Kinney still having a blast with Bulls at 46

The ex-major leaguer, now a Limeport Bull, is still adding to his pitching repertoire.


By Ted Meixell
Of The Morning Call

 

Pick a major league pitcher. A 30-year-old major league pitcher.

Assume his Major League career will end this year.

Now, close your eyes. Try to imagine that same guy, now 46, pitching -- on a regular basis and quite well, thank you -- for the Tri-County League Limeport Bulls.

In the year 2014.

What's that, you say? No way? Not a 1990s major leaguer.

You're probably right.

But if someone tried the same exercise in 1982, the correct answer would've been, "Sure. Dennis Kinney."

A week ago today, Kinney, now a project manager at Alvin H. Butz Inc., took the mound at Limeport Stadium and threw an eight-hit 13-0 shutout at the Valley Athletics. Along the way, he dazzled the A's, some of them not yet half his age, with his trademark mix of sliders and cut fastballs.

A dozen of them, strikeout victims all, stomped back to their dugout asking themselves, "How can he still do that?" But, at game's end, they all lined up to shake Kinney's hand, their respect obvious -- and genuine.

Sixteen years ago, Kinney, a Temperance, Mich., native, called a halt to a professional baseball career that spanned 13 seasons and included major league stopovers in Cleveland, San Diego, Detroit and Oakland.

Kinney spent one full year (1980) with the Padres and parts of the 1978, 1979, 1981 and 1982 seasons in "The Bigs."

"I was in San Diego all year in 1980," he said last week. "I was traded to Detroit in the off-season but I didn't make the big league club in '81. I was sent down to Evansville (in the Triple A International League), where I played for Jim Leyland. I was called up to Detroit in September, but was released after the winter meetings."

Oakland signed him in 1982 and assigned him to Triple A Tacoma of the Pacific Coast League. He was called up in May, but, after three weeks, was sent back to Tacoma -- at which point he called it a career.

"It was just time," he said. "When you're 30, a left-hander, and you can't play in the big leagues, it's time. Oh, I could've kept playing but I didn't want to just hang on."

So Kinney went to work -- and back to school -- in the Lehigh Valley.

How did that come about?

"My wife (the former Sharon Rohrbach) is from here," Kinney explained. "She went to Whitehall. I met her when she was at the University of Arizona (in Tucson) and I was in spring training with the Indians. We were married in 1979 and, when my (baseball) career was over, we decided to settle and raise our family here."

The Kinneys reside in Schnecksville. Sharon is a reading specialist at Broughal Middle School in Bethlehem ("And a very good one," Dennis added). The couple has three boys, only one of whom is currently a baseball player.

That would be 12-year-old Drew, who plays first base on a travel team in the Lehigh Valley Midget League.

"We're unbeaten (6-0)," said Dennis, who helps coach.

Kyle Kinney is 17 -- and a pole vaulter for Northwestern's track and field team.

Tyler Kinney, who will turn 15 next week, is a musician. "He plays bass guitar and string bass," Dad said proudly. "And he has a jazz band called, `DeAnimas.'"

When the Kinneys came to the Lehigh Valley in 1982, Dennis immediately went to work and to Allentown College to finish the college education he'd begun at Bowling Green during baseball off-seasons, picking up a degree in sales and marketing in 1986. In 1990, he added an MBA from Wilkes University's Allentown branch. He started at Butz Construction in 1984.

From 1983 through 1988, Kinney pitched for Lee Butz's powerful Allentown team (the one without a nickname) in the Blue Mountain League. Then, at age 36, he hung up his spikes again. His "retirement" lasted longer than most of Larry Holmes' -- four years to be exact.

"But," he said, "in 1992, when I was 40, I started playing again with the Fleetwings in the MSBL (Mens Senior Baseball League). (Parkland High Head Coach) Danny Waelchli talked me into it. At the time, Kyle was playing on the Biddy League All-Star team with Danny's son, Chad.

"I went to Arizona with the MSBL's Over-40 A team, and we finished second in the nation. When I got back, I simply decided that, as long as I was going to be pitching again, I needed to do some at a more competitive level.

"So I went to Bill Fatzinger, who also works at Butz and whose dad, Ishky, was managing the Limeport Bulls at the time, and asked to play," he said. "I've been here ever since, and Bill's now the manager."

Kinney played a huge role as the Bulls captured the 1997 Tri-County League championship. And they're a major threat to repeat.

Interestingly, Kinney is now a starter. Not only that, despite his age, he said, "I'm doing things now that I never did before."

Such as?

"Well," he said, "I went to the Labor Day Tournament in York with the Catasauqua Black Sox three times -- and each time I've pitched both ends of doubleheaders. In the pros, when I was always a reliever, I was basically a two-pitch pitcher -- fastball and slider. And I threw in the mid to upper 80s.

"I began starting my third year in Tri-County. When I did, it took me a while to better learn my abilities. I don't do much differently, but I don't have the stuff I used to have --either the velocity or the movement at the end. So I've added a curve and a forkball -- and now I'm a three or four-pitch pitcher, depending upon need."

One of the first things you notice when Kinney pitches is that he always works from the stretch.

"I believe I was the first Major League pitcher to do that," he said. "I started doing it when I was at Toledo in 1977. I started a couple of games, and I found I was getting in trouble from the windup. So I went to the stretch all the time. I took some razzing for it --and there were some catcalls from the fans -- but I stayed with it and a lot of relievers now do the same thing."

Next Saturday, Kinney and all the Bulls will have a busy day. From 1-5 p.m., they'll act as clinicians at the Limeport Bulls/Bucky Dent Youth Baseball Clinic, which is open to youth baseball players between the ages of 7 and 13. Larry Hoskin, vice president and general manager of Bucky Dent's Baseball School in Delray Beach, Fla., and Kinney, will lead the instruction.

Then, at 7 p.m., the Bulls will entertain the ICC Pirates in a regularly scheduled Trico contest. Participants in the clinic, and their parents, will be the Bulls' guests at the game, which will be televised by Service Electric Cable TV.

The only question that remained to ask of Kinney was the most obvious one: Why? Why do you continue to play baseball, for free, after being paid to do it for 13 years? What's the point?

Kinney's reply was refreshing.

"I love baseball," said Kinney, who wears the same spikes he wore as a Detroit Tiger in 1981. "I love the game. And I still love the competition. The day it stops being fun is the day I'll stop. I do remember, when I was in pro ball, guys would say, `When my (pro) career is over, that's it. I'll be done.' And, at times, I know I felt that way, too.

"But from the time I started playing with Allentown, it's been fun. Now, it's still kind of neat, some of it because of my age.

"I have T-shirts older than some of these kids -- and I don't mind telling you I get an extra kick once in a while when I reach back and throw one by a young kid who's just daring me to try."

A single anecdote said it all.

"After we won the championship last year," he said, "an older gentleman came up to me and said, `My wife and I come to these games all the time. We enjoy watching you pitch. You've made this a great summer for us.'"

It's no wonder that Kinney said, "Depending upon family responsibilities, work and so forth, I'd like to keep doing this for a long time."

But he has a firm grasp on reality.

"No one can go on forever," he said. "I know when you fall, you fall quickly."

Kinney knew when it was time to drop out of pro ball. He'll also know when it's time to hang 'em up for keeps.



ted.meixell@mcall.com

From The Morning Call -- May 28, 1998

Copyright © 1998, The Morning Call