After his notorious adolescence on the east side of Detroit in the 1960s, Ron LeFlore made national news in the ’70s as his hometown team’s unlikeliest of center fielders. And after a brief, but storied major-league career, which included one All-Star game and 455 stolen bases, LeFlore hasn’t made many headlines in recent years. But now more than 50 years after his big-league debut, LeFlore, 77, is experiencing a late-inning renaissance. Last November, LeFlore was inducted into the “people’s hall of fame.” Now comes a new biography from Bay Area author Adam Henig that reminds readers what a truly remarkable life he’s led — both on the field and off.
The first time that the Detroit Free Press mentioned the words “hitting streak” and Ron LeFlore in the same sentence was on May 8, 1976. Free Press reporter Jim Hawkins was writing about how Ron, a week earlier, had stolen a career-high four bases against the Chicago White Sox, then casually noted that the center fielder currently had a ten-game hitting streak. At some point in a hitter’s career, a player will likely develop a hitting streak that typically extends to thirteen, fourteen, or sixteen games. But Ron’s streak didn’t stop there.
“Look Out DiMag . . . Here Comes LeFlore” was the headline of Hawkins’s piece when Ron’s streak had extended to eighteen consecutive games, the longest by a Tiger since Al Kaline’s twenty-two-game hitting streak in 1961.
So much of the allure of baseball is its historic recordkeeping. Among the most revered records at this time were the career home run category (set by the Atlanta Braves’ Hank Aaron with 755) and home runs hit in a single season (held by the New York Yankees’ Roger Maris with sixty-one). Then there were the records for consecutive games played (Lou Gehrig, with 2,130), and baseball’s longest consecutive hitting streak (fifty-six, set in 1941 by the Yankees’ Joe DiMaggio). Of all these records, DiMaggio’s would be the only one that would continue to stand the test of time.
The first significant milestone Ron surpassed was Al Kaline’s twenty-two-game hitting streak set in 1961. It would be eclipsed on May 21. At that point, it was no longer a Detroit story.
As Ron continued to hit in every game and inched closer to DiMaggio’s seemingly unassailable record, the national media joined the parade in tracking the streak, to the chagrin of at least one of his teammates. Inside the team’s less-than-impressive locker room, outfielder Alex Johnson, whose locker was next to Ron’s, found non-Detroit writers sitting on his stool after each passing game, not realizing it wasn’t for them.
Among Tiger fans, whenever Ron came up to bat, fans made sure to be in their seats. He was one of the only exciting hitters on the club to watch during this time. But during the streak, it was taken to a whole new level.
“In the Tiger dugout, in the press box, in the bullpen, in the grandstand, and in the centerfield bleachers, all eyes are on the hot hitting Tiger star every time he steps up to the plate,” Hawkins wrote. Luckily for Ron, about half of the time during his streak, he would get a hit in his first at bat, suspending any anticipation. But when he didn’t, that was when the nail-biting in the stands ensued. Once he got a hit, the fans sighed with relief. When the inning was over, Ron jogged to center field to a standing ovation from those in the bleachers, who were chanting, “LeFlore! LeFlore! LeFlore!”
On May 25, Ron was approaching the next milestone: twenty-seven games, the longest hitting streak in the American League since 1951, set by Boston Red Sox’s Dom DiMaggio (Joe’s younger brother). When Ron collected hit number twenty-eight, the focus turned to twenty-nine, which would tie the longest streak by a Detroit Tiger since Pete Fox in 1935.
Deemed by the New York Times as the “league’s top hitter” two months into the 1976 season, Ron was hitting an American League-leading .392 batting average and was second in the league in hits and doubles, tied for third in triples, and eighth in stolen bases. He was considered a lock for the 1976 All- Star Game in Philadelphia.
When Ron reached thirty consecutive [games with a hit] on May 27 against the Orioles on the game’s first pitch (he hit a stand-up triple), the talk of the streak became even more serious. Could he get to forty? Fifty? Fifty-six? Whether on radio or television, in the sports section or any bar, the “whole town” of Motor City was talking about it. When Tiger manager Ralph Houk was asked how Ron measured up against past players he had managed, such as Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra, he said, “[I]t’s too early to start comparing Ron LeFlore to baseball’s all-time greats.” True, but it was pointed out that so few players had ever accomplished such a feat (Mantle and Berra not among them). Babe Ruth had never had a thirty-game hitting streak. Neither had Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, or even Ron’s former teammate Al Kaline. Since 1900, only twelve players have had longer consecutive hitting streaks.
