Athletes - Alan Trammell

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	Athletes - Alan Trammell

Alan Stuart Trammell (born February 21, 1958 in Garden Grove, California) was an American baseball shortstop of the Detroit Tigers from 1977 to 1996. Trammell, commonly called "Tram", had a successful playing career with the Tigers, highlighted by a World Series championship in 1984 and an American League East division championship in 1987. One of the best defensive shortstops of the 1980s, Trammell had good range, soft hands and was smooth turning the double play. Although his arm was not overpowering, he had a quick release and made accurate throws. Trammell's solid, steady defense perfectly complemented that of his double play partner, Lou Whitaker, with whom Trammell formed the most enduring keystone-combination in Major League Baseball history. He would later serve as the team's manager.

Playing career

Early years

While playing at the Tigers' farm team in Montgomery of the Southern League, Alan Trammell played his first game with teammate Lou Whitaker before the two infielders made their major league debut at Fenway Park together, on September 9, 1977, the first of nineteen seasons together.

After growing and maturing during his first four Major League seasons, Trammell batted .300 in 1980 as he made the All-Star team for first time. 1983 was a true break-out season for Trammell, as he hit .314 with 14 home runs, 66 runs batted in and 30 stolen bases.

Trammell and Whitaker also made a cameo appearance on the television show "Magnum P.I."starring Tom Selleck during the 1983 season.

The '84 season

Trammell, along with his Tiger teammates, enjoyed a dream season in 1984. Despite a season-long battle with tendonitis in his shoulder, which caused him to miss 43 regular season games, he finished fifth in AL batting race with .314 and ranked eighth in on base percentage. In the 1984 American League Championship Series against the Kansas City Royals, Trammell hit .364 with one home run and three RBI. Finally, in the World Series, he was 9-for-20 against the San Diego Padres, including pair of two-run home runs that accounted for all of Tigers' runs in a Game 4 Detroit victory. Detroit won the series 4-1 and Trammell was named World Series Most Valuable Player.

1985 to 1987

In 1985, after two consecutive years not lower than .314, Trammell was hampered by injuries, and posted only a .258 batting average. He underwent postseason surgery on left knee and right shoulder. The following season, he returned with new energies. He became only second player in Detroit history to hit 20 homers and steal 20 bases in a season, Kirk Gibson being the other. Trammell also set a career-high with 75 RBI.

In 1987, asked by manager Sparky Anderson to bat cleanup, Trammell responded with the best season of his career. In September, he batted .416 with six homers and 17 RBI, putting together an 18-game hitting streak in which he hit a .457, helping his team to win the AL East division by a single game on the last day of the season. He became the first Tiger to collected 200 hits and 100 RBI in the same season since Al Kaline did it in 1955. Beside this, he appeared in most AL offensive categories: third in batting average (.343), tenth in RBI (105), third in hits (205), tied for fifth in runs (109), fourth in total bases (329), fifth in on base percentage (.402), eighth in slugging average (.551), and tied for fifth in game-winning RBI (16). Despite his efforts, Trammell finished second to Toronto's George Bell in the MVP voting (332-311), which is considered by many one of the most controversial decisions in award history.

Later years, injuries and retirement

The following years Trammell suffered a long string of injuries that slowed his production both at bat and on the field. In 1991 he was limited to 101 games because of knee and ankle injuries. It was even worse in 1992. He got into only 29 games before broken his right ankle losing the rest of the season. His days as a regular shortstop for Detroit were close to being over. After two sub-par seasons, he retired in 1996.

In his twenty year career, Trammell batted .285, with 185 home runs, 1003 RBI, 1231 runs, 2365 hits, 412 doubles, 55 triples, and 236 stolen bases in 2293 games. After finishing his playing career, Trammell served as a hitting coach for Detroit (1999) and the first base coach for the San Diego Padres (2000-02).

Manager of the Tigers

Alan Trammell was named the new Tigers' manager on October 9, 2002. The team lost a AL-record 119 games in his first season in 2003, before improving to 72-90 in 2004, the biggest turnaround in the AL since Baltimore's 33-game improvement from 1988 to 1989. In the 2005 season, however, the team went 71-91, and was 186-300 in three seasons under Trammell. On October 3, 2005, the Detroit Tigers released Trammell after three seasons in which he failed to turn around the team and post a winning season. Jim Leyland was hired to replace Trammell for the 2006 season on October 4, 2005.

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