John Kruk

Philadelphia Phillie first baseman John Kruk had to make a stop on his way to Veterans Stadium Monday morning, to undergo another in the long series of radiation treatments intended to speed his recovery from testicular cancer. It was not your typical opening day ritual, but it didn't seem to cramp his style. Kruk arrived at the ballpark a few hours later and made his 1994 debut with a three-hit performance that turned the sellout crowd of 58,627 into his personal booster club.

The $38,000 that Clinton Portis coughed up to wrest jersey No. 26 from one-time Washington Redskin teammate Ifeanyi Ohalete may have set records in terms of cost and aggravation. The previous high, after all, was believed to be the $25,000 Rickey Henderson paid to get No. 24 from Turner Ward in Toronto, followed by the $15,000 Rolex that Roger Clemens handed over to Blue Jay first baseman Carlos Delgado for No. 21.

Come and listen to a story about a man and an open sewer and the fourth-best batting average in the National League. Used to be, through the outfield of one of John Kruk's summer league baseball fields, wedged in the part of the West Virginia mountains John Denver missed, ran this dirt road. "Yep," remembers Kruk, "the road ran from left field out through center field." It wasn't a bad road, either. "Not really," Kruk said. "Best thing was, they didn't let cars drive through during the games."

An actor's life is not a picnic, according to former major leaguer John Kruk. He thought he'd enjoy performing in the movie, "The Fan," which features Robert DeNiro and is due to be released in August. But Kruk found it tedious, with long stretches of inactivity broken up by occasional action. Kind of like a baseball game? "I don't know why I did the movie," Kruk said. "Hollywood [stinks]." Kruk said he was bored and couldn't fathom why it took so long between takes.

The first thing he can remember swinging at was a pair of rolled-up socks, and hitting them with a broomstick was as challenging--in its own way--as facing Fernando Valenzuela. Later, when living in New Jersey, he advanced to stickball. Then it was on to swatting Styrofoam balls in the garage and finally backyard Wiffle Ball, using a couple of lawn chairs to mark the strike zone. John Kruk of the Padres is still learning about hitting.

Padre fans used to torment the outfielder, booing him on the field during the game, and breaking into his car at night. They once slashed the convertible top on his car while parked at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, and openly cheered when he was traded away. They never even saw the third baseman. He was in the minor leagues during his three-year stay, never advancing past double-A Wichita, and the fans shrugged their shoulders when he was left unprotected in the 1989 winter draft.

OK, just because Krukker rhymes with supper. . . . Just because John Kruk believes the off-season is just that, the off -season, the time for daily Sonnyburgers with cheese sticks, fries (gravy and ketchup, please) and a cold beer at the down-home Hamburger Haven restaurant and lounge in McComb, Md., just across the Potomac River from his farmhouse in Burlington, W. Va. . . .

Len Dykstra of the Philadelphia Phillies was placed in a first-offenders program for his drunk-driving arrest in May of 1991. Dykstra smashed his new sports car into three trees early on the morning of May 6 while driving home with Phillie catcher Darren Daulton from a bachelor party for teammate John Kruk.

You sportswriters make me mad. You may be writing a story about some other player, but you just have to drag Benito Santiago into it. Leave the man alone. You call him the man the fans love to hate, those fans are just a few clunks who don't know a good player when they see one. So he asked for a trade. So what? Bruce Hurst did the same, so did a lot of others. It's you sportswriters who make the so-called fans boo with all the junk you write. You even tried to make trouble because Benny did not have a picture of John Kruk on his locker.

John Kruk retired from the Chicago White Sox on Sunday in the middle of a game against the Orioles in Baltimore. Kruk, 34, singled in the first inning and was left on base. Frank Thomas pinch-hit for him in the third inning as Kruk was cleaning out his locker and leaving Camden Yards in the middle of the game. "The desire to compete at this level is gone. When that happens, it's time to go," Kruk said in a statement that was released after the game.

The Chicago White Sox have talked John Kruk, 34, into coming back for at least one more season. The White Sox on Friday night announced the three-time all-star first baseman has signed a one-year contract. Kruk is scheduled to report to Sarasota, Fla., Monday to get ready to join his new club. Kruk didn't go to Homestead, Fla., to baseball's free-agent camp for out-of-work players after the strike ended this spring and wasn't actively seeking a job. Kruk batted .

An upbeat John Kruk left a Philadelphia hospital Wednesday night after learning lumps on his body are apparently not connected to his testicular cancer earlier this year. "It ain't cancer," the Philadelphia Phillie star said as he walked between buildings at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Dr. Carl Mansfield, chairman of the department of radiation oncology and nuclear medicine, said there was a "99 to 100% likelihood that John does not have a recurrence of cancer."

Philadelphia Phillie first baseman John Kruk had to make a stop on his way to Veterans Stadium Monday morning, to undergo another in the long series of radiation treatments intended to speed his recovery from testicular cancer. It was not your typical opening day ritual, but it didn't seem to cramp his style. Kruk arrived at the ballpark a few hours later and made his 1994 debut with a three-hit performance that turned the sellout crowd of 58,627 into his personal booster club.

Fed up with questions about his testicular cancer, Philadelphia Phillie first baseman John Kruk made an obscene gesture and tossed a bat toward cameramen who followed him into the Phillies' clubhouse at Clearwater, Fla. Kruk declined to talk to reporters, even after team President Bill Giles asked him if he would. The bat he tossed landed on the ground several feet from the nearest person.