The legend of Spike & Fat Boy: A softball team loaded with MLB ringers

The sport was effectively underway at Ted Williams Field within the North Park neighborhood. It was, it appeared, an odd night within the San Diego City Softball League, with a handful of individuals within the stands watching grown males carry out an athletic exercise largely centered on the consumption of beer and pizza.

But then, simply because the third inning was about to start, a Chevrolet K5 Blazer drove up Idaho Street, and heads started to show.

[Note: A version of this story originally ran on MLB.com in May 2020.]

Pump-up music blared from the open home windows because the orange SUV with the phrases “National League MVP” painted above its wheel wells pulled into the parking zone. Out stepped a 5-foot-10 man sporting a pristine white monitor go well with and gold chains round his neck.

“Time!” referred to as the supervisor of one of many groups, earlier than making an announcement. “Now replacing Andy Strasberg at third base … Kevin Mitchell!”

On that fall night in 1989, Mitchell, recent off the World Series and a Major League-leading 47 residence runs and 125 RBIs with the San Francisco Giants, had three at-bats, noticed a complete of three pitches and hit three lengthy balls, the final of which cleared the left-field fence and two small buildings earlier than touchdown someplace on the roof of the North Park Recreation Center.

This would possibly all sound like a booze-fueled fantasy concocted on a creaky barstool … and maybe some small parts of it are.

But within the late Eighties, on the star-laden squad often called Spike & Fat Boy, energetic MLB gamers had been recognized to point out up and light-weight up the lobbed balls supplied by novice arms. With the assistance of three outstanding ringers — Mitchell, John Kruk and Randy Ready, all of whom would end their careers with a mixed 36 seasons of MLB expertise — this group run by Padres staff introduced the large leagues to the beer leagues. America’s Finest City had America’s Finest Softball Team.

“We were pretty good,” Kruk says slyly.

“We were stacked,” Ready says with fun.

“People were in awe when we’d show up,” Mitchell provides.

Forget Montgomery Burns’ All-Star-aided Springfield Nuclear Power Plant squad from that well-known 1992 episode of “The Simpsons.” The Spike & Fat Boy group was doing it in actual life, just a few years earlier.

Now, greater than three many years later — and impressed by a short point out of the group by Ready within the ebook “The Wax Pack,” whereby creator Brad Balukjian tries to trace down all of the gamers from a random pack of 1986 Topps baseball playing cards — the story of Spike & Fat Boy can lastly be instructed.

Will some parts of the story be dramatized, magnified, maybe even fictionalized?

Uh, yeah, in all probability.

“You have to remember,” says the lately retired Mike Swanson, who, lengthy earlier than assuming his longtime function because the Royals’ vice chairman of communications and broadcasting, labored within the Padres’ public relations division and performed on the group, “there was a lot of drinking.”

Yes, beer leagues are likely to contain beer. Combine beer with time, and an absence of record-keeping, and you’ve got a recipe for some, let’s say, embellishment.

So let the file present, relying on whose reminiscence you belief from that evening in ’89, it’s fairly potential Mitchell’s automobile was truly a only a plain white Mercedes, not the tricked-up Blazer. It’s potential that he had not but been named the ’89 MVP on the time of the sport in query, so no such notation would have been made on his experience. And it’s potential he noticed greater than three pitches and was sporting extra conventional softball garb. Nevertheless, he positively hit some dingers.

What issues is that the gist of what follows is appropriate. And that’ll should be sufficient, as a result of the legend of Spike & Fat Boy has stayed hidden far too lengthy.

* * * * *

The biggest slow-pitch group you’ve by no means heard of traces again to 1978. Before then, Padres staff would get collectively to play softball — however usually solely every year, in a coed sport.

(Incidentally, one of many individuals round that point was a younger girl named Amanda Sperry, who labored within the group’s ticket workplace. Not lengthy thereafter, Sperry married her boyfriend, Gary Hamels. And on Dec. 27, 1983, the couple welcomed a son. His title is Cole.)

Two group staff — Dick Dent, who was the athletic coach, and the aforementioned Strasberg, who labored in advertising (and isn’t to be confused with a sure San Diego-born pitcher and World Series MVP with the final title Strasburg) — needed one thing extra formal and extra frequent. They recruited some coworkers for an entry in a males’s winter league in San Diego, the place winter leagues are made potential by the climate ranging wherever from idyllic to … virtually idyllic.

