Ken Keltner Finished with the Wrong Team
But he looked great doing it
1950 Bowman Ken Keltner (#186) - Card of the Day
Ben Zobrist is an unusual Hall of Fame candidate, thanks to his defensive versatility and offensive prowess. To wit, Zobrist played in more than 200 games at each of four different positions during his 14-year big league career: second base (911), shortstop (236), left field (223), right field (466). He was also a pinch hitter in 93 games.
But, even though he moved around all the time, Zobrist still put up positive defensive value (6.4 dWAR) and excelled at the plate: .266, 167 HR, 768 RBI, 884 runs scored, 116 stolen bases, 113 OPS+. Add in three All-Star appearances, two World Series titles, and a Fall Classic MVP award, and you have a unique addition to the 2025 ballot.
Of course, this is still baseball, which means we can still make comparisons. One of Zobrist’s most interesting historical comps is Ken Keltner, the fifth most similar batter to Zobrist, according to Baseball Reference’s Similarity Scores.
Keltner was the complete opposite of Zobrist in some ways.
For starters, the former Cleveland Indians standout played one game at first base, for the Boston Red Sox in 1950. The other 1501 times he took the field, Keltner was stationed at third base.
He also wasn’t much of a terror on the bases, stealing 39 bases in his 13-year career while being nabbed 33 times. But Keltner was a power threat for Cleveland right from the start.
After getting one plate appearance with the 1937 team, Keltner was with the Tribe to stay in 1938, batting .276 with 26 home runs and 113 RBI as a rookie. He even picked up some MVP votes.
Two years later, he was an All-Star for the first time, and ran off five straight selections before missing 1945 due to military service. He was back in the Midsummer Classic in 1946, missed the cut in 1947, then reeled off a career year in 1948 as the Indians charged toward a championship.
That summer, Keltner hit .297 with 31 home runs and 119 RBI while playing 153 of a possible 154 games.
But after getting spiked in the leg during the 1949 season, Keltner managed just 80 games in his follow-up season. The Tribe released him in April of 1950, and the Red Sox signed him as a free agent the same day. He made it into 13 games with Boston and hit .321, but they released him in June.
Keltner was finished in the big leagues.
But he had barely even gotten started in the hobby, and never really would. Thanks to the paucity of cards issued during the bulk of his career, the first widely available issue to feature Keltner (at #125) was the 1949 Bowman set.
It’s a fine card and features him with the Indians, as you’d expect. But, even though he didn’t change teams until the spring of the new season, Bowman managed to slot Keltner with the Red Sox in their 1950 set, as you can see above.
Those 1950 through 1952 Bowman cards have a special feel to them (to me, at least), like holding comic book superheroes in the palm of your hand. And, if the superhero happens to be with the “wrong” team in a couple of cases, so be it.
And if it helps salve the wounds of any long-suffering Indians fans in their 70s, 80s, 90s, 100s, or whatever who actually saw Keltner play…well, consider this a soft career-capper. It may not show his final stats, but it does show his final uniform.
Those final stats, by the way, were nothing to sneeze at: .276, 163 HR, 852 RBI, 737 runs scored, 112 OPS+.
His 33.2 WAR don’t measure up to Zobrist’s, but Keltner received a single vote in each of two appearances on the Hall of Fame ballot (1958 and 1960).
Will Zobrist last even that long on the Cooperstown docket?
*shrug*
Who knows? But whether he does or doesn’t, here’s one other tie binding the two men…
That World Series the Indians won in 1948 with Keltner at third? It’s still their most recent title.
And that World Series MVP Zobrist won? Yeah, it came for the curse-busting 2016 Chicago Cubs, who battled to a thrilling and classic seven-game victory over…the Cleveland Indians.
Discount the baseball gods at your own peril.
And Keltner made two awesome plays at third vs. DiMaggio, to end Joltin Joe’s hitting streak at 56. Joe then hit in 16 more games after that so it could have been a 73 game hitting streak if not for Keltner.