215 homers from 1946 to 1950 are still the most ever by any player in his first five Major League seasons.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
“In his playing days, Kiner enjoyed a Hollywood lifestyle,” said the Los Angeles Times, attending movie premieres with the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Janet Leigh on his arm. Gossip columnists closely chronicled his courtship of and marriage to tennis star Nancy Chaffee. But Kiner’s biggest star turn was in the broadcast booth, where his mix of affability, baseball acumen, and charming malapropisms made him a fixture in New York sports for 50 years. “I enjoy being at the ballpark,” Kiner said. “I get the best seat in the house, and I get paid to do it. It is as good as you can get.”
-
The UK’s ‘wallaby boom’Under the Radar The Australian marsupial has ‘colonised’ the Isle of Man and is now making regular appearances on the UK mainland
-
Fast food is no longer affordable to low-income AmericansThe explainer Cheap meals are getting farther out of reach
-
‘The money to fix this problem already exists’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
R&B singer D’AngeloFeature A reclusive visionary who transformed the genre
-
Kiss guitarist Ace FrehleyFeature The rocker who shot fireworks from his guitar
-
Robert Redford: the Hollywood icon who founded the Sundance Film FestivalFeature Redford’s most lasting influence may have been as the man who ‘invigorated American independent cinema’ through Sundance
-
Patrick Hemingway: The Hemingway son who tended to his father’s legacyFeature He was comfortable in the shadow of his famous father, Ernest Hemingway
-
Giorgio Armani obituary: designer revolutionised the business of fashionIn the Spotlight ‘King Giorgio’ came from humble beginnings to become a titan of the fashion industry and redefine 20th-century clothing
-
Ozzy Osbourne obituary: heavy metal wildman and lovable reality TV dadIn the Spotlight For Osbourne, metal was 'not the music of hell but rather the music of Earth, not a fantasy but a survival guide'
-
Brian Wilson: the troubled genius who powered the Beach BoysFeature The musical giant passed away at 82
-
Sly Stone: The funk-rock visionary who became an addict and recluseFeature Stone, an eccentric whose songs of uplift were tempered by darker themes of struggle and disillusionment, had a fall as steep as his rise
