Early years Trammell attended
Kearny High School in
San Diego, California and played
American Legion Baseball. He was named the 1989 American Legion Graduate of the Year. The
Detroit Tigers selected him in the second round of the
1976 MLB draft. While playing for the Tigers' farm team in Montgomery of the
Southern League, Trammell played his first game with teammate
Lou Whitaker before the two infielders were promoted, making their major league debut at
Fenway Park together, during the second game of a double-header on
September 9, 1977, the first of nineteen seasons together. Both players became regulars at their positions the following season. Trammell
batted .300 in 1980 as he made the
All-Star team for the first time. In 1983, he batted .319 with 14
home runs, 66
runs batted in and 30
stolen bases. Having hit .258 in both 1981 and 1982, Trammell won the 1983
MLB Comeback Player of the Year Award in the
American League (AL). Trammell and Whitaker made a cameo appearance 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.
1984 The Tigers enjoyed a championship-winning season in 1984, when they started the season 35–5 and led the AL wire-to-wire en route to winning the World Series. Despite a season-long battle with
tendinitis in his shoulder that caused him to miss 23 regular season games, Trammell finished fifth in the AL batting race with a .314 mark and ranked eighth in
on-base percentage (.382). In the
AL Championship Series against the
Kansas City Royals, he hit .364 with one home run and three RBI. Finally, in the
World Series, he hit .450 (9-for-20) against the
San Diego Padres, including a pair of two-run home runs that accounted for all of the Tigers' scoring in a Game 4 victory. Detroit won the series 4–1, and Trammell was named
World Series MVP.
1985–1988 , In 1985, after two consecutive years of batting not lower than .314, Trammell was hampered by injuries and posted only a .258 batting average. He underwent postseason surgery on his left knee and right shoulder. The following season, a fully healthy Trammell hit 21 homers and stole 25 bases, becoming only the second player in Detroit history to hit 20+ home runs and steal 20+ bases in the same season. (
Kirk Gibson was the other, while
Curtis Granderson and
Robbie Grossman later joined the club.) Trammell also set a career-high with 75 RBI. In 1987, asked by manager
Sparky Anderson to replace the departed
Lance Parrish as
cleanup hitter, Trammell responded with his best major league season, hitting a career-high 28 home runs to go with a .343 batting average (ranking third in the AL). In addition, Trammell appeared among the league leaders in most other AL offensive categories: third in hits (205), tenth in RBI (105), tied for fifth in
runs (109), fourth in
total bases (329), fifth in on-base percentage (.402), eighth in
slugging average (.551), sixth in
on-base plus slugging (.953), fifth in
OPS+ (155), and tied for fifth in game-winning RBI (16). In September, he batted .416 with six homers and 17 RBI and put together an 18-game hitting streak in which he hit .457. On the penultimate day of the regular season, he hit a walk-off single against the
Toronto Blue Jays to help his team take the
AL East division lead, which they clinched the next day. He became the first Tiger to collect 200
hits and 100 RBI in the same season since
Al Kaline did it in 1955. Trammell also became the first shortstop to hit at least .340 with 20+ home runs and 100+ RBI in a season in big league history. Despite his efforts, Trammell finished second to Toronto's
George Bell in the MVP voting (332–311). After the season finale, Whitaker gave him second base, on which he had written:
To Alan Trammell, 1987 Most Valuable Player, from your friend Lou Whitaker. Trammell followed up with a .311 season in 1988, though a stint on the disabled list limited him to 128 games that year.
Later years, injuries, and retirement in 1996 Following the 1990 season, in which he hit .304 with 89 RBI in 146 games, Trammell suffered a long string of injuries that reduced his production over his final years. In 1991, knee and ankle injuries limited Trammell to 101 games. During the following season, he played in 29 games before breaking his right ankle and missing the remainder of the 1992 season. He hit .329 in a resurgent 1993 season but was ineligible to be ranked among the AL batting leaders because he only had 447 plate appearances. In his final five seasons, Trammell averaged 76 games played after averaging 140 games played the first 13 seasons of his career. From 1993 to 1996, Trammell saw less time at shortstop in favor of
Travis Fryman and eventually
Chris Gomez and
Andújar Cedeño. He instead saw playing time at several positions, including shortstop, third base, second base, left field, center field, and designated hitter. Trammell retired following the 1996 season. In his 20-year career, Trammell batted over .300 seven times, ending with a career average of .285 and 185 home runs with 1,003 RBI, 1,231 runs, 2,365 hits, 412
doubles, 55
triples, 236 stolen bases and 850 walks in 2,293 games. Trammell was on his 15th and final
Baseball Writers' Association of America ballot in 2016, failing to earn enough for induction. Trammell was one of the last candidates to be allowed on the ballot for 15 years after the BBWAA reduced eligibility to ten years, and would next be considered for the
Veterans Committee Expansion starting from 2017. On December 10, 2017, he was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Modern Baseball Committee alongside teammate
Jack Morris. They were inducted in July 2018. In 1998, Trammell was elected into the
National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame.
Jersey number retirement {{MLBBioRet Alan Trammell's jersey #3 was retired by the Tigers in a ceremony on August 26, 2018. His name and number were added to the brick wall in left-center field at
Comerica Park, alongside
Charlie Gehringer (#2),
Hank Greenberg (#5),
Al Kaline (#6),
Sparky Anderson (#11),
Hal Newhouser (#16),
Willie Horton (#23),
Ty Cobb (no number) and
Jack Morris (#47).
Jackie Robinson's #42 was retired throughout baseball in 1997. Double-play mate
Lou Whitaker had his #1 retired in 2022, and it now fittingly stands to the right of Trammel's on the outfield wall. ==Managerial and coaching career==