A girl named Kaline? This Detroit Tigers family is full of fanatics

Jeff Seidel | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Kaline Adams was named after Detroit Tigers Hall of Famer Al Kaline Kaline Adams was named after Detroit Tigers Hall of Famer Al Kaline by her Tigers loving dad Chris Adams. Recorded July 28, 2018 in Cooperstown, N.Y.

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Greetings from baseball heaven.

Walking down Main Street in this quaint town with just one traffic light, not far from the Baseball Hall of Fame, there were Detroit Tigers fans everywhere you turned.

I met a woman who explained in great detail how she gave Jack Morris some cookies, and a guy from Commerce Township who invited me to his campsite for a beer. Well, heck yes. All in the name of journalism, of course.

Former Tiger Darrell Evans was doing an autograph session at a table on the sidewalk, and several Tigers fans walked up, just wanting to shake his hand and thank him. Evans was sitting next to pitcher Denny McLain, who was saying: “This is crazy town!”

[Read more of our Baseball Hall of Fame coverage from Cooperstown]

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Somebody was driving a van around Cooperstown with four Tigers flags sticking in the air, full of unmistakable pride, and it was like all these Tigers fans were saying the same thing: Finally!

Indeed.

Finally, Jack Morris and Alan Trammell are in the Hall of Fame. It's about time, right? They will be inducted in a ceremony on Sunday.

And then there was the girl.

The girl with the cool, iconic first name.

“Kaline, come here,” Chris Adams said to his daughter.

Here came Kaline Adams, a 10-year-old from Chicago.

“No way!” I said. “What’s your name?”

“Kaline,” she said, proudly.

She looked down at the badge, dangling from her neck.

Sure enough.

Her name was printed on the tag: "Kaline Adams," and she was wearing a Tigers T-shirt, of course, with "Kaline" written on the back.

And yes, she was named after Al Kaline, the Tigers Hall of Famer.

“She has never met Mr. Kaline,” Chris Adams said. “This is one of the reasons why we are here.”

How in the world was she named Kaline?

“I was a big Al Kaline fan when I was a kid,” Chris Adams said. “To be honest, I always wanted a kid named Kaline and my wife is a great sport.”

Actually, his wife, Tina-Marie Adams, might be the coolest mom in the history of baseball.

Tina-Marie made a deal with her husband. He could name their daughter after one of his three all-time favorite baseball players: Carl Yastrzemski, Reggie Jackson or Kaline.

Yaz? For a girl? It didn’t sound right.

Reggie? That could work.

But they went with Kaline.

“It’s a beautiful name,” Tina-Marie Adams said.

And this is a beautiful place because it’s the one place nobody slaughters her name.

Growing up in Illinois, Kaline Adams has been called Carolyn and Kayleen and whatnot.

But here?

On this weekend? When Morris and Trammell will be inducted into the Hall of Fame?

When there are so many Tigers fans pouring into Cooperstown?

Well, let’s just say, nobody is mispronouncing it this weekend.

“It’s kinda cool that people actually know how to pronounce my name here,” Kaline Adams said.

And she doesn’t have to explain it. Not here.

“We often have to explain that she is named after Al Kaline,” Tina-Marie Adams said.

“But here? Everybody gets it, which is really cool.”

If everything goes as planned, Miss Kaline will meet Mr. Kaline on Saturday.

She has bought a ticket to a Kaline autograph session.

“I don’t exactly know how I’m going to tell him, ‘I was named after you,’ ” she said.

Oh, there’s one more thing you have to know about this baseball-crazed family.

“We have two cats,” Chris Adams said. “Their names are Trammell and Whitaker.”

Well, of course, right?

Chris Adams always wanted another cat.

A fat one, for lack of a better term.

“I’d want a bigger cat,” Chris Adams said. “And we’d name it Cecil.”

Perfect.

This place is just perfect.

And it finally feels right, to have some Tigers here again.

Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel/