Red Wings' Howe and Tigers' Kaline shared a lifelong friendship

By the time Al Kaline arrived on the scene in Detroit in 1953 at just 18 years old, there were already several great athletes in town.
One who ranked right up at the top was the Detroit Red Wings' formidable star forward, Gordie Howe.

Then 25, Howe had already established himself as a perennial All-Star, a champion and one of the best players in the NHL.
A few years into what would turn into a 67-year tenure with the Detroit Tigers, which sadly ended Monday when Kaline passed at age 85, Kaline met Howe and the two formed what would become a long-term friendship.
Four years ago when people came to Detroit's Joe Louis Arena to celebrate Howe's life after he passed on June 10, Kaline reflected on their relationship.
"I first met Gordie Howe back in 1956," Kaline said. "I had just moved from Baltimore here. I had just won the batting title so I figured I'd be with Detroit a few years before they got rid of me. So I moved to Detroit, bought a home, and went to my first hockey game at Olympia with a friend of mine, a guy named Frank Carlin, who also was a friend of Gordie's. So we went to the hockey game and afterwards we went out to eat. We went to a place called Carl's Chop House, which is down by the MotorCity Casino, used to be but it's not there anymore. That was my first meeting with Gordie. We became very friendly after that. We played a lot of golf together at Plum Hollow golf course and we've been friends for a long, long time."
Not only did Kaline and Howe become friends, they also went into business together along with Carlin.
According to Nick Waddell of the Society for American Baseball Research, the three started the Michigan Automotive Products Corporation, known as Mapco, which turned out to be a successful venture.
But first and foremost, the two men were athletes.
Kaline said that Howe always wanted to come to the ballpark to take batting practice.
"So one day I had him and a couple other hockey players. I think it was Ted (Lindsay) and Marty Pavelich, I'm not really sure," Kaline said. "It was quite a long time ago. Gordie put on a Tiger uniform and of course Gordie when he took off his shirt everybody - and back in those days particularly - Gordie didn't have any shoulders. His arms went right up to his neck. He had the biggest pair of arms and all the Tiger players were like, 'Man, what a beast he is!' But anyhow, he got out there, struggled a little bit, naturally so, probably never played much baseball or softball in his day - but finally he was able to hit a ball out of the ballpark, and I'll tell you what, the expression on his face looked like he just won the Stanley Cup. He was so thrilled that he finally hit a ball over the fence."
Mark Howe, Gordie's second-oldest son and the Red Wings' director of pro scouting, remembered some of those times with his dad and Kaline.
"Dad was a heck of a ballplayer, too, so he would, every once in a while, he would attend batting practice with Al," Mark Howe said in a phone interview. "I know he took me down to a couple games at old Tiger Stadium. So (Kaline) was just a real nice gentleman, well-respected human being."
Of course, Howe returned the favor, inviting Kaline to come skate with him.
"He had me on the ice at Olympia (Stadium)," Kaline said. "Being from Baltimore, I never skated before in my life, and I borrowed a pair of skates and I was a one-leg pusher, you know, holding on to the boards.
"And Gordie came by, fooling around, and gave me one of his famous elbows. I can always say Gordie gave me an elbow and knocked me into the boards."
Kaline did not need that particular lesson to realize that hockey and baseball were very different sports.
"Hockey's a lot tougher, a lot different," Kaline said. "But I knew that you shouldn't show any fear whatsoever. I remember going up to the plate and players telling me 'When they knock you down, don't get up and look like you're afraid because all the pitchers will knock you down.' So that was one ruling that I would always do, get up and not show any fear whatsoever to the pitcher. But again, hockey is altogether different. You've got to be a lot tougher in hockey than you do in baseball."
As impressed as Kaline was with what Howe did on the ice, he was even more impressed by observing him off the ice.
"Everybody knows how great a hockey player he was, maybe the greatest hockey player of all time," Kaline said. "But what got me was how great he was off the ice, around people, around kids, and he never turned people down. He was always friendly to them and that to me was why the people in Detroit and the people in hockey and everywhere love Gordie Howe because not only what he gave you on the ice, but what he gave you off the ice. He was just a super person, a great hockey player but a great human being."
This past week, many of those same things have been said about Kaline and his own genuine, kind ways with people.
"It was sad news about Al Kaline," Mark Howe said. "He was a wonderful man. I know when we had our meetings in the summertime over at Comerica, I'd always get a chance to visit with him for a little bit. Wonderful, wonderful man."
Mark Howe said that his father and Kaline were close enough that their families would often gather around the holidays.

"My mom collected maybe 75-100 photos from way back in the day on slides so I converted them all to digital, so I got some pictures from when Al and his family, they would be over at our house in Lathrup, it would have to be around Christmastime because everybody was all dressed up and there's Christmas decorations out," Howe said.
Mark Howe also related a story that one of his friends in Detroit told him just last week.
"He was saying that going back maybe 7-8 years ago, he wanted to get a couple autographs from my dad so I sent him over to the house when Dad was still in Bloomfield Hills," Mark Howe said. "My friend said, 'Yeah, it was unbelievable. I was there and there was a knock on the door and it was Al Kaline.' So Al had come over to visit. He said, 'All three of us got in the car and here I am sitting with Gordie Howe and Al Kaline and we had lunch together, then I went home.' I said, 'I guess it was good timing for the autographs!'"
Kaline also made sure to reach out to his friend in times of need.
"Al still stayed in touch. I know a couple times when my mom was real sick, I remember Al called a few times to talk to Dad," Mark Howe said. "Then after Mom passed and that kind of thing. Even though they didn't see each other very often, they kept in touch a little bit. Their friendship went way back to the '50s."
Kaline spoke in 2016 about how much Howe meant to the city of Detroit and all the sports fans.
"Back in those days, you have to realize the Lions were very good," Kaline said. "We had the Bobby Layne's and the Joe Schmidt's. We had great players on the Lions but Gordie Howe and the Ted Lindsay's and the famous line with Sid Abel, the famous line that they had … Gordie was the greatest hockey player of all-time and people had pride in saying that, 'Yeah, Gordie Howe and the Red Wings, they're great.' Their chest would stick out and say they were fans of the Red Wings and fans of Gordie Howe. So yeah, he meant an awful lot to the city of Detroit."
Kaline was wowed but not at all surprised at the many legends who came to town to pay their respects to Howe at the Joe Louis Arena visitation.
"As great as he was, he was kind of a modest guy in a lot of ways," Kaline said. "But this is really fitting, to have the Wayne Gretzky's and the Scotty Bowman's and all of these guys coming in to honor Gordie Howe. It's only fitting because you're not around the greatest and people who were able to be in Detroit and be around Gordie, who was the greatest, not very many people, and not very many towns, can say they had the greatest in their city, and Gordie Howe was the greatest."
Howe was known as Mr. Hockey and Kaline as Mr. Tiger, but because of stay-at-home orders in Michigan to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, people cannot yet gather together to celebrate Kaline's life.
"All the people that want to come pay respects can't do it either," Mark Howe said. "I feel so bad for people. Please pass along the respects of the Howe family. I flew into town when they honored Red Kelly. Red Kelly is one of those kind of people, you have to go and you gotta be there. I would do the same for Al Kaline but you can't get there, you can't do anything.
"That's the kind of weight Al Kaline carries as far as I'm concerned."