Few groups in baseball records are greater prestigious than the five hundred Home Run Club. Its contributors instantly channel fantastic memories and reputedly perfect swings. Hank Aaron. Barry Bonds. Babe Ruth. Ken Griffey Jr. Manny Ramirez. The list goes on.
One call from that list hasn’t gotten his due though. Most humans likely don’t even know that he exists. His name is Mickey Kaline, and his No. 1 fan — a child named Arnold with a football-fashioned head — could fortuitously inform you approximately him.
Kaline turned into featured in one of the first episodes of “Hey Arnold!,” especially “The Baseball.” In the episode, Arnold is raving about Kaline after imitating his swing all through a baseball (generic term) on the streets with his buddies, and he’s bowled over to research that Kaline is suffering and will retire the next day. (Farewell excursions weren’t as common again while the episode aired in 1996.)
Arnold and his nice friend, Gerald, manipulate to scrounge up some money for tickets, though they may be stuck in the back of a pillar within the nosebleed phase of “Quigley Field.” Determined to see Kaline’s last at-bat truely, Arnold reveals a manner to sneak down to the bleachers close to the sector, where he watches the star hit for one last time.
Naturally, Arnold ends up with Kaline’s domestic run ball, the 534th of his career:
After being moved via looking Kaline’s mixed feelings to retirement in an interview, Arnold’s grandpa allows set up an assembly among the two, and Arnold gives the souvenir ball lower back to his heroin gratitude.
It’s a lovable second, but the episode additionally delves into greater of Kaline’s career than merely the finale. That’s due to the fact Arnold truly loves to speak approximately him — irrespective of how exhausted his buddies are by way of his obsession, which is going as far as maintaining Kaline’s laminated baseball card locked up in a secure interior his backpack.
