RISE IN THE PRANKS
Kendrick bounces back nicely after teammates ‘punked’ him
FORT MYERS — If there was a magic button to push that would permanently erase all copies of the 9-year-old clip that comes up when you search for “Kyle Kendrick prank” on YouTube, Kendrick would have punched it — with both fists — a long time ago.
But the internet, as we all know by now, is forever.
And as much as Kendrick wants to be remembered only for his career to date and for the remarkable comeback story he is crafting this spring to become an important cog in the Red Sox rotation, he has accepted that he will never be able to fully delete this one claim to his fame.
Victim of an elaborate and rather cruel prank pulled off by the Phillies front office, their manager, his own agent, the team’s traveling secretary, plus teammates and members of the media, Kendrick’s 23-year-old world was flipped upside down for a queasy few minutes at spring training in Clearwater, Fla., in 2008.
Called into the manager’s office, a bewildered and then shocked looking Kendrick, who was a highly rated prospect, was told by manager Charlie Manuel and assistant general manager Ruben Amaro Jr., who is now the Red Sox first base coach, that the Phillies had traded him to the Yomiuri Giants of Japan for Kobayashi Iwamura.
He was handed a copy of his $1.5 million contract.
He was handed a copy of his itinerary. He was told to start packing his bags and get ready for an early wake-up call — he needed to be at the airport two hours before his 7:05 a.m. flight to Japan the very next morning.
He stood in front of his locker surrounded by a half-circle of inon-the-joke baseball reporters, most of them doing a poor job of hiding their smiles, as Amaro announced the trade.
Amaro said the Phillies were “trying to get to the next level,” that’s why Iwamura was headed to Florida, and Kendrick was off to Tokyo.
Then Kendrick’s teammate Brett Myers, listening in on the scrum, yelled in Kendrick’s ear “You just got punked!” And just like that, the gig was up. The punkers guffawed. The punkee was a good sport. He smiled, but most of the humor was lost on him.
“If it didn’t happen to me, I would have thought it was funny — and I would have felt bad,” said Kendrick, who pitched another strong game in the Red Sox’ 3-3 tie with the Phillies yesterday. “It’s hard to say until you’re the one in that position. Looking back, it didn’t affect me — I had a good first half. It was in the second half where I didn’t pitch well. But it could have messed with somebody mentally, a younger kid, if he had let it.”
Between hearing the news from Manuel and Amaro and the media scrum, Kendrick had called his father, who “was not happy” about the news.
Then Kendrick called his agent, who told him: “‘Yeah, I think this will be better for you and your career. Go and make some money over there.’ ”
Kendrick did not appreciate that style of client representation.
“I fired him that year, and that was part of it — I was upset about it, because after that I went and talked to the media,” Kendrick said. “So if he had told me, ‘No it was just a prank,’ I would never have talked to the media. Or, I would have turned it around and I would have flipped it on them.”
Kendrick and Amaro, who later became the GM of the Phillies, never spoke about the prank until this spring.
Amaro apologized for his role in the ruse. “One of the first days in camp, we sat down, and he said, ‘That was messed up, I apologize,’ ” said Kendrick. “It was the first time he ever said anything to me about it. