Shrine to John Kruk
Surely you know by now that John has a plush gig on ESPN's Baseball Tonight. They're even letting him write a column on espn.com's Page 2.
At long last, someone has come up with video of Kruk vs. Randy Johnson. Scroll down to 1993 or just search for "Kruk." Thanks to Alan Slay for sending the link.
If you wish to contact John, your best bet is to go through ESPN (though as of May 2 they don't have an e-mail address or anything else for him on espn.com). I don't have any direct contact information, sorry. I don't have any special connections to Kruk memorabilia, either; try eBay, or check the Phils' web site for a Kruk public appearance and get him to sign somehting yourself.
Probably thinking either "I ain't hittin' worth a spit,"
or "If this game goes into extra innings, we won't get back to the hotel in time to get room service."
There will never be another team like the '93 Phils. Ever.
If you are going to link images from this page: Please do me the courtesy of including a link to the page, www.bigfool.com/kruk. If you're going to use an image on a recurring basis (say, as a message board avatar or as a fantasy sports team logo), please save the image to your local machine and then upload it back to your server. Thanks.
Here are Kruk's career statistics, courtesy of the apparently revived Baseball StatsWeb.
From the Field: thoughts and memories contributed by fans.
Kruk on Letterman: You can now read transcripts of his appearances in 1992, a sub-par year for the Phils, and 1993, the year of the National League championship. I'm not going to say they're accurate down to every little stutter, but they're pretty good. I have heard that John appeared on the show two more times, but I don't have the video; if you do and would like to share, please e-mail me.
Chat session: John did an on-line chat on the Players' Association site on April 16, 1998. I managed to copy out most of it as it happened; you can read my poorly formatted text version or the better-looking version in their archive. I'm signed on as "Carlos del Vaca"; note the plug I got in for this page.
If you're reading this page and don't already have John's I Ain't an Athlete, Lady..., go buy it now.
- Other pictures:
- Last career hit off the Orioles' Scott Erickson, July 30, 1995.
- Early days with the Las Vegas Stars, the Padres Triple-A club.
- Thanks to Nikola Pizurica, the biggest Phillies fan in Yugoslavia, for these pictures: tagging out Kirk Gibson, taking a hack, one from Wrigley Field, and the hideous confines of our own Veterans Stadium.
- David Simpson sent this photo of Kruk as a rookie at spring training in Yuma, AZ. They were shooting for graphics for ABC's Monday Night Baseball.
- Planet Out has video of one of Kruk's Fox commercials in the diner, "the old hidden ball trick."
- Dennis Smith sent a picture he got with John at Doubleday Farm.
- Thanks to Don Johnson for some old baseball card images, one from the Beaumont Golden Gators, and these two from the Phillies era.
- Most of the articles I had listed here are now 404, but some survive:
- Kruk discusses his role in the Wesley Snipes/Robert DeNiro movie "The Fan."
- The Shmoo Archive
- West Virginia Sports Hall of Fame
- CNN/SI's top 50 athletes from West Virginia
- Nice piece from the Inquirer, from their Vet retrospective, on Kruk's first game back from cancer surgery.
- While not entirely Kruk-related, this article on the 4 AM doubleheader is well worth reading.
- Links to fan-produced Phillies sites (you can find MLB @BAT and USA Today yourself):
- Steven Hough
- Broad & Pattison Weekly Review, by Jim Sweetman
- Scott Orr (no relation)
- Phillies Fan Union
- Rob Barsky
- Mike Lieberthal (Yes, the Phils current catcher.)
- Mike Sullivan, Phillies Unofficial Hall of Fame
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