John Martin Kruk (born February 9, 1961) is an American former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professiona ...

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

and

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

. Kruk played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

(MLB) for the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penn ...

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...

, and

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

from through . During his career, he was a three-time

MLB All-Star The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual professional baseball game sanctioned by Major League Baseball (MLB) and contested between the all-stars from the American League (AL) and National ...

. After retiring as a player, Kruk became a baseball analyst for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. He is now a

color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main ( play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and ...

for Phillies' games on NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Early life

Kruk was raised in Keyser,

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...

. He is of Polish descent. He played baseball at

Keyser High School Keyser High School is a comprehensive four-year public high school located in Keyser, West Virginia, in Mineral County that operates as part of the Mineral County Schools District. History Piedmont High School was combined into Keyser High ...

, at

Potomac State College Potomac State College is a public college in Keyser, West Virginia. It is part of the West Virginia University system. Potomac State College is located approximately 90 miles (140 km) east of West Virginia University's campus in Morgantown, We ...

, and at

Allegany Community College Allegany College of Maryland (or ACM) is a public community college in Cumberland, Maryland. It was previously known as Allegany Community College. The college was founded in 1961 and is accredited by the Middle State Commission on Higher Education ...

, where Kruk played for Junior College Hall of Fame Coach Steve Bazarnic. Kruk was the first Major Leaguer to come out of Allegany and has been followed by four others ( Stan Belinda, Steve Kline, Joe Beimel, and

Scott Seabol Scott Anthony Seabol (born May 17, 1975 in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, United States) is a former Major League Baseball player. He made his major league debut on April 8, , with the New York Yankees, but only for a single game. After a short time ...

Career

San Diego Padres

Kruk was signed as the third overall selection in the Special Draft selection on June 13, 1981. He began his professional career with the

after being drafted in 1981. He played in such outposts as Walla Walla,

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is th ...

, Beaumont, and

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Veg ...

, before making his debut with the Padres in . In this same year he played for the

Águilas de Mexicali The Águilas de Mexicali ( en, Mexicali Eagles) are a professional baseball based in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. They compete in the Mexican Pacific League (LMP), a Mexican winter league. The team plays at Estadio Nido de los Águilas als ...

of the

Mexican Pacific League The Mexican Pacific League (), known as Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacífico for sponsorship reasons or simply LMP for its acronym in Spanish, is a professional baseball winter league based in Northern Mexico. The ten-team regular season schedule ru ...

for the 86–87 season. Kruk helped Mexicali win both the League championship and

Caribbean Series The Caribbean Series (''Spanish'': ''Serie del Caribe''), also called Caribbean World Series, is the highest tournament for professional baseball teams in Latin America. The tournament location is rotated annually among the countries and is nor ...

title. Kruk's breakout year was 1987 with the Padres. He hit .313 with 20 home runs and 91 RBI, and stole 18 bases, showing surprising speed for someone of his build, although he was caught ten times. He was featured as a backup on the National League All-Star Team in the

Nintendo is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade playing cards ...

game ''

R.B.I. Baseball ''R.B.I. Baseball'' is a baseball sports video game series. ''R.B.I.'' stands for "run batted in". Launched in 1987 as a localized version of Namco's '' Family Stadium'' series, the ''R.B.I. Baseball'' series initially ran through 1995. In 2014 ...

''. On April 13, 1987, Marvell Wynne,

Tony Gwynn Anthony Keith Gwynn Sr. (May 9, 1960 – June 16, 2014), nicknamed "Mr. Padre", was an American professional baseball right fielder, who played 20 seasons (1982–2001) in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres. The left-handed hit ...

, and Kruk became the first players in major league history to open their half of the 1st inning with three consecutive solo home runs in a 13–6 loss to the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Yo ...

. In October 1987, Kruk rented a house in San Diego with two other men: Roy Plummer, a high school friend, and Vernon (Jay) Hafer, an acquaintance of Plummer's.Harki, Gary.
Baseball star John Kruk one of many fooled by bank robber
, The

Charleston Gazette The ''Charleston Gazette-Mail'' is the only daily morning newspaper in Charleston, West Virginia. It is the product of a July 2015 merger between ''The Charleston Gazette'' and the '' Charleston Daily Mail''. The paper is one of nine owned by HD ...

