Remembering JoKe, sans frontieres

Joe Kennedy 1979-2007

The last game I saw Joe Kennedy pitch was the last game he started for the A's on the 4th of July against Toronto. He got lit up for four runs and didn't make it out of the first inning. After that outing, the A's moved him back to the bullpen, then waived him a few weeks later. He was claimed by Arizona then traded to Toronto where he finished the season. And now Joe Kennedy is dead. He collapsed at his in-laws home in Tampa and died from an apparent brain aneurysm. It was 44 years to the day after another another Kennedy was assassinated.

The A's acquired Kennedy from Colorado in the Eric Byrnes trade. Joe was a starter for the Rockies, but after his shoulder injury at the start of the 2006 season, the A's moved him to relief and made him their LOOGY. It was Joe's job to come in in a crucial situation to get lefthanded hitters out, and he was magnificent. He had a Zitoesque curve and a 90+ mph fastball that made it almost impossible for lefties to do anything. Kennedy was one of the most important parts of the 2006 A's club that made it to the ALCS before losing to the Tigers.

Kennedy did a good job in relief in 2006, so the A's made him a starter in 2007. It wasn't a role that suited his skills. Joe could always get left-handers out at will, but he had trouble with right-handed hitters, which is a bit of a problem since MLB has more right handed hitters. After that July 4th game versus Toronto, he was 2-7 and they moved him back to the bullpen, but his confidence was shaken from the early season starting experiement, so he was never the same. He would've continued to have a long and distinguished career, because in this age of MLB specialization, every team has a job for a left-handed pitcher who can get left-handed batters out.

As a left-handed person myself, I've always been drawn to left-handed athletes like McCovey, Stabler, Vida, Clark, and Zito, so I always pulled for Joe Kennedy to do well. With Joe's struggles at the start of last season, A's bloggers started referring to him as "JoKe", but it wasn't his fault he was tasked with a role that he wasn't set out to perform.

In this rough year for Bay Area sports, this helps me realize that every struggling athlete or embattled coach is someone's husband, someone's father, someone's son, someone's brother. No matter what we think of anyone's performance, it's always best to stay away from their character or their manhood, or any of that other personal crap. They're just dressing up in costumes and paying silly games. While we're hiding out in treetops, shouting out rude names.

Joe Kennedy leaves behind a one year old son and a pregnant wife. My heart goes out to his wife, his son, his child-to-be, the rest of his family, and all of his former friends and teammates. Joe was a good pitcher, but I'm sure he was a much better person.