Dave Kingman

Dave Kingman
Kingman while with the Cubs.
Left fielder / First baseman / Designated hitter
Born: December 21, 1948 (1948-12-21) (age 62) Pendleton, Oregon
Batted: Right	Threw: Right
MLB debut
July 30, 1971 for the San Francisco Giants
Last MLB appearance
October 5, 1986 for the Oakland Athletics
Career statistics
Batting average	.236
Home runs	442
Runs batted in	1,210
Teams
San Francisco Giants (1971–1974) New York Mets (1975–1977) San Diego Padres (1977) California Angels (1977) New York Yankees (1977) Chicago Cubs (1978–1980) New York Mets (1981–1983) Oakland Athletics (1984–1986)
Career highlights and awards
National League Home Run Champion (1979, 1982) 3× All-Star (1976, 1979, 1980) AL Comeback Player of the Year (1984)

David Arthur Kingman (born December 21, 1948), nicknamed "Kong" and "Sky King", is a former Major League Baseball left fielder, first baseman, third baseman, and designated hitter. The towering 6' 6" Kingman was one of the most feared sluggers of the 1970s and 1980s. His height and long-armed, sweeping swing were sufficient to propel a baseball a very long distance when he connected solidly. It was said of him that he was one of those players that when he came to bat, everyone in the park stopped whatever they were doing to watch him. He hit plenty of home runs, and he could hit them farther than many had ever seen, once over 530 feet.

His free-swinging, however, cut both ways, as he was also apt to strike out frequently, and usually posted a low batting average and on-base percentage, often leading the league in outs made. His 1,816 strikeouts was the fourth-highest total in MLB history at the time of his retirement. He currently ranks tenth.

USC Trojans

Born in in Pendleton, Oregon, Kingman was drafted by the California Angels out of high school in the second round of the 1967 Major League Baseball Draft, and by the Baltimore Orioles in the first round of the 1968 draft, but chose, instead, to play baseball at the University of Southern California under legendary coach Rod Dedeaux. Kingman began as a pitcher before being converted to an outfielder. In 1970, he was named an All-American and led the Trojans to the College World Series championship. He was selected by the San Francisco Giants with the first pick of the 1970 secondary phase draft.

San Francisco Giants

Kingman came up as an outfielder and first baseman with the San Francisco Giants. He made his major league debut on July 30, 1971, pinch running for Willie McCovey, and finishing the game at first base. In his next two games, he showed some of the power that would make him one of the most feared sluggers of his era, hitting a home run in his next game,^[1] and slugging two more a day later.^[2]

On April 16, 1972, the second day of the season, Kingman hit for the cycle in the Giants' 10-6 victory over the Houston Astros. A day earlier, he made his debut at third base, a position he would play off and on for the remainder of his Giants career. Kingman also made his major league debut on the mound with the Giants, pitching two innings of "mop up duty" on an 11-0 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on April 15, 1973.^[3] He pitched again in the mop up role on May 13 in a 15-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.^[4] In both games, he pitched the final two innings and gave up two earned runs.

In 1974, he committed twelve errors in 59 chances at third, and lost his starting job to Steve Ontiveros. Following the season, the Giants sold him to the New York Mets.

New York Mets

Kingman did play twelve games at third with the Mets; however, the Mets essentially abandoned the idea of Kingman as a third baseman and kept him at his two primary positions. He emerged as a slugger upon his arrival in New York, setting a club record with 36 home runs in 1975. However, he also scored 65 runs, the highest percentage of runs scored on homers for anyone that hit more than 30 in a season. A year later, he broke his own record with 37 homers, and was elected to start in right field for the 1976 National League All-Star team.

Facing the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on April 14, 1976, Kingman hit what is likely the longest home run of his career, and believed to be the longest in the history of the Cubs ballpark. There is a street called Kenmore Avenue that T's into Waveland Avenue behind left-center field. Kenmore is lined with houses, and the ball Kingman launched landed on the third porch roof on the east side of Kenmore, a shot estimated at 550 feet.^[5] Despite Kingman's titanic shot, the Cubs beat the Mets 6-5.

The best game of Kingman's Mets career occurred on June 4, 1976 when he hit three home runs against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Mets' 11-0 victory (the first of five times Kingman accomplished this feat in his major league career).

1977 season

Kingman was batting only .209 with nine home runs when he became one of the three players traded in the infamous "Midnight Massacre" in New York. On June 15, 1977, the Mets traded Kingman to the San Diego Padres for minor league pitcher Paul Siebert and Bobby Valentine; Tom Seaver was traded to the Cincinnati Reds for Pat Zachry, Doug Flynn, Steve Henderson and Dan Norman; and Mike Phillips was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for Joel Youngblood. Kingman also did not pan out with the Padres, being waived by the team on September 6 and claimed by the California Angels. On September 15, Kingman became one of only a handful of players to play for four major league teams in the same season when he was traded to the Mets' crosstown rivals, the Yankees, for Randy Stein and cash.(See July 30, 2004 in baseball) Although Kingman's four home runs in eight games helped propel the Yankees into the post-season over the second place Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles, he could not participate in the team's push to a World Series crown as he was added to the roster after the July 31 cutoff date.