, August 5, 2008. They socialized and partied together, with Plummer almost always picking up the check. Unbeknownst to Kruk, who moved out in November to play winter ball in Mexico, Plummer was funding the group's lifestyle by moonlighting as an armed robber, with Hafer serving as his

getaway driver A crime scene getaway is the act of fleeing the location where one has broken the law. It is an act that the offender(s) may or may not have planned in detail, resulting in a variety of outcomes. A :crime scene is the "location of a crime; e ...

. The FBI informed Kruk of his roommates' criminal activities during spring training in February 1988, approaching him before batting practice with a photo of Plummer taken during a bank robbery. According to the FBI, Plummer believed that Kruk had turned him in to the police, and Kruk lived in fear of reprisal until Plummer was apprehended on September 19, 1988. Kruk has stated that the ongoing stress from the episode negatively affected his on-field performance that season.

Philadelphia Phillies

On June 2, 1989, the Padres dealt Kruk, along with

Randy Ready Randall Max Ready (born January 8, 1960) is a former professional baseball player and former manager for the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp. Ready played in the major Leagues primarily as a utility player from to . He also played one season in Japan ...

, to the

for Chris James. After being dealt, Kruk blossomed into an All-Star as the team used him primarily at

first base A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

. Kruk played in the All-Star Game in

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

, and

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

. In his 1993 appearance at the Midsummer Classic, he had a memorable at bat when he flailed wildly at 98 mile per hour

fastball The fastball is the most common type of pitch thrown by pitchers in baseball and softball. " Power pitchers," such as former American major leaguers Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, rely on speed to prevent the ball from being hit, and have thr ...

s from

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The team joined the American League as an expansion ...

pitcher

Randy Johnson Randall David Johnson (born September 10, 1963), nicknamed "The Big Unit", is an American photographer and former professional baseball pitcher who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (1988–2009) for six teams, primarily the Seattle M ...

. Johnson's first pitch flew over Kruk's head to the backstop, leading Kruk to feign heart palpitations and remark "That boy throws too hard and he's too wild. He could kill someone." Kruk, who batted .316/.430/.475 in , was also a member of the Phillies' "Macho Row" which led the team to the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the Worl ...

against the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...

; in the losing effort, Kruk batted .348/.500/.391 in the Series. During spring training in , Kruk was diagnosed with

testicular cancer Testicular cancer is cancer that develops in the testicles, a part of the male reproductive system. Symptoms may include a lump in the testicle, or swelling or pain in the scrotum. Treatment may result in infertility. Risk factors include a ...

(ultimately resulting in the removal of one testicle) after an errant pickoff throw from teammate

Mitch Williams Mitchell Steven Williams (born November 17, 1964), nicknamed "Wild Thing", is an American former relief pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for six teams from 1986 to 1997. He was also a studio analyst for the MLB Network from 2009 to ...

hit him in the groin and broke his protective cup. Additionally, weight gain and the astroturf at

Veterans Stadium Veterans Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, at the northeast corner of Broad Street (Philadelphia), Broad Street and Pattison Avenue, part of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. The seating capa ...

exacerbated his knee problems. After the season, Kruk was granted free agency.

Chicago White Sox

Moving to the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league b ...

to serve as a

designated hitter The designated hitter (DH) is a baseball player who bats in place of another position player, most commonly the pitcher. The position is authorized by Major League Baseball Rule 5.11. It was adopted by the American League in 1973 and later by t ...

