Why is Kimbrel your favorite player? Gotta be a story there.
So I’ve been a casual fan of baseball for most of my life. Grew up in the LA area so by default I’d root for the Dodgers.
I’m old enough where My oldest memory of pro ball is my grandparents taking me to see Fernando pitch.
But for a long time, I didn’t care to watch games on TV, but I always loved the atmosphere at a stadium. Used to root for the Angels in AL because I moved further east into Riverside county.
So anyways, I moved in with my dad several years back because my roommates didn’t have space anymore and started watching more games on live TV.
During the 18 World Series, I’m sitting there and checking stuff on my phone when Kimbrel comes up to pitch. Wasn’t paying attention to MLB when he was with Atlanta, and he was in the AL by the time I started watching more televised stuff, so id never seen him before.
Ironically, the reason he’s my favorite player now is the same reason why I hated him back during the Series; because he can be great in relief and because of this:
That’s the pro wrestling fan in me: because it’s unique and makes him stand out. If nothing else, if someone doesn’t know Kimbrel by name, you can say “he’s the guy that does this
”and they’ll know who you’re talking about.
If you go back on this forum far enough, to the point where we were discussing the 2018 Series while it was happening, I posted something to the effect of “Kimbrel you spidery lookin motherfucker!” Because he was striking out Dodgers and he looked like a fucking goof while doing so
but by the next day I was already telling my coworkers that “yeah but if he was doing that on the Dodgers we’d be cheering for it.”
He was also nice enough to sign my Dodgers jersey last year when the Phillies were in town and did so without hesitation which I honestly did not expect. I have it framed on the wall now.
And that’s my Craig Kimbrel story.
He’s gotten off to a great start this season and if he keeps it up, should make the All Star team again. Despite his ups and downs from 2019-2021, I don’t think you can get to that level he was with the Braves and not have anything left in the tank.
I don’t want to jinx the guy, but when it’s finally over, it’ll likely happen all at once: it’ll be a point where he can never K guys and walk at a 75% rate