John Kruk joined the 1995 White Sox late, left them early

Picking up where we left off in our examination of the 1995 White Sox, the best defense of the disastrous Chris Sabo signing is that Ron Schueler had at least three better ideas for replacing Julio Franco as the primary designated hitter.

Sabo wasn’t the White Sox’ first choice, but unfortunately he was the first one who came cheap and willing enough. The White Sox first tried a few other guys. Mark Grace intrigued them, but he ended up returning to the Cubs on their $4.4 million qualifying offer. Schueler said he spent plenty of time talking to Mickey Tettleton‘s camp, but the Sox didn’t want to meet his seven-figure asking price.

And then there was John Kruk.

The White Sox probably wouldn’t have to learn Sabo’s phone number if Kruk accepted the White Sox’s initial overtures, but Kruk intended to call it quits. The start of his 1994 season was delayed by surgery after a testicular cancer diagnosis, and while he returned triumphantly to the field just a week into the season, he then lost time in May due to knee surgery. Throw in a midseason examination for lumps in his torso — non-cancerous, thankfully — and 1994 was hell even before the labor stoppage. One might understand why Kruk wouldn’t bother with seeing what 1995 had in store, especially given the season’s uncertain timeline.

One thing Kruk had going for him: He never needed a good body to perform. And it turns out he didn’t even need a cooperative corpus. His body attempted a mutiny on him in 1994, but despite the removal of a testicle, the arthroscopic surgery and the abdominal inspection, Kruk hit .302/.395/.427 for the Phillies before the strike took hold. He still had talent, and when the season rolled around, Kruk eventually found the fire to get back on the field.

He called the White Sox, and the White Sox still had interest, because they had a disaster on their hands at DH.

* * * * * * * * *

On May 12, 1995, with Sabo hitting .255/.280/.383, the White Sox signed Kruk to a one-year deal worth $1 million. They sent him to extended spring training in Sarasota, Fla., and hoped he’d be ready in 10-14 days. Sabo, who never wanted to be a DH in the American League to begin with, didn’t put up a fight.

A dozen days later, the Sox pulled the trigger. They purchased his contract before a doubleheader on May 24, designating Sabo for assignment Kruk’s performance suggested he wasn’t entirely in a groove (3-for-15 during spring training games). Kruk’s quotes didn’t inspire much confidence. From Paul Sullivan’s Chicago Tribune story that day:

Looking positively South Side in a T-shirt that had a beer on it, Kruk hopes Sox fans don’t look to him as a savior in the designated hitter role batting behind Frank Thomas.

“We’re sinking then,” he said.

That said, one had to take Kruk’s self-assessments with knowledge of his brand. The creator of “I ain’t an athlete, lady, I’m a baseball player” leaned into his everyman persona when given a chance. When the White Sox assigned him to Sarasota, Kruk said, “Are they going to send a trainer with me to Florida? They better send a paramedic.”

Other quotes from this story:

Kruk appears to be in shape, at least if you’re talking about Kruk’s usual shape. He said his weight fluctuates between 215 and 230 pounds.

“Right now, he said. “We’re up towards the top.”

Will Kruk be ready to step in immediately and begin swinging away on Wednesday?

“I don’t know,” he said. “What time’s the game?”

Kruk drew three walks in his White Sox debut, including one with the bases loaded that drove in the go-ahead run in a 10-8 victory over Texas in the front half of the doubleheader. But while Kruk’s eye looked more or less intact, the rest of him needed time.

He went 3-for-17 during a four-game sweep at Jacobs Field that knocked the Sox 11 games behind Cleveland 31 games into the season, and prompted the firing of manager Gene Lamont and elevation of Terry Bevington. A few days later, Kruk’s body once again required a reset. He headed to the 15-day disabled list with a bruised heel.

This Kruk return took. He rejoined the White Sox on June 19, knocked off the rust and posted six multi-hit games out of a nine-game stretch before the month concluded. He hoisted his average from .265 to .329, and it never dropped below .300 afterward. One way or another, Kruk made sure of that.

He peaked on July 5, closing out a torrid series against the Yankees with a first-inning grand slam to put the Sox on track for an 11-5 victory. He also singled and walked, raising his line to .364/.458/.495 through his first 120 plate appearances on the year.

Embed from Getty Images

He bottomed out on July 28, when a called strike three during a pinch-hitting opportunity in the ninth inning extended his slump to 0-for-15. Kruk was ejected after arguing with home plate umpire Brian O’Nora, and after the game, Kruk flirted with a suspension by saying O’Nora was “lucky he didn’t get hit.”

Two days later, Kruk broke that hitless streak with a single in the first inning. After hobbling to first base, Kruk hobbled to the dugout. Then he hobbled to the clubhouse. Then he hobbled to his car. And then he drove with his parents back home to West Virginia.

All he had to say was in a statement left for the media:

“The desire to compete at this level is gone. When that happens, it’s time to go. I want to thank San Diego for giving me my first opportunity to play professional baseball and Philadelphia for the chance to play in the World Series. I thank the Chicago White Sox for the opportunity to come back and to walk away from the game on my own terms. Finally, I thank the fans in San Diego, Philadelphia and Chicago for supporting me through the years.”