“The folks at the San Diego Recreation Department were great with us,” Strasberg says. “They accommodated our schedule as best they could, knowing [the Padres’] season had to conclude before we could play.”

Padres proprietor Ray Kroc was accommodating, too. Years earlier he had bought a Boeing 727 and begun a sports-charter airline business referred to as Padre Air Travel. That firm turned the softball group’s first sponsor and namesake.

Once the Padre Air Travel group took off, some notable names started to grace the town softball fields.

Nate Colbert, who nonetheless holds the Padres’ franchise residence run file (163), performed with the slow-pitch group in his large league retirement years. Same goes for former MLB pitcher Bo Belinsky and outfielders Bobby Tolan (who coached for the Padres from 1980-83) and Gene Locklear.

The group additionally included, at numerous factors, common supervisor (and eventual supervisor) Jack McKeon, supervisor Dick Williams, group president Ballard Smith and scouting director (and eventual GM) Randy Smith. The presence of these large pictures would create some complications for longtime Padres broadcaster (and longtime supervisor of the softball group) Bob Chandler.

“You talk about pressure on a manager,” Chandler says. “What could I do? I had to put those guys in the lineup!”

(Chandler, by the best way, was the supervisor who introduced Mitchell’s arrival that evening in 1989. But subbing out an everyday softballer to insert peak-level Kevin Mitchell was not an particularly troublesome choice.)

Bob Cluck, the eventual large league pitching coach who was the Padres’ farm director within the early Eighties, performed on the group, too. Cluck was so positive of his talents that he declared earlier than one sport, “If I don’t get a hit tonight, postgame beers are on me!”

That evening, Cluck had already hit 4 exhausting liners for outs when he stepped to the plate a remaining time.

“Here’s our entire dugout, all standing up and cheering for the other pitcher to get him out!” Chandler recollects with fun. “And he popped up and sprung for all the beer.”

Mostly, although, the group revolved round lesser-known staff — trainers, clubhouse attendants, PR individuals, and so forth. They’d congregate at native bars Bully’s East or Tuba Man’s Grand Slam earlier than and after video games and so they’d attempt to do proper by their pitcher and foremost motivator Dent, a former Army lieutenant and Vietnam veteran who all the time made positive fundamentals weren’t misplaced in all of the enjoyable.

“I learned from Dick Williams,” Dent says. “No mental errors. I would never get mad if somebody flubbed the ball. But if they didn’t tag up, that would drive me crazy.”

So in the future in the course of the 1987 MLB season, Dent talked about aloud throughout the Padres’ clubhouse that the softball group wanted a brand new sponsor.

That’s when Ready’s ears perked up.

On June 13, 1986, Ready, freshly traded from Milwaukee to San Diego, made his Padres debut. That evening his then-wife, Dorene, collapsed on the ground of the couple’s residence in Tucson. She had suffered a coronary heart assault and was unconscious for seven to 10 minutes, her mind disadvantaged of oxygen for a lot of that point. The incident completely hindered her cerebral perform.

This is the psychological weight Ready was dwelling with away from the sector. His occupation turned his escape, and the versatile infielder and pinch-hitter relished that escape to the tune of a career-best .309 common and .943 OPS in 1987.

One can perceive, then, why Ready would search any offseason outlet that supplied a equally wholesome and useful diversion. When he discovered concerning the softball group, he needed in — not simply as a monetary backer however as a part-time participant.

“He definitely wanted to have a life outside of baseball and enjoy it,” Swanson says. “And we had a blast with him. He’s one of the coolest dudes I’ve been around in any clubhouse.”

“It was a stress-free environment,” Ready says. “Pizzas, beers and a way to stay in touch with [the Padres’ support staff].”

Looking for a co-sponsor, Ready recruited a Padres teammate who would even be dwelling in San Diego within the offseason. At that point, Kruk was a second-year large leaguer main the Padres in homers and RBIs. Throughout his terrific profession, the joke was that his portly physique appeared higher suited to beer-league softball than large league baseball.