Chicago Cubs

Following the season, Kingman signed as a free agent with the Chicago Cubs. One of Kingman's career days at the plate occurred in Los Angeles on May 14, 1978, when he again hit three home runs against the Dodgers, including a three run shot in the top of the 15th inning that gave the Cubs a 10-7 victory. Eight of the Cubs' ten runs were driven in by Kingman.^[6] Following the game, radio reporter Paul Olden (now the public address announcer at Yankee Stadium) asked Dodgers' manager Tommy Lasorda his opinion of Kingman's performance that day, inspiring an oft-replayed (and censored) obscenity laced tirade.^[7]

The best season of Kingman's career came with the Cubs in 1979, when he batted an impressive .288 with a National League-leading 48 homers, as well as 115 runs batted in (second to San Diego's Dave Winfield's 118) and 97 runs scored. He hit three home runs in a game twice that season, both coming in Cubs losses. The first was a memorable slugging duel with Mike Schmidt; Kingman hit three home runs and drove in 6 while Schmidt hit two in the game, with Schmidt delivering the killing blow in the top of the tenth inning to give the Phillies a 23-22 victory.^[8] The second three homer game for Kingman that year came against his former team on July 28 at Shea Stadium in a 6-4 loss to the Mets.^[9]

His .613 slugging percentage was almost 50 points higher than that of his next closest National League competition, Mike Schmidt. Kingman finished eleventh in NL MVP balloting that year despite leading the league in strikeouts for the first time in his career (131).

In 1980, Kingman's enigmatic personality (which former Mets teammate John Stearns once compared to a tree trunk)^[10] began to assert itself, as he dumped ice water on a reporter's head during Spring training. Kingman claimed he was often misquoted, and he began appearing regularly in the Chicago Tribune, as the nominal author of a ghost-written column. Mike Royko, then writing for the rival Chicago Sun-Times, parodied Kingman's column with a series said to be written by "Dave Dingdong."^[11] Kingman eventually quarreled with his own ghostwriter. The series came to an end, and so did Kingman's days with the Cubs.

Return to New York

In January 1980, the Payson heirs sold the Mets franchise to the Doubleday publishing company for $21.1 million. Nelson Doubleday, Jr. was named chairman of the board while minority shareholder Fred Wilpon took the role of club president. On February 28, 1981, eager to make right with a fan base that had become disenchanted with the team, the Mets reacquired Kingman from the Cubs for Steve Henderson and cash. In separate deals, the new organization also reacquired Rusty Staub, and two seasons later, Tom Seaver.

Kingman primarily played first base upon his return to the Mets in 1981, and exclusively there his second season back in New York. In 1982, he tied his own Mets' single-season home run record, but also batted just .204, the lowest batting average ever recorded for a first baseman with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title. Leading the league in home runs that year, it is also the lowest batting average for any season's home run leader.^[12] Additionally, he accomplished the dubious feat of leading the league in home runs while having a lower batting average than the Cy Young Award winner, (Steve Carlton, .218).^[13]

Kingman led the NL in strike outs both of his first two seasons in New York (105 in 1981 & 156 in 1982). On June 15, 1983, the sixth anniversary of the Midnight Massacre, the Mets acquired first baseman Keith Hernandez from the St. Louis Cardinals for pitchers Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey. Kingman remained with the team for the remainder of the season in a limited role. He was released at the end of the season, and signed as a free agent with the Oakland Athletics.

Oakland A's

On April 16, 1984, Kingman collected his fifth and final 3-homer game, in a 9-6 win over the Seattle Mariners.^[14] Always an awkward defensive player, he made just nine appearances at first base in 1984, and was the A's regular designated hitter the remainder of the time. For the season, Kingman hit 35 home runs and drove in 118 runs to be named the American League's Comeback Player of the Year, and finish 13th in MVP balloting.

In three seasons as a DH in Oakland, he collected at least 30 home runs and 90 RBIs in each of those years. He also had two remarkable at-bats in this period which did not result in home runs, but nonetheless added to his legend: in the Metrodome at Minnesota, on May 4, 1984, he hit a pop-up that flew into a hole in the roof and got stuck for a ground rule double. In a game in Seattle on April 11, 1985, he hit a tremendous drive to left field which struck a speaker hanging from the roof of the Kingdome, bounced back and was caught.^[15]

Controversy

During his final year in Oakland in 1986, Kingman sent a live rat wrapped in a pink box to Sue Fornoff, a sportswriter for the Sacramento Bee newspaper.^[16] The rat had a tag attached to it that read, "My name is Sue." Fornoff claimed that Kingman had told her that women do not belong in the clubhouse, and that he harassed her several times since she began covering the team the year before. For his part, Kingman claimed it was practical joke.^[17] The A's fined Kingman $3,500 and warned that he would be released if a similar incident occurred again.

