boys of summer Ken Keltner

Kenneth Fredrick Keltner (October 31, 1916 – December 12, 1991) was an American third baseman in Major League who played his entire career with the Cleveland Indians, until his final season when he played 13 games as a Boston Red Sox. Keltner is notable for making 7 All-Star teams in the 11 full years he played; some believe it was due to the lack of good hitting at third base at the time. He batted and threw right-handed.

Keltner is also noted for ending Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak on July 17, 1941. Keltner caught two of Joe's line drives in the game, one on a very difficult hard-hit ball.

A great fielder, known for ranging to his right, Keltner was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

In the first-ever one-game playoff in the American League, in 1948, the Indians defeated the Red Sox 8-3 behind knuckleballer Gene Bearden, with the help of Keltner's single, double, and 3-run homer over the Green Monster in Fenway Park in the 4th inning. The Indians went on to win the 1948 World Series as well, 4-2 over the Boston Braves. When he left the Indians, he was in the Top 5 in many of their all-time hitting records.

In a 13-season career (1937-1950 except for 1945), he was a .276 lifetime batter with 163 career home runs and 852 RBIs in 1526 games. Keltner accumulated 39 stolen bases in his career and 737 runs scored. He had 69 triples all-time, 308 doubles, and 1570 hits in total, in 5683 at bats.

Keltner was the subject of a brief campaign for the Baseball Hall of Fame. While he was never a popular candidate, his candidacy gave rise to the Keltner List of writer Bill James - a list of questions designed to guide thinking on the Hall of Fame.

He died in his home state of Wisconsin at the age of 75. The cause was a heart attack, according to family members.

Batting Statistics
Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO AVG
1937 Cleveland 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 .000
1938 Cleveland 149 576 86 159 31 9 26 113 33 75 .276
1939 Cleveland 154 587 84 191 35 11 13 97 51 41 .325
1940 Cleveland 149 543 67 138 24 10 15 77 51 56 .254
1941 Cleveland 149 581 83 156 31 13 23 84 51 56 .269
1942 Cleveland 152 624 72 179 34 4 6 78 20 36 .287
1943 Cleveland 110 427 47 111 31 3 4 39 36 20 .260
1944 Cleveland 149 573 74 169 41 9 13 91 53 29 .295
1946 Cleveland 116 398 47 96 17 1 13 45 30 38 .241
1947 Cleveland 151 541 49 139 29 3 11 76 59 45 .257
1948 Cleveland 153 558 91 166 24 4 31 119 89 52 .297
1949 Cleveland 80 246 35 57 9 2 8 30 38 26 .232
1950 Boston 13 28 2 9 2 0 0 2 3 6 .321

Career statistics
Batting average  .276
Hits  1570
Home Runs  163
Runs batted in  852

7-Time AL All-Star

20 Home Run Seasons: 3
(1938, 1941, & 1948)

30 Home Run Seasons: 1
(1948)

100 RBI Seasons: 2
(1938 & 1948)

Won a World Series Ring with the Cleveland Indians in 1948