DETROIT -- When the Tigers celebrated the 50th anniversary of their 1968 World Series championship two years ago, Al Kaline was asked what stood out for him. He didn¡¯t mention any of his big hits, despite going 11-for-29 with two homers and eight RBIs in the Fall Classic. He gave some mention to the Tigers¡¯ rally from a 3-1 series deficit to upset the Cardinals for their first championship since 1945.

What stood out for Kaline were the team¡¯s determination, the clutch hits from players off the bench -- and how thankful he was for the sacrifice Mickey Stanley made to allow him to play at all.

¡°I was honored to play on that team,¡± Kaline said, ¡°because I missed five weeks with a cracked wrist. [Manager] Mayo [Smith] said, ¡®We¡¯re going to try to get you in the Series.¡¯ And I said, ¡®You can¡¯t take [Jim] Northrup out. He had a great year.¡¯"

Northrup didn¡¯t have to sit, because Stanley moved from center field to shortstop.

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¡°I could never thank him enough for agreeing to be a shortstop so I got in the lineup,¡± Kaline said.

Kaline was right: As great of an athlete as Stanley was, it was an incredible experiment, and Stanley said he spent the series nervous about potentially making a critical error. But on the flip side, the lengths to which the Tigers went to get Kaline in the lineup for their first World Series in nearly a quarter-century said a lot about Kaline.

In the Year of the Pitcher, a 33-year-old Kaline hit .287, which would¡¯ve ranked third in the league if he had enough at-bats to qualify, with an OPS+ of 146. He batted .306 in the second half despite playing part-time, including games at first base for the first time in his career.

This is part of the beauty of Kaline¡¯s career: More than the jersey he wore for 22 years, the bat he wielded was one of the best in the game for a long time. He won one batting title, hitting .340 as a 20-year-old in 1955 to become the American League¡¯s youngest-ever batting champion, but he topped .300 eight other times, including a .313 average at age 37 in 1972, and finished in the AL¡¯s top four seven times. He played at least 100 games in 20 of his 22 seasons, and he had an OPS+ of at least 107 in all but one.

If wins above replacement were a thing in Kaline¡¯s time, he would ranked in the top 10 among AL hitters in 11 seasons. He did all this without a 30-homer season, and with just three seasons over 100 RBIs.

There was obviously no Statcast in Kaline¡¯s day to measure bat quickness, launch angle or exit velocity, no predictive metrics to suggest what Kaline¡¯s expected average or slugging might have been. But look through the stats available, and one overriding theme is clear: Kaline was a consistently tough at-bat.

As a 19-year-old in his first full pro season, Kaline struck out just 45 times and walked 22 times in 535 plate appearances. He went 21 consecutive games and 78 at-bats without a strikeout, according to baseball-reference. For each of the next 14 seasons, and 15 of the next 17, Kaline drew more walks than strikeouts. He finished in the AL¡¯s top 10 for at-bats per strikeout six times.

¡°I was basically a line-drive hitter,¡± Kaline told FanGraphs¡¯ David Laurila a few years ago. ¡°I was a put-the-ball-in-play hitter who tried not to strike out. I moved the runners along if the situation called for it. I tried to be patient and get a good pitch -- I didn¡¯t want to get myself out by swinging at bad pitches -- and I didn¡¯t worry about getting two strikes on me. I felt that I could handle the bat well enough to hit with two strikes.¡±

When the situation grew tighter, the discipline was greater. When Kaline became the American League¡¯s youngest-ever batting champion in 1955, he batted .360 with runners in scoring position, with almost as many home runs (eight) as strikeouts, and three times as many walks (28). With a runner on third and less than two outs, he fanned just twice in 54 plate appearances, compared to six sacrifice flies.

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Part of that reflected the style of hitting at the time; Mickey Mantle and Larry Doby were the only American League hitters to strike out 80 times in 1954. But Kaline¡¯s ability to stay disciplined yet hit for power and production was unique, and it reflected hand-eye coordination.

¡°Kaline¡¯s got great wrists. He takes the ball right out of the catcher¡¯s mitt,¡± then-teammate Harvey Kuenn said in 1954, as former Tigers beat writer Jim Hawkins wrote in Kaline¡¯s self-titled biography.

Though that 1954 batting title created lofty expectations that weighed on him in ensuing years, it was far from a lucky season. Kaline won a batting title with a lower average on balls put in play (.339) than batting average (.340), a result of a high homer total and a low strikeout rate. Just two other Tigers in history -- Hank Greenberg in 1940 and Alan Trammell in 1987 -- hit .340 or better in a season with a lower BABIP.

While Kaline¡¯s power ebbed and flowed over the years -- he hit a career-high 29 homers over just 100 games in 1962 -- the quick bat and sharp eye aged well. For his career, Kaline finished with a .297 average and .296 BABIP. Among Hall of Famers with at least 10,000 plate appearances since 1900, just 10 finished with a better average than BABIP: Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Billy Williams, Mel Ott, Babe Ruth, Sam Crawford, Ernie Banks and Honus Wagner.

Among Tigers with 4,000 career at-bats, Kaline¡¯s 1.25 walk-to-strikeout ratio ranks 10th best in franchise history, and second only to Kuenn among players after World War II. His 8.8 percent strikeout rate ranks 11th lowest.