Little did we all know Kruk was enjoying each.

“There was a lot of free time in San Diego for Randy and I back then,” Kruk says. “We figured we’d better do something instead of just basically doing nothing. Softball was the way to go.”

In the Padres’ clubhouse, they referred to Ready as “Spike” due to his spiky hair. They referred to as Kruk “Fat Boy” as a result of, effectively …

“I think our trainers, Dick Dent and Larry Duensing, came up with that,” Kruk says. “Those geniuses.”

So that’s how Spike & Fat Boy (the group’s official title, although “Spike & The Fat Boys” is a suitable various) got here to be.

“One day we said, ‘That’s the perfect name for the softball team!’” Ready recollects. “From a physical standpoint, you can see why it stuck.”

The title caught for 3 offseasons — after the ’87, ’88 and ’89 MLB campaigns. And although Mitchell didn’t final with the Padres practically as lengthy (he was traded to the Friars from the Mets previous to the ’87 season, solely to be shipped off to San Francisco that July), the native and resident San Diegan nonetheless received roped into the Spike & Fat Boy scene.

“I got a call from Kruky [with an invite to play],” Mitchell says. “I didn’t believe him at first.”

* * * * *

OK, so how a lot did these guys actually play softball collectively?

The trustworthy reply is … Who is aware of?

Kruk, it seems, participated extra within the pre- and postgame events than he did within the precise video games. But he did take the sector once in a while.

“Because it’s slow-pitch softball, you’re not expected to make an out if you’re a big league player,” he says. “So let’s put it this way: I felt more pressure playing that than I did in baseball. I knew in baseball I’d make an out seven out of 10 times. If I had done that in softball, they’d have killed me.”

“Kruky is the ideal softball player,” Mitchell provides. “He could hit the ball everywhere, no matter who was pitching. That’s how you have to be in softball. If Kruky needed a single, he was going to get a single. He can just flat-out hit.”

Mitchell was positively on the sector that evening in ’89 (which we’ll revisit in only a bit), however he claims to have performed some in ’87 and ’88, too.

“That’s when we really ramped it up,” Kruk says. “Mitch was so filthy strong.”

What appears sure, based mostly on the conversations for this story, is that Ready was probably the most energetic of the energetic large leaguers concerned.

“Randy was funnier than hell,” Swanson says. “When he made an out in softball, you’d have thought the frickin’ world was coming to an end.”

Ready remembers some nights when his mother, Jeanne, who lived only a couple blocks from the North Park area, was a one-woman cheering part within the stands.

“But then, as word got out, the turnout and our fan base grew,” Ready says. “We always had an entourage, shall we say. And the Madres [a Padres fan organization] caught wind of it and started showing up, too.”

Was Padres administration conscious of or involved concerning the gamers’ offseason exercise?

“Jack McKeon was our GM, so I don’t think he cared,” Swanson says. “That said, I don’t think anybody was running up and down the hallways at the office announcing, ‘We’ve got a big game tonight with Randy and Kruky in it!’”

Did opposing gamers have an issue getting ambushed by skilled ballplayers?

“Nah,” Mitchell says. “Guys couldn’t wait to see us and talk about baseball and talk about the big leagues. That’s what made it so fun. Guys just couldn’t wait to hang out with us.”

Ready recollects a day when Spike & Fat Boy was going to be brief a participant and wanted assist. Somebody beneficial a Triple-A pitcher within the Padres’ system who was within the space for the winter, rehabbing an harm.

It was the late, nice Kevin Towers.

“We put him in right field and batted him ninth,” Ready says with fun. “Little did I know he was going to become the gunslinger of GMs.”

One would assume that an novice softball group that includes Ready and/or Kruk and/or Mitchell, with a bit little bit of Towers blended in, wouldn’t lose many video games.

Here, too, all we are able to do is sit again and hear.

Ready: “We didn’t lose a single game. It was domination.”

Swanson: “We’d kick everybody’s ass.”

Kruk: “I don’t recall losing. But my God, that’s so long ago.”

Right, it was so way back. Before social media. Before we had been all strolling round with high-resolution cameras in our pockets. If an MLB-boosted softball group existed as we speak, you’d be fortunate to get one sport in earlier than the curiosity and attendance turned untenable, and also you’d have abounding picture and video proof.