, Kruk signed with the

on May 12, ,Ginsburg, David. "Kruk Ends Career on a Hitting Note," ''The Associated Press'', Monday, July 31, 1995.
Retrieved July 8, 2019 batting .308/.399/.390 in his only season with the ballclub. In the first inning of the White Sox's 8–3 loss to the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

Camden Yards The Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a baseball stadium located in Baltimore, Maryland. It is the home field of Major League Baseball's Baltimore Orioles, and the first of the "retro" major league ballparks constructed during the 1990s and early ...

on July 30, he singled off Scott Erickson, advanced to and was stranded on third base, removed himself from the game and promptly retired as an active player due to chronic knee soreness. He had made the decision two days earlier and informed his teammates on the eve of his retirement. The parting statement he issued to the media simply read, "The desire to compete at this level is gone. When that happens, it's time to go." Kruk finished his 10-year career with a .300 batting average, 100

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s and 592

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the b ...

Post-baseball activities

A quotable character throughout his career who had written a book called ''I Ain't an Athlete, Lady'' published in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

, Kruk turned to broadcasting and commenting on the game. He has since worked for ''

Major League Baseball on Fox ''MLB on Fox'' (also known as ''Fox MLB'') is an American presentation of Major League Baseball (MLB) games produced by Fox Sports, the sports division of the Fox Broadcasting Company (Fox), since June 1, 1996. The broadcaster has aired the Worl ...

'', '' The Best Damn Sports Show Period'', and local telecasts in Philadelphia. Kruk has been a resident of Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey. Kruk coached for a year within the Phillies organization. He coached the

Reading Phillies Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spel ...

of the

Class AA Double-A (officially Class AA) is the second-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States since 1946, below only Triple-A. There are currently 30 teams classified at the Double-A level, one for each team in Major League ...

Eastern League Eastern League may refer to: Baseball in the United States ''Most recent leagues listed first'' * Eastern League (1938–present), a minor league established in 1923 and renamed Eastern League in 1938, at the Double-A level * Eastern League (1916� ...

during the 2001 season. Kruk had acting roles in film and television, including the 1996 film '' The Fan'', '' The Sandlot: Heading Home'', and '' American Pastime''. In a 2008 episode of

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...

adult cartoon Adult animation, also known as mature animation, and infrequently as adult-oriented animation, is any type of animated motion work that is catered specifically to adult interests, and is mainly targeted and marketed towards adults and adolescent ...

Aqua Teen Hunger Force ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' (also known by various alternative titles), sometimes abbreviated as ''ATHF'' or ''Aqua Teen'', is an American adult animated television series created by Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro for Cartoon Network's late ni ...

'', ''Sirens'', Kruk guest starred, voicing the role of himself. Kruk also appeared in the

Sawyer Brown Sawyer Brown is an American country music band. It was founded in 1981 in Apopka, Florida, by Mark Miller (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Gregg "Hobie" Hubbard (keyboards, vocals), Bobby Randall (lead guitar, vocals), Joe "Curly" Smyth (drums), an ...

music video "Round Here". In ,

hired Kruk as an analyst on '' Baseball Tonight''. He also wrote a column called ''Chewing the Fat'' on ESPN.com. Kruk coached the National League team in the

Taco Bell Taco Bell is an American-based chain of fast food restaurants founded in 1962 by Glen Bell (1923–2010) in Downey, California. Taco Bell is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. The restaurants serve a variety of Mexican-inspired foods, includi ...

All-Star Legends & Celebrity Softball Game in

Anaheim, California Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most ...

, on July 12, 2010. Kruk appeared in '' MLB on ESPN'' commercials, playing himself as part of moments in baseball history; for example, an old briefcase belonging to Kruk buried in the infield dirt containing a rotten sandwich caused the bugs to attack

Karl Ravech Karl Ravech (; born ) is an American journalist who works as the primary play by play commentator for ''Sunday Night Baseball''.Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one ...

pitcher Joba Chamberlain, mocking game 2 of the 2007 ALDS between the Yankees and the Indians. He, along with

Steve Phillips Stephen Francis Phillips (born May 18, 1963) is an American baseball analyst and former baseball executive. He served as the general manager of the New York Mets from 1997 through 2003. He worked as a baseball analyst for ESPN from 2005 until h ...

and

Gary Thorne Gary F. Thorne (born June 9, 1948) is an American sportscaster. He was the lead play-by-play announcer for Baltimore Orioles games on MASN from 2007 to 2020. He has also worked for ESPN and ABC, including National Hockey League, Major Leagu ...