* * * * * * * * *

Somewhere between the pinnacle and nadir of Kruk’s White Sox career, the Chicago Tribune’s Bob Condor assembled a story about how Kruk thrived despite his shape. He had to write around Kruk, who was ornery with the media for a lot of 1995 and refused an interview request, but he found a number of other people who had something to say about Kruk’s unorthodox brand of success.

One of the sources was Tim Grover, who recently garnered plenty of face time in ESPN’s 10-part “The Last Dance” documentary thanks to his role as Michael Jordan’s personal trainer. Grover — identified as “Tom” in the story — called baseball players “by far the worst conditioned of all professional athletes,” but noted that some positions are only demanding in specific ways.

Regarding Kruk, Grover said:

“Be careful about jumping to conclusions,” replied Grover. “He obviously has strong hips and legs to drive through the ball so consistently. You just may not be able to see it through the layer of fat around his midsection. It’s clear he has tremendous strength in his forearms, wrists and triceps to handle major-league fastballs.”

Kruk might have had all those body parts in his favor, but his knees were once against rebelling against him. His retirement came as a surprise to those on the outside, but underneath the layer of fat that was his season-long line, other components showed signs of faltering.

His grand slam on July 5 was his last extra-base hit of any kind. Kruk hit just .217/.294/.217 over his final 18 games, and after his ejection in Baltimore, he informed Terry Bevington of his exit strategy: retiring after his next hit, whatever and whenever it might be. Bevington said he told Kruk to sleep on it, and when Kruk’s mind didn’t change, Bevington approved Kruk’s quest to hit it and quit it.

Ozzie Guillen, who came up with Kruk in the San Diego Padres system in the 1980s, was left to relay Kruk’s thinking to the media. Guillen said Kruk told him, “I don’t want to be embarrassed. When they get handicapped players to come out here, I can play again.”

Guillen also expounded on the topic with his own words:

“His wife was the one who was the happiest about it,” Guillen said. “He was in a lot of pain. He didn’t think he was helping the team the way he wanted to. He told me he couldn’t score from second base . He thought he was hurting the team.

“He’s got a lot of respect for this game and for the fans. He wanted to give 100 percent and he couldn’t. So that’s why he went home. He wanted to make sure everyone understood that he just couldn’t play anymore. He was complaining every night about his knee.”

There were a couple other elements of timing that may have encouraged Kruk’s decision. On July 27, the White Sox traded Jim Abbott and Tim Fortugno to the California Angels for a package of prospects, signaling Ron Schueler’s thoughts about the White Sox’s chances.

The wild card was theoretically attainable, as the White Sox were just 6½ games behind the Texas Rangers, whose claim to the wild card spot was tenuous at 43-41. On the other hand, the White Sox also had seven other teams in their way, and the Sox staff had allowed the second-most runs in the AL even with Abbott. Nobody could take a wild card push that seriously, but either way, once the White Sox stopped trying, Kruk’s grind probably appeared more pointless.

There was also the matter of that batting average.

Kruk joined the White Sox as a .300 hitter, but in true Kruk fashion, he made rounding work for him. His batting average was actually .29989, so he didn’t have much of a cushion in that regard.

In fact, his career average dropped to .299 for a few days in is return from his heel injury, and that was just because of 50something so-so at-bats. Kruk restored the .300 clip with a 3-for-3 game against the Indians on July 23, and it never dropped below that mark again.

Of course, had Kruk pushed through to the end of the season, it’d probably be a different story. The 0-for-15 skid knocked his average down to .30005, which meant that Kruk couldn’t afford so much as another hitless plate appearances, or another 1-for-5 day, before he required rounding up. He knew when to fold, and Frank Thomas, another guy who always knew where he stood and also eventually retired while preserving a .300 average, respected him for it:

“He went out in style, his own way,” said Frank Thomas. “That’s the way he wanted to do it. You’ve got to respect a man that’s going to do it that way.”

* * * * * * * * *

Leftovers

*Thomas and Dave Martinez divvied up most of the playing time at first base and DH after Kruk retired, and they kept both positions afloat over the final two months:

  • First base: .329/.395/.504
  • DH: .258/.378/.455

*Thomas wasn’t such a fan of Kruk at the end of the season. Kruk allegedly told Schueler that the White Sox clubhouse had a “country club atmosphere.” Thomas called BS, and so did Sullivan:

Kruk may have complained about a “country club atmosphere” to Schueler, but he was the only player to openly whine in Milwaukee last July when manager Terry Bevington didn’t cancel pregame infield practice on a 100-degree day.

*Schueler’s DH choices basically performed in order of his preference in 1995:

  • Grace: .326/.395/.516 over 627 PA, 142 OPS+, 5.0 WAR
  • Tettleton: .238/.396/.510 over 547 PA, 132 OPS+, 2.5 WAR
  • Kruk: .308/.399/.390 over 188 PA, 111 OPS+, 0.4 WAR
  • Sabo: .254/.295/.366 over 80 PA, 74 OPS+, -0.3 WAR

After years of successfully shopping at the thrift store, Schueler and the White Sox finally got what they paid for.

(Photo by Tom G. Lynn//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

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As Cirensica

Always enjoy these ones. Thanks for the pleasant lunch read.

asinwreck

The world is cruel and terrifying, but knowing Tim Grover has opined on John Kruk’s fitness makes it a brighter place.