This piece was written by Mitch Rupert. Mitch used to cover the Williamsport Crosscutters (among other things) for the Williamsport Sun-Gazette. You can follow Mitch on Twitter at @Mitch_Rupert where he post minor league video highlights.
I love posting highlights of Scott Kingery on social media. I love it for two reasons:
1) He’s a guy who is easy to root for. Kingery’s been to hell and back since the Phillies gave him a $24 million contract before he ever saw a pitch in the big leagues. Despite this, all Kingery has ever done is everything that’s asked of him, even to his own detriment.
2) My mentions will go into absolute meltdown.
There are few things as divisive in baseball circles as mentioning on social media a likable guy in the minor leagues who probably has no future on the big league roster. It’s blood in the water when that happens and the sharks love to pounce.
And they pounce from different directions.
“Call him up and send X-player down” is what comes from one faction. “Who cares, he’s nothing but a Quad-A player,” says the other faction. I find it all very humorous. We live in a society where it’s impossible to live in the middle on just about anything and enjoy what you see for the sake of just enjoying it.
My tweet Wednesday night which accompanied Kingery’s solo home run for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs said, “Psssstttt … Scott Kingery has 4 homers in his last 5 games after tonight’s solo shot … He’s hitting .308 with an OPS over 1.000.”
There was no opinion attached to it. I didn’t say call him up and send down Whit Merrifield/Nick Castellanos/Struggling player of the week. But here are some of the responses that tweet elicited.
- “100% should be on the bench”
- “We already had a whit merrifield at home!”
- “Not on the 40 man so no let’s not even consider it”
- “He can have Castys job”
- “Stop”
- “The greatest AAAA player ever”
- “Cool. He can’t do it in the majors, so he might as well do it there.”
- “Psssstt who cares”
- “He’d need to be hitting at least .408 maybe .508 before it starts getting my attention”
- “Don’t do this”
- “He’s a AAA player stop”
- “Fuck Scott Kingery”
Oh social media, you never let me down. The Skip Baylesses of the world have taught it’s more important to be visceral in our reactions than it is to be thoughtful. Let’s go with raw emotion. That’s a great way to have a conversation. But that’s a topic for another day.
So let me ask this question: Why is it so damn hard to just enjoy a player having success no matter where it happens? That’s where I am with Scott Kingery, and have been for some time. I love when he’s playing well. I hurt when he’s not because it’s easy to see what he’s been through since the Phillies drafted him in the second round.
Scott Kingery is about to turn 30 years old. It’s been 5 years since we saw even a faction of the player we as fans, and the Phillies front office, thought he could be when they handed him $24 million before ever stepping foot in Citizens Bank Park.
And despite all the struggles. Despite the tinkering with his swing the previous Phillies administration did to try to tap into his power which eventually caused his downfall, Scott Kingery shows up to work every day. He works hard. He plays hard. He occasionally flashes those skills which made Matt Klentak think they should lock him up at an affordable rate before he played in the big leagues.
Regardless of how you feel about Scott Kingery the player, Scott Kingery the person is one to be commended. He’s a player parents should teach their children about because he is the model of how to handle yourself with professionalism and self-respect in the face of ceaseless criticism.
“The past couple of years, the guys that I’ve played with, the coaches I’ve had have been really good, really fun to be around,” Kingery told Phillies Nation’s Tim Kelly during spring training. “So, it’s been a ton of fun, and been able to make the game enjoyable. And I still work to getting back to where I want to get, and being able to play baseball how I know I can.”
Not everything has to be about what a guy can do for the Phillies. Not everything has to be about what a player can or can’t do on the field. Sometimes it’s just about sitting back, watching, and enjoying what you see.
Scott Kingery may never see a big league field again, and I don’t particularly care whether he does or not. But I will keep posting highlights when he does well because there are few who deserve any kind of success more than Scott Kingery.
I was so pumped for him several years ago and do feel badly it didn’t work out and he’s been buried in the minors (even though he’s a millionaire and his performance hasn’t always warranted him playing anywhere but the minors). Would love to see him have some success, even if it’s only a year or two in the MLB… for his own sake to say he got there and (partially) lived up to the hype.
Social media….if two people were having a loud conversation in a restaurant and you made a comment about it in the couple would say mind your own business. You make a statement on social media and it’s suddenly everyones business.
Good for Kingery.