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

The sport was nicely underway at Ted Williams Subject within the North Park neighborhood. It was, it appeared, an odd night within the San Diego Metropolis 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.

However then, simply because the third inning was about to start, a Chevrolet K5 Blazer drove up Idaho Road, 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 “Nationwide League MVP” painted above its wheel wells pulled into the parking zone. Out stepped a 5-foot-10 man carrying a pristine white monitor swimsuit and gold chains round his neck.

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

On that fall night in 1989, Mitchell, contemporary off the World Collection and a Main League-leading 47 house 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 Heart.

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

However within the late Nineteen Eighties, on the star-laden squad referred to as Spike & Fats Boy, lively MLB gamers have been identified to indicate up and lightweight up the lobbed balls provided by newbie arms. With the assistance of three outstanding ringers — Mitchell, John Kruk and Randy Prepared, all of whom would end their careers with a mixed 36 seasons of MLB expertise — this group run by Padres staff introduced the massive leagues to the beer leagues. America’s Most interesting Metropolis had America’s Most interesting Softball Workforce.

“We have been fairly good,” Kruk says slyly.

“We have been stacked,” Prepared says with fun.

“Folks have been in awe after we’d present up,” Mitchell provides.

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

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

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

Uh, yeah, in all probability.

“You need to keep in mind,” says the not too long ago retired Mike Swanson, who, lengthy earlier than assuming his longtime position because the Royals’ vice chairman of communications and broadcasting, labored within the Padres’ public relations division and performed on the group, “there was loads of ingesting.”

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

So let the document present, relying on whose reminiscence you belief from that night time in ’89, it’s fairly attainable Mitchell’s automobile was really a only a plain white Mercedes, not the tricked-up Blazer. It’s attainable 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 journey. And it’s attainable he noticed greater than three pitches and was carrying extra conventional softball garb. However, he undoubtedly 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 & Fats Boy has stayed hidden far too lengthy.

* * * * *

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

(By the way, one of many contributors 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 identify is Cole.)

Two group staff — Dick Dent, who was the athletic coach, and the aforementioned Strasberg, who labored in advertising and marketing (and isn’t to be confused with a sure San Diego-born pitcher and World Collection MVP with the final identify Strasburg) — wished 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 attainable by the climate ranging wherever from idyllic to … nearly idyllic.

“The parents on the San Diego Recreation Division have been nice with us,” Strasberg says. “They accommodated our schedule as finest they may, understanding [the Padres’] season needed to conclude earlier than we may play.”

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

As soon as the Padre Air Journey group took off, some notable names started to grace the town softball fields.

Nate Colbert, who nonetheless holds the Padres’ franchise house run document (163), performed with the slow-pitch group in his large league retirement years. Similar 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 varied factors, basic 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 photographs would create some complications for longtime Padres broadcaster (and longtime supervisor of the softball group) Bob Chandler.

“You speak about strain on a supervisor,” Chandler says. “What may I do? I needed to put these guys within the lineup!”

(Chandler, by the best way, was the supervisor who introduced Mitchell’s arrival that night time in 1989. However subbing out an everyday softballer to insert peak-level Kevin Mitchell was not an particularly tough determination.)

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

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

“Right here’s our total dugout, all standing up and cheering for the opposite pitcher to get him out!” Chandler recollects with fun. “And he popped up and sprung for all of the beer.”

Principally, although, the group revolved round lesser-known staff — trainers, clubhouse attendants, PR individuals, and so on. 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 predominant motivator Dent, a former Military lieutenant and Vietnam veteran who at all times made certain fundamentals weren’t misplaced in all of the enjoyable.

“I realized from Dick Williams,” Dent says. “No psychological errors. I might by no means get mad if any individual flubbed the ball. But when they didn’t tag up, that will drive me loopy.”

So at some point through the 1987 MLB season, Dent talked about aloud throughout the Padres’ clubhouse that the softball group wanted a brand new sponsor.

That’s when Prepared’s ears perked up.

* * * * *

On June 13, 1986, Prepared, freshly traded from Milwaukee to San Diego, made his Padres debut. That night time his then-wife, Dorene, collapsed on the ground of the couple’s house 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.

That is the psychological weight Prepared 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 Prepared would search any offseason outlet that supplied a equally wholesome and useful diversion. When he discovered concerning the softball group, he wished in — not simply as a monetary backer however as a part-time participant.

“He undoubtedly wished to have a life outdoors of baseball and luxuriate in it,” Swanson says. “And we had a blast with him. He’s one of many coolest dudes I’ve been round in any clubhouse.”

“It was a stress-free setting,” Prepared says. “Pizzas, beers and a strategy to keep in contact with [the Padres’ support staff].”

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

Little did we all know Kruk was enjoying each.

“There was loads of free time in San Diego for Randy and I again then,” Kruk says. “We figured we’d higher do one thing as a substitute of simply mainly doing nothing. Softball was the best way to go.”

Within the Padres’ clubhouse, they referred to Prepared as “Spike” due to his spiky hair. They referred to as Kruk “Fats Boy” as a result of, nicely …

“I believe our trainers, Dick Dent and Larry Duensing, got here up with that,” Kruk says. “These geniuses.”

In order that’s how Spike & Fats Boy (the group’s official identify, although “Spike & The Fats Boys” is a suitable various) got here to be.

“At some point we stated, ‘That’s the right identify for the softball group!’” Prepared recollects. “From a bodily standpoint, you’ll be able to see why it caught.”

The identify 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 & Fats Boy scene.

“I received a name from Kruky [with an invite to play],” Mitchell says. “I didn’t consider him at first.”

* * * * *

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

The sincere 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. However he did take the sector every now and then.

“As a result of it’s slow-pitch softball, you’re not anticipated to make an out in the event you’re a giant league participant,” he says. “So let’s put it this fashion: I felt extra strain enjoying that than I did in baseball. I knew in baseball I’d make an out seven out of 10 occasions. If I had performed that in softball, they’d have killed me.”

“Kruky is the perfect softball participant,” Mitchell provides. “He may hit the ball all over the place, irrespective of who was pitching. That’s how it’s important to be in softball. If Kruky wanted a single, he was going to get a single. He can simply flat-out hit.”

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

“That’s after we actually ramped it up,” Kruk says. “Mitch was so filthy sturdy.”

What appears sure, primarily based on the conversations for this story, is that Prepared was essentially the most lively of the lively 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 finish.”

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

“However then, as phrase received out, the turnout and our fan base grew,” Prepared says. “We at all times had an entourage, let’s say. And the Madres [a Padres fan organization] caught wind of it and began exhibiting up, too.”

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

“Jack McKeon was our GM, so I don’t suppose he cared,” Swanson says. “That stated, I don’t suppose anyone was operating up and down the hallways on the workplace asserting, ‘We’ve received a giant sport 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 speak about baseball and discuss concerning the large leagues. That’s what made it so enjoyable. Guys simply couldn’t wait to hang around with us.”

Prepared recollects a day when Spike & Fats Boy was going to be quick a participant and wanted assist. Any person advisable 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 proper subject and batted him ninth,” Prepared says with fun. “Little did I do know he was going to develop into the gunslinger of GMs.”

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

Right here, too, all we are able to do is sit again and pay attention.

Prepared: “We didn’t lose a single sport. It was domination.”

Swanson: “We’d kick all people’s ass.”

Kruk: “I don’t recall shedding. However my God, that’s so way back.”

Proper, it was so way back. Earlier than social media. Earlier than we have been all strolling round with high-resolution cameras in our pockets. If an MLB-boosted softball group existed in the present day, 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 & Fats Boy, sadly, we had nothing.

That’s, till an e-mail arrives from Prepared, who rummaged by means of his house and uncovered buried treasure from the 1988-89 offseason …

Legendary.

* * * * *

The issue with mixing the beer leagues and the massive 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 Able to the Phillies for Chris James. On the time the deal was described within the press as a swap of slumping gamers (not one of the three had gotten off to a great begin in ’89), an opportunity for a reset.

No one knew sufficient to say the seismic softball implications.

“That’s in all probability why we received traded,” Kruk jokes. “We have been enjoying softball as a substitute of baseball.”

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

However he nonetheless stored enjoying softball.

“Once I was with the Phillies, I used to return to West Virginia and play in a fall softball league within the offseason with all my buddies I grew up with,” Kruk says. “I’d miss a part of the season, as a result of they’d begin in September. After which the one yr we have been within the World Collection, the fellows didn’t care that I wasn’t there, as a result of they have been so comfortable for me.”

As for the remaining members of Spike & Fats Boy, they stored the group going for an additional few seasons. Prepared nonetheless hung across the space and confirmed up within the winter after the commerce.

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

So the Prepared-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?

“No one’s talked about Robbie Alomar?” Swanson asks.

Wait … what?!

“Oh yeah, Robbie performed,” Swanson provides. “It may need been after we traded Randy. Robbie ended up hanging out one winter and got here to a few video games and performed. , only a [future] Corridor of Famer. No large deal.”

Sadly, when reached for this story, Alomar stated he has no recollection of this. However look, do you keep in mind the whole lot 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 risk to waft in. In spite of everything, within the ethereal and largely undocumented world of Spike & Fats Boy, who’s to say what’s truth 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 night time 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 stated to the 4 or 5 individuals within the stands, ‘I don’t know the place they received this stiff from!’”

Swanson: “I had gotten successful and moved over to 3rd base, so I’m 60 ft from freaking Kevin Mitchell with an aluminum bat in his hand. The ball got here off the bat, and I believed I used to be going to have a coronary.”

Prepared: “Mitch back-legged a softball and despatched it over the roof!”

Chandler: “That’s the longest house run I’ve ever seen in softball. That was the sector the place Ted Williams performed as a child, and I’m unsure Williams ever hit one farther than Kevin Mitchell did.”

Introduced 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. However he needed to give that up just a few years again, when he had a significant well being scare — a bulging disc in his neck that pressed towards his spinal wire and affected his capability to maneuver.

Although 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 discuss concerning the outdated days had him pondering the probabilities for the previous members of Spike & Fats Boy.

“Give Kruky my quantity,” he says. “Let’s convey it again!”