I also like to see guys who have had good years in the past make a resurgence to some of their former glory. The first two that come to mind are Justin Morneau and Albert Pujols. Morneau hasn't been the same player since his concussion and is having a solid year so far in Colorado. Pujols is bringing the average back up and is showing some of the power we haven't seen in a while. I am thinking we will see an improvement upon his 2013 card. Maybe not to classic St. Louis era Pujols, but possibly better than we have seen at any time in his west coast stint.
The third category is the group that I really like to see; the guys that seemingly come out of nowhere to have a great season. Again, we are only a month in and a lot can change, but I like what I am seeing out of Chris Colabello, who is near the top of the league in RBIs and is part of the offensive charge the Twins are putting forward. I also like to see a guy like Scott Carroll make his first major league start at the age of 29 and go 7+ innings and look good doing it. It is from a group like this that we get this week's Card of the Week.
Mike Kingery is from Atwater, Minnesota. When Mike was in high school, my dad taught at that same high school and my parents lived in the apartment above the bowling alley owned by Kingery's parents. So growing up, my family had a personal interest in his career. In his first season in the majors, 1986, Kingery was called up by the Kansas City Royals midseason for a game against the Baltimore Orioles. Players on the team included David Cone, Dan Quisenberry, Bret Saberhagen, Bo Jackson, and George Brett.
That winter, after starting 53 games for Kansas City, Kingery was part of the trade that brought Danny Tartabull to Kansas City, sending Kingery to Seattle where he started 97 games for the Mariners. His playing time would be cut over the next few seasons as the Mariners brought up a young kid by the name of Ken Griffey Jr.. Over the next couple seasons he played for Oakland and San Francisco a few games. In 1993, he spent the entire season in the minors at 32 years old. After the 1993 season, he signed as a free agent with Colorado. In mid-May, Ellis Burks went down with an injury, pushing Kingery into the starting role. He was having the best year of his career and was closing in on the necessary number of plate appearances to qualify for the statistical leaderboards when the strike came.
Kingery would go on to be part of the outfield rotation in 1995 for Colorado, playing alongside Burks, Dante Bichette, and Larry Walker in the OF, with Andres Galaragga, Eric Young, Walt Weiss, and Vinny Castilla in the infield and Joe Girardi behind the plate. That team led Colorado the playoffs, only to be knocked out in the NLDS by the perennial powerhouse Atlanta Braves.
Kingery now runs a baseball school in Minnesota. Me and my brothers were some of the first students he had when he was first starting the school about 15 years ago. You can check it out at http://www.solidfoundationbaseball.com/. So, my personal connection to Kingery is why I chose that card, and why it is this week's COTW.
You can see Kingery get a hit in a pinch hit appearance in Game 1 of the 1995 NLDS by checking the link below. He bats at the 2:32:04 mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JymlAJarzB8
And the reason for the 1B image: a) to be ironic, and b) try finding an image of Mike Kingery online....
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