While it would be virtually impossible for anyone to compartmentalize that level of attention, Ron acquired an effective coping mechanism: transcendental meditation. “I meditate twice a day . . . usually about 15 or 20 minutes when I get up,” Ron disclosed, “and then about 15 or 20 minutes a couple of hours before I come to the ballpark.” He added, “It gives you a lot of relaxation.”
The regimen was inspired by John Fetzer, the 74-year-old owner of the Detroit Tigers. A spiritual man, Fetzer, who had an estimated net worth of $100 million, making him the wealthiest resident of the state of Michigan, was on the front lines of the new age movement.
Meditation played a role in helping Ron to attain one of the longest hitting streaks in MLB history. What also contributed was the time he had spent in Puerto Rico. There, he had learned to become a patient hitter, no longer lunging at pitches. It was telling that his first home run in 1976 did not occur until his thirtieth game of the season — and what a blast it was. During the second game of a doubleheader against Baltimore at Tiger Stadium, in the midst of the streak, Ron hit a “booming drive into the upper deck in right centerfield.”
On May 28, the Tigers were at home, taking on the league-leading New York Yankees, now led by former Tiger manager Billy Martin. With rain expected, the stadium was less than half-filled that evening. Nonetheless, the intensity between these two rivals that dated back seventy-five years was bitterly apparent. Before the game had even started, Yankee catcher Thurman Munson made it clear that the Yankees intended to stop Ron’s thirty-game hitting streak.
“He ain’t gonna get no hit tonight, so you guys can stop writing about it,” Munson blurted to reporters ahead of the first pitch.
In his first at bat, when Ron had gotten a hit nearly half the time during his streak, he tapped a fly ball in shallow right field for an out. In his second plate appearance, the Tigers were up 1–0, and teammate Jerry Manuel was on second base. The team was hoping to add a run, which they would need against the mighty Yankees. With a full count against him, Ron slashed the ball along the third baseline. It should have easily been a hit for Ron, but Yankee third baseman Graig Nettles happened to be covering the bag. Nettles normally played farther away from the base to cover more ground — except that he saw Manuel stealing, and that forced him to move over to the third baseline.
“If I hadn’t gone over to cover the bag, I probably wouldn’t have fielded the ball quickly enough to throw LeFlore out,” Nettles later said.
Now zero for two, Ron’s third at bat, which came during the sixth inning, involved Manuel again. He hit a “slow chopper” to the shortstop. If no one had been on base, Ron would have likely beat the throw to first. However, since Manuel was on first base and heading to second, the Yankees shortstop flipped the ball to the second baseman, forcing Manuel out. Ron was safe, but his at bat was ruled a ground out, not a hit.
With the Tigers down 9–5 in the bottom of the eighth, not only was the game slipping away from them but Ron’s thirty-game hitting streak was also in danger of ending.
Yankee reliever Tippy Martinez was on the mound. Ron led off the inning. He swung at the first pitch. Strike one. Ron sensed he was reverting to his old habits: chasing the ball, not exercising patience. Before he took his next pitch, he noticed Yankee first baseman Chris Chambliss was playing deep, so he tried something different: a bunt.
Martinez delivered the pitch. Ron went into a bunting position. He made contact, but it went foul. Strike two.
Munson called time and went to talk it over with his pitcher. “Throw him a good fastball, but keep it inside,” he told Martinez.
Ron went back into the batter’s box. The pitch came across the plate — right down the middle, like Munson wanted it. It was Ron’s favorite pitch, but he didn’t swing at it. Home plate umpire Jerry Neudecker raised his fist. Strike three.
Ron walked slowly back to the dugout. He knew. His teammates knew. The fans knew. The streak had ended.
When the eighth inning ended (all three batters went down one, two, three), Ron jogged out to center field. The fans in the bleachers gave him a standing ovation, and it quickly spread to the rest of the stadium. Twenty thousand fans were on their feet. They weren’t stopping until Ron acknowledged it by pulling on his baseball cap. Once the crowd settled down, the game went on, and the Tigers lost.
Ron’s thirty-game hitting streak — which really was thirty-one games, if you factor in the last game he played from the previous season — was the longest in the American League since Dom DiMaggio in 1949 and the longest by a Detroit Tiger since 1930. Ron, who was awarded the American League’s Player of the Month for May, had solidified his credentials and accomplished something that only a handful of players had ever done.
Excerpted from Baseball’s Outcast: The Story of Ron LeFlore by Adam Henig, out April 2 by Bloomsbury Academic.
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This article appears in April 1-14, 2026.