With Spike & Fat Boy, sadly, we had nothing.

That is, till an e-mail arrives from Ready, who rummaged via his residence and uncovered buried treasure from the 1988-89 offseason …

Legendary.

The downside with mixing the beer leagues and the large leagues is that typically the latter will get in the best way of the previous.

On June 2, 1989, the Padres shipped each Kruk and Ready to the Phillies for Chris James. At the time the deal was described within the press as a swap of slumping gamers (not one of the three had gotten off to an excellent begin in ’89), an opportunity for a reset.

Nobody knew sufficient to say the seismic softball implications.

“That’s probably why we got traded,” Kruk jokes. “We were playing softball instead of baseball.”

With the Phillies, Kruk would emerge as a three-time All-Star and one of many faces of the 1993 National League champions. Unfortunately, the swap in the end severed his ties with Spike & Fat Boy. He was, as Swanson places it, “a long-distance owner” in ’89, then unaffiliated altogether.

But he nonetheless saved enjoying softball.

“When I was with the Phillies, I used to go back to West Virginia and play in a fall softball league in the offseason with all my buddies I grew up with,” Kruk says. “I’d miss part of the season, because they would start in September. And then the one year we were in the World Series, the guys didn’t care that I wasn’t there, because they were so happy for me.”

As for the remaining members of Spike & Fat Boy, they saved the group going for one more few seasons. Ready nonetheless hung across the space and confirmed up within the winter after the commerce.

In 1990 the group turned often called “Ripper’s Derelicts” after Padres first baseman Jack “The Ripper” Clark assumed the sponsorship duties (in a non-playing function). Alas, that was additionally the 12 months of a Padres possession change, which led to numerous staffing modifications. Dent was one of many casualties, and the softball group fizzled out not lengthy thereafter.

So the Ready-Kruk-Mitchell period will go down as the height of Padres worker softball prowess. It doesn’t get any higher than that.

Or does it?

“Nobody’s mentioned Robbie Alomar?” Swanson asks.

Wait … what?!

“Oh yeah, Robbie played,” Swanson provides. “It might have been after we traded Randy. Robbie ended up hanging out one winter and came to a couple games and played. You know, just a [future] Hall of Famer. No big deal.”

Unfortunately, when reached for this story, Alomar mentioned he has no recollection of this. But look, do you bear in mind every thing you probably did in, say, 1989 or 1990? Nah, in fact not. So let’s go away the window cracked open simply sufficient for a whiff of pure chance to waft in. After all, within the ethereal and largely undocumented world of Spike & Fat Boy, who’s to say what’s reality and what’s fiction?

What we are able to say is that too many individuals interviewed for this story introduced up, with none prodding, their reminiscence of Mitchell’s three-homer evening in ’89 for it to not have occurred.

Dent: “It was like Rodney Dangerfield pulling up [in “Caddyshack”]. He had lights on his wheels and stuff like that. He got here in, and Andy gave him his place at third.”

Strasberg: “I said to the four or five people in the stands, ‘I don’t know where they got this stiff from!’”

Swanson: “I had gotten a hit and moved over to third base, so I’m 60 feet from freaking Kevin Mitchell with an aluminum bat in his hand. The ball came off the bat, and I thought I was going to have a coronary.”

Ready: “Mitch back-legged a softball and sent it over the roof!”

Chandler: “That’s the longest home run I’ve ever seen in softball. That was the field where Ted Williams played as a kid, and I’m not sure Williams ever hit one farther than Kevin Mitchell did.”

Presented with these reminiscences, Mitchell will get wistful. After his retirement, he performed in one other San Diego grownup softball league, on a group referred to as the Black Sox. But he needed to give that up just a few years again, when he had a serious well being scare — a bulging disc in his neck that pressed in opposition to his spinal twine and affected his skill to maneuver.

Though he nonetheless has some bother along with his proper leg, which requires bodily remedy, Mitchell is feeling a lot better now. He’s received his weight and his spirits again. And all this speak concerning the outdated days had him pondering the chances for the previous members of Spike & Fat Boy.

“Give Kruky my number,” he says. “Let’s bring it back!”