Alan Trammel Saying Why Lou Deserves to be in the Hall of Fame: https://youtu.be/c-93oNnulAM
Louis Rodman Whitaker Jr. (born in Brooklyn, NY on May 12, 1957), nicknamed “Sweet Lou“, is an American former professional baseball second basemanwho played for the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1977 to 1995. He won the American League Rookie of the Year Award in 1978, and was a five-time MLB All-Star in his career. He won four Silver Slugger Awards and three Gold Glove Awards. Whitaker and teammate Alan Trammell comprised the longest running double play combination in MLB history (19 seasons). The Detroit Tigers selected Whitaker in the fifth round, with the 99th overall selection, of the 1975 MLB draft. He signed with the Tigers rather than attend college. He made his professional debut that year for the Bristol Tigers of the Rookie-level Appalachian League. He played for the Lakeland Tigers of the Class A Florida State League in 1976. The team’s starting third baseman, he batted .297 and was named the league’s most valuable player. After the 1976 season, the Tigers assigned Whitaker to the Arizona Instructional League, where they converted him into a second baseman and paired him with shortstop Alan Trammell. In 1977, they both played for the Montgomery Rebels of the Double-A Southern League, Whitaker batting .280 during the season. The two were both promoted to the Major Leagues late in the 1977 season and had become starters for the Tigers by the end of April 1978. They would remain teammates until Whitaker retired in 1995. In 1978, Whitaker won the American League Rookie of the Year Award, hitting .285 with 71 runs, 20 stolen bases and a .361 on-base percentage. After hitting no more than five home runs in any of his first four seasons, Whitaker began to find his power stroke in 1982, with 15 round-trippers. Whitaker enjoyed a strong season in 1983, hitting for a .320 average with 206 hits, 12 home runs, 72 runs batted in (RBI), 94 runs, and a .380 on-base percentage. That year he made the first of five consecutive All-Star appearances, won the first of his three Gold Glove awards, and earned the first of his four Silver Slugger awards at second base. He finished eighth in the 1983 AL MVP Award voting. Trammell and Whitaker also made a cameo appearance as themselves on the television show Magnum, P.I., starring Tom Selleck, during the 1983 season. Selleck’s character was a Tigers fan, as is Selleck himself. In 1984, Whitaker contributed a .289 batting average, 13 home runs, and another Gold Glove season as the Tigers ran away with the AL East Division and eventually won the World Series. Whitaker hit .278 in the Series with a .409 on-base percentage, scoring six runs in the five games. The day Detroit clinched the Series, the second eldest of Whitaker’s four daughters was born. In 1985, Whitaker set a record for Detroit second basemen with 21 home runs, while topping 100 runs scored for the first time in his career (102). In 1986, he was a member of a Tigers infield in which all four members (Whitaker, Darrell Evans, Alan Trammell and Darnell Coles) hit at least twenty home runs. In 1987, he scored a career-high 110 runs and won his final Silver Slugger award at second base as the Tigers edged out the Toronto Blue Jays on the final day of the regular season to win the AL East Division title. Whitaker reached career highs with 28 homers and 85 RBI in 1989, one of four times he reached the 20-HR plateau, upping his record for the most homers in a season by a Tiger second baseman. Whitaker now shares the season record with Ian Kinsler, who hit 28 homers in 2016 as the Tigers regular second baseman.
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