Comments on: Hardball and Kingman

By: Mark C

Mark C — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:36:33 +0000

As a young kid growing up in Chicago, I had 2 favorites – the Cubs and Kingman. The Cubs were in Chicago and Kingman only visited a couple times a year with the Mets, Padres or Giants – depending on the year. I always knew that the Cubs got him, he’d do alot of damage. Well, they finally did and he didn’t let me down. Never. But, he let Chicago fans down in the last year or two when he was injured and hanging out on his boat instead of coming to the ballpark. I felt as if I was his only fan. So there I was, at a game in ‘80 or ‘81. Before the game he was as usual avoiding the fans who were booing him by then. I saw that he came over to the stands and I ran down there and pushed my way to the front. I pushed my scorecard and pencil in front of him and asked for an autograph. He was rude and told me I was rude as he was talking to someone (an elderly woman – maybe his grandmother, I have no idea). I was so close, but couldn’t reach my dream of an autograph. Then, in 1993 there was some sort of autographing session at a local mall. Nobody really of note interested me – until I saw the name Dave Kingman on the roster. In order to get an autograph, you would either have to pay a fee (I believe $10 or so) or, purchase a pound of Ekrich meat at a local deli and receive a coupon for an autograph. I went the meat route – a couple times – and arrived at the mall with my wife and infant daughter. I shook hands with Dave and had a picture taken of the two of us as well as a photo of him with my wife and daughter. He signed the instant photos and they’re safely tucked away in a drawer. He was very nice and very happy by this time in his life. I”m sure he’s even happier relaxing these days at his Nevada residence.

By: Our first review | The food timeline | Kong memories | The arbitration lowdown « hardball times

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:00:56 +0000

[...] by Dave Studeman Joe Posnanski reads the Hardball Times Annual and starts reminiscing about Dave Kingman. Just another offbeat reason you should order your copy [...]

By: Robert Koppel

Robert Koppel — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:58:26 +0000

For all that has been written thru the years, Kingman was my favorite player as a kid in the 70’s and I have personally known him since 92 and never seen a negative side. He has always been nice to me and my wife and kids. Being a father himself of 3, for whatever is written he managed to stay employed 16 years and is doing well at 60!!

By: Padre

Padre — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 03:43:36 +0000

And as every young Twins fan who has gazed at all the holes in the Metrodome ceiling and wondered aloud to his father whether anyone has ever hit a ball so high that it got stuck in one of them knows, the answer is, “Yes, son, Dave Kingman was the only guy to do that, and it counted as a double.”

By: Mario

Mario — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 05:43:44 +0000

@David in NYC – To the point you make about the one glove quote – the Dodger infield in the time frame you specify was primarily Garvey, Lopes, Russell and Cey. The Guerrero quote wasn’t from the 1981 series. Sax wasn’t their regular 2nd baseman yet. It was still Lopes. Sax didn’t play in the final series game. I think both the quote and the Jackson line was from a close game in 1983 when Guerrero was the starting 3rd basemen and Sax was starting at 2nd. Sax and Guerrero both led the league in errors at their position and I think Sax had the yips, making a bunch of throwing errors. Also, and I think for some reason this makes the quote funnier, he referred to Sax as “Saxy” as in “Don’t hit the ball to Saxy.”

It would also make sense to be then because I’m pretty sure Jackson started wearing one glove in 1983.

By: John McCann

John McCann — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:53:56 +0000

I am absurdly fascinated by both Kingman and Duane Kuiper too, next you are going to tell me you want a Bo Jackson highlight DVD for Christmas also.

My favorite meet a famous person story is when I met Dave Kingman. This was in the Senior Baseball League in Florida in 1988. I bought a set of their baseball cards at the ballpark and Dave was playing that day. I waited around after the game with the groupies and little kids to meet the players. Most of them were friendly enough (either to the groupies or little kids), but Dave K. came blasting out of the clubhouse angrily signing stuff for some fans. After leaving most of them in the dust I ran after him all the way out to his waiting SUV to finally catch up to him for my signature. The first thing I noticed is he was shockingly gigantic, I had a big frame at 6′3″ and he blotted out the sun over me. But he grumbled and signed my card while acting like an asshole basically. I felt so warm and fuzzy that I got to personally experience the Kingman experience that all the writers talked about.

By: sansho1

sansho1 — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 05:40:44 +0000

Because if Kingman really was annoyed everytime someone in front of him was intentionally walked, and he REALLY used that internal anger and fire to hit better and farther, why didnâ€™t he just make himself angry every single time he went to the plate?

Because then he wouldn’t have been Dave Kingman, I guess. It’s a question without a provable answer, which IMO adds to its intrigue.

By: Creston

Creston — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:57:14 +0000

You seem to be conflating this with the â€œclutch hittingâ€ discussion, but this strikes me as a different question. The clutch discussion takes a playerâ€™s established level of performance, and asks whether that player can somehow reach an even higher level when the game situation demands it. The â€œangerâ€ question seems to be more an issue of workplace temperament â€” are there some players for whom a negative personal stimulus can bring about a positive response?

You could argue that they are two different concepts, but I think they follow pretty much the same idea.

Do emotions / stress / happiness / anger / feeling good / feeling bad etc affect a player on the field? OFCOURSE they do. Some days I go into work and feel really shitty (well, that’s most days actually), and my work is pretty subpar. Other days I’ll go into work feeling really well, and work much harder and much better.

This isn’t going to be any different for an athlete. A pitcher who was up all night to be with his wife who delivered their first child is obviously going to be on top of the moon, full of adrenaline and happiness (at least you’d hope so), and will go into Yankee Stadium six hours later and throw a two hitter. (Can’t remember who did that.)

To go a bit further, Brett Favre in the game after his dad had died the day before.

Emotions WILL affect a person’s performance. However, that effect cannot be controlled in any way, shape or form. You can’t force yourself to be happy and feeling good and then use that to play better. Similarly, while you can force yourself to be angry, it’s not going to somehow miraculously make your hitting better.

Because if Kingman really was annoyed everytime someone in front of him was intentionally walked, and he REALLY used that internal anger and fire to hit better and farther, why didn’t he just make himself angry every single time he went to the plate?

So I’m going to chalk it all up to a few extra homers in a non-meaningful sampling of at-bats that really doesn’t give us any kind of profound psychological insight into a player’s mental state.

By: Buc

Buc — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:00:49 +0000

Kingman came out of nowhere to challenge the player with body parts as his name for the HR crown in 1984. He just killed Boston at the plate, hitting Prudential Specials every other AB. Gammons wrote about Boston trying to sign Kingman after 1986, but the negotiation started with Kingman asking for a hot tub and other renovations to the clubhouse and that pretty much ended it.

By: KM

KM — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:42:48 +0000

Jon Miller told this story during a Giants game a couple years ago–
Situation: bases loaded, 2 outs, ground ball to SF’s Kingman at first. He picks it up and throws home. But the Giants’ catcher has bolted for first to back up in case there is a throw. The ball sails to the backstop and 3 runs score.
(I’m still wondering why the catcher would vacate home there. Maybe he knew that Kingman’s chance of executing a 3-1 assist were pretty sketchy. Apparently he didn’t take into account that Kingman would forget how many outs there were.)