, was a commentator on the video games ''

MLB 2K10 ''Major League Baseball 2K10'' or, in short, ''MLB 2K10'', is an MLB licensed baseball simulation video game published by 2K Sports. ''MLB 2K10'' was available for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, W ...

, MLB 2K11, MLB 2K12'' and '' MLB 2K13''. In , ESPN hired Kruk to be the color commentator for ''

Sunday Night Baseball ''Sunday Night Baseball'' is an exclusive weekly telecast of a Major League Baseball game that airs Sunday nights at 7:00 p.m. EDT on ESPN during the regular season. The games are preceded most weeks by the studio show '' Baseball Tonight: ...

'' alongside

Dan Shulman Daniel Shulman is a Canadian sportscaster with Sportsnet as well as the American network ESPN. Shulman serves as a play-by-play announcer for select Toronto Blue Jays telecasts on Sportsnet and during 2018 and 2020 he hosted the baseball-th ...

. Also in 2012, fellow West Virginians, the

Davisson Brothers Band Davisson Brothers Band is an American country music group, "from the hills of West Virginia", composed of brothers Chris Davisson ( lead guitar, slide guitar), and Donnie Davisson (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Gerrod Bee ( bass guitar, backgro ...

, were approached by Kruk to write a new theme song for ''Baseball Tonight''. In 2015, once again, Kruk, asked the Davisson Brothers Band to record a special track, titled "Right Here on ESPN", for the ESPN bumpers during the July 4 weekend. Following the 2016 baseball season in October, Kruk and ESPN mutually agreed to part ways. In February 2017,

Comcast SportsNet NBC Sports Regional Networks is the collective name for a group of regional sports networks in the United States that are primarily owned and operated by the NBCUniversal division of the cable television company Comcast. The networks were origin ...

announced that they hired Kruk to join the Philadelphia Phillies broadcast team, replacing Matt Stairs, who was hired as the Phillies'

hitting coach In baseball, a number of coaches assist in the smooth functioning of a team. They are assistants to the manager, who determines the starting lineup and batting order, decides how to substitute players during the game, and makes strategy decisio ...

. After moving to

Naples, Florida Naples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the historical city (i.e. in the immediate vicinity of downtown Naples) was 19,115. Naples is a principal city of the Naples-Marco Island, Flori ...

, six years prior, Kruk took over the Seacrest Country Day School softball team as the head coach in 2016. He was named the Florida Athletic Coaches Association Class 2A Coach of the Year for the district in his first year with the Stingrays.

Honors and awards

*In 2003—the final year of Veterans Stadium—Philadelphia Phillies fans voted Kruk as the first baseman on the Phillies All-Vet Team (1971–2003). *On August 12, 2011, Kruk was inducted into the

Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame The Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame is a collection of plaques, mounted on a brick wall next to the Left Field Gate at Citizens Bank Park, the ballpark of the Philadelphia Phillies. From 1978 to 2003, the Phillies inducted one figure from th ...

References

External links

John Kruk
at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
John Kruk
at Baseball Almanac {{DEFAULTSORT:Kruk, John 1961 births Male actors from West Virginia Águilas de Mexicali players Allegany Trojans baseball players American people of Polish descent Baseball players from West Virginia Chicago White Sox players Journalists from West Virginia Keyser High School alumni Las Vegas 51s players Living people Major League Baseball broadcasters Major League Baseball first basemen National League All-Stars Sportspeople from Charleston, West Virginia People from Keyser, West Virginia People from Mount Laurel, New Jersey Philadelphia Phillies announcers Philadelphia Phillies players Potomac State College alumni San Diego Padres players Potomac State Catamounts baseball players American expatriate baseball players in Mexico Beaumont Golden Gators players Las Vegas Stars (baseball) players Reading Phillies players Reno Padres players Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons players Walla Walla Padres players