Sometimes it's not things you see, or things you have happen to you, but an anecdote passed on.
Back in 1984, my friend Jon's parents took me to my first major league baseball game. It was my Milwaukee Brewers against a weak Oakland Athletics team. You'll read later on in the future about how the Swingin' A's were among my favorite Non-Home teams.
But while sitting in the glory of Milwaukee County Stadium, Jon's dad (Not the Crayon Death album, but boy, do I recommend it) regaled me with the legend of baseball's Kong. Apparently on a road trip out west, Jon and his family attended an A's game in Oakland. I guess the area where your feet rested in that former home stadium of the Athletics, is of a metallic design. When Dave Kingman (nicknamed Kong due to his home run prowess and the word KING being present in his last name) approached the plate, the fans would pound their shoes against the metal floor in rhythm causing a resonant banging sound, to which they'd follow with "KONG!, KONG!"
I'd become somewhat fascinated by Kingman at this point. He wasn't the prototype home run hitter, definitely not physically. He was 6'6 and lanky as hell. He wasn't a compact guy with quick wrists like your Henry Aarons and Mickey Mantles. He wasn't your "big strong dude" like George Scott or Richie Allen, and he definitely wasn't your steroid infused versions that came later like Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Ken Caminiti, and Sammy Sooser. ( I mean Sosa ).
Jon's dad's "KONG" description drew chills and goosebumps from me as the 1976 King Kong was among my favorite films, and the sound Jon's dad was describing was more than a little reminiscent of the chants and stomping roared out by the natives upon the approach of the great beast to attend to the sacrifices they had laid out for him. Oakland wanted their powerful beast to approach home plate, and launch a sacrifice into the seats.
I often wondered if Kingman was touched by this mass-fan gesture. Looking at the history of the man, it'd be doubtful. After all, he is known for social issues. Like dislike of female reporters and sending a purchased dead rat to Susan Fornoff of the Sacramento Bee in the mail to protest appearances in the clubhouse (this led to his dismissal from the A's). And a general disdain for talking to the press overall.
However, he is among the first noticeable practitioners of 3TO, or the "three true outcomes; you walk, you strike out, or you jack one over the fence." Read more about that here.
The first handful of years of his career consisted of him shifting. He had injuries, he was traded, and in 1977, he was traded and waived 3 times in the same season, and released at the end of it. (Sports Illustrated: More Sports: Joe Posnaski). There had to be some attitude issues for management to give up that bat repeatedly.
In the Summer of 1978 however, with his arrival in Chicago's Wrigley Field, the proverbial bandbox, anticipation was that he would break the seasonal home run record. (Baseball Quarterly, 1978, Summer).
This did not happen. But Kingman did crush a ton of dingers while he was playing in the North Shore.
After some serious baseball mashing around that time in Chicago, it appears, for a while, his career went back to the inconsistency it happened to be previously.
When it comes to the end of Dave's career, I have a conspiracy theory. Despite the dead rat issue. Bear with me here.
The final year of his career, he hit 35 bombs and drove in 94. No one has ever hit that many homers in the final year of their career. Kong's roar was still as powerful as ever.
Why did no one want to pick him up after that season??
He had reached 442 home runs. Most (myself included) feel that 500 home runs is automatic entry into
the Hall of Fame. To me, it goes without saying. As I had mentioned, Kingman had a pretty bad relationship with the press in his career and those folks are responsible for voting people into the Hall...
Kingman was a mere 58 home runs away from that vaunted 500 number. And the way he was raking, (He had hit 100 in his previous 3 seasons), 500 was pretty good odds. Was there something among the baseball writers and management doing a bit of collusion to keep Kong out of the Hall?? I'm not being an apologist for his issues with the postal service dirty tricks, but I'm ready to argue there are folks in the Hall who have done worse.
Well. If it's about personality, and I know there is no comparison between the long-time all time hits leader, Ty Cobb (before Pete Rose came along, broke the record, then kept himself out of the hall by getting caught gambling on baseball) and a guy who's career average is .236 in Kingman. It's well known that Ty Cobb was a racist, misogynist, asshole whose character traits were probably infinitely worse than a guy who was seemingly just known as a chronic crab-ass.
Cobb's in the Hall.
But who am I to say?
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