Seasons	Games	AB	Runs	Hits	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	Avg.	Slg.	OPS
16	1941	6677	901	1575	240	25	442	1210	85	49	608	1816	.236	.478	.780

Lifetime walks-to-strikeout ratio: 0.335 (608-1816)

Hall of Fame candidacy

Kingman signed with the San Francisco Giants during the 1987 season. After twenty minor league games in which he batted .203, he retired.

While impressively belting out more than 400 home runs in his career, he was never a serious candidate for the Baseball Hall of Fame. In his first year of eligibility, 1992, he appeared on just three ballots, disqualifying him from future BBWAA voting. He was the first player to hit 400 or more home runs without being eventually inducted into the Hall of Fame.^[18]

See also

• List of top 300 Major League Baseball home run hitters
• Hitting for the cycle
• List of Major League Baseball home run champions

Preceded by Joe Morgan Pete Rose	National League Player of the Month July 1975 April 1980	Succeeded by Tony Pérez Mike Schmidt
Preceded by George Foster Mike Schmidt	National League Home Run Champion 1979 1982	Succeeded by Mike Schmidt Mike Schmidt
Preceded by Alan Trammell	AL Comeback Player of the Year 1984	Succeeded by Gorman Thomas

References

1. ^ "Pittsburgh Pirates 11, San Francisco Giants 15". Baseball Almanac. 1971-07-31. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=197107310SFN. Retrieved 2008-07-31. 
2. ^ "Pittsburgh Pirates 3, San Francisco Giants 8". Baseball Almanac. 1971-08-01. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=197108012SFN. Retrieved 2008-07-31. 
3. ^ "Cincinnati Reds 11, San Francisco Giants 0". Baseball-Reference.com. 1973-04-15. http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN197304151.shtml. 
4. ^ "Los Angeles Dodgers 15, San Francisco Giants 3". Baseball-Reference.com. 1973-05-13. http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN197305130.shtml. 
5. ^ "Chicago Cubs 6, New York Mets 5". Retrosheet. 1976-04-14. http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1976/B04140CHN1976.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-25. 
6. ^ "Chicago Cubs 10, Los Angeles Dodgers 7". Retrosheet. 1978-05-14. http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1978/B05140LAN1978.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-25. 
7. ^ Jerry Crowe (July 20, 2009). "Olden Can Still Hear the Answer to One Question". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jul/20/sports/sp-crowe20. 
8. ^ "Philadelphia Phillies 23, Chicago Cubs 22". Retrosheet. 1979-05-17. http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1979/B05170CHN1979.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-25. 
9. ^ "New York Mets 6, Chicago Cubs 4". Retrosheet. 1979-07-28. http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1979/B07280NYN1979.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-25. 
10. ^ "John Stearns Stats". Baseball Almanac. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=stearjo01. Retrieved 2009-10-25. 
11. ^ "Scorecard". Sports Illustrated. 1980-04-21. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1123381/2/index.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-25. 
12. ^ "Home Runs Year-by-Year Leaders". Baseball-almanac. http://www.baseball-almanac.com/hitting/hihr5.shtml. Retrieved 2008-07-31. 
13. ^ "Steve Carlton Statistics". Baseball-Reference. http://www.baseball-reference.com/c/carltst01.shtml. Retrieved 2008-07-31. 
14. ^ "Oakland Athletics 9, Seattle Mariners 6". Retrosheet. 1984-04-16. http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1984/B04160SEA1984.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-25. 
15. ^ "Dave Kingman from the Chronology". Baseballlibrary.com. http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=Dave_Kingman_1948&page=chronology. Retrieved 2009-10-25. 
16. ^ New York Times (June 25, 1986) "Kingman Fined $3,500"
17. ^ Sports Illustrated (undated) Ugly Media-Athlete Confrontations
18. ^ "1992 Hall of Fame Vote Totals". National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Archived from the original on 2008-02-28. http://web.archive.org/web/20080228192753/http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers/voting_year.jsp?year=1992. Retrieved 2008-07-31. 

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
• Dave Kingman at Retrosheet
• Dave Kingman at Baseball Almanac
• DaveKingman.com (under construction)
• The Dave Kingman Award
• Dave Kingman at the Ultimate Mets Database

Persondata
Name	Kingman, Dave
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1948-12-21
Place of birth	Pendleton, Oregon
Date of death
Place of death