It was announced today by Fox Sports that former Oakland A, Toronto Blue Jay, Colorado Rockie, Arizona Diamondback, and Tampa Bay Devil Ray Joe Kennedy suddenly passed while visiting his wife's family in Tampa. Apparently Joe got up in the middle of the night and collapsed, dying presumably of a brain aneurysm or a heart attack.
Kennedy has been in the league for a few years, having been a trade chip for teams for a number of years. The A's acquired him a few years ago along with Jay Witasick for everyone's favorite Eric Byrnes. Kennedy pitched well as a middle reliever, but struggled when the A's tried to make them their 5th starter, desperate for a lefty arm. Kennedy played a key role for the A's because of this depravity of left handed arms, and despite stats that may suggest otherwise, was quite valuable to the team. Last year, after adding a true left handed specialist in Alan Embree, Kennedy was left to prove himself as long relief/starter, and unfortunately didn't do quite well. He was designated for assignment, claimed off waivers by Arizona, then the same was done until he got to Toronto.
Joe Kennedy was a guy who was taken in by a lot of teams looking for a lefty arm out of the pen, and never really quite fit in to any particular team's scheme. He pitched well enough in Colorado as a starter, but when the A's asked for the same, he just couldn't click. When he came out of the pen for the A's though, he pitched fine again (2.31 ERA in 2006.) As teams couldn't seem to get him to click in their particular scheme, they dumped him. It's a sad fact of the game, but it's one that Kennedy took with grace. Everywhere he went, he did as he was asked, and didn't fuss up about being switched from this role to that. There's something commendable about that.
In a sports world where Alex Rodriguez is commended as heroic for taking 286 million from the Yankees, Kennedy is a guy who just wanted to play ball. He put the team's needs over his own desires, and he took what job he was assigned in order to have money for his family. I don't mean to present Joe Kennedy as a Tiny Tim with the Ebenezer Scrooge MLB against him, but guys like Joe Kennedy easily slip through the cracks of a very star oriented sports lifestyle.
He is survived by his wife and 1 year old son, for whom he willingly bounced around multiple cities, states, and countries. Next time you're looking for autographs at a ball game, take a minute to look at the program at the random bullpen guys whose names you don't know. Without guys like Joe Kennedy pitching to the left handed power hitter, or filling in for the franchise face starter, baseball wouldn't be the glorious team sport it is.
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5 comments:
Sad deal. I thought Kennedy had potential when he came up as a phenom. It seemed that he didn't get an adequate chance. He was the Winning Pitcher in the last game I attended in 2007. Rest in Peace.
A lot of guys like Kennedy seem like they have so much potential, but just never really flourish (Bobby Kielty comes to mind.) It's certainly sad though that Kennedy didn't get a chance to go further--He always seemed on the brink of holding a consistent role.
It's always important when commenting about a "journeyman" or marginal major leaguer that until they hit the majors they had been stars their whole lives. Always picked first, always captain, always MVP. Joe was probably the best pitcher in his high school's history, heck, maybe even the county. We are sometimes tempted to only remember them for what they wern't... Major league stars, forgetting what incredible talent they had to have just to get there. If mortals like you or I were ever to try to hit off Joe we probably would have injured ourselves. Somewhere Joe is at the top of some Hall of Fame.
Too true. I remember reading about Mark Ellis and the writer mentioned that in High School he was also a star football and basketball player, and I had never really imagined Ellis as anything too special. The fact of the matter is, though, that these guys are all amazing athletes, all the best around their particular neighborhood (or in Ellis' case, state) and all worthy of recognition for even making it to this level.
I remember when Doug played AAA in Little League his coach was a guy who had played Rookie ball years earlier and had only made it that far because he was a good defensive catcher. One day for fun he took some swings against one of the dads who was a not-half-bad pitcher. He hit like 10 consecutive pitches what had to be 300-350 ft laughing and talking as he hit! It was a lesson for me in just how good these guys are. We tend to look at a Major Leaguer who hits .240 and say "This guy sucks". No, this guy just plays on another planet from the rest of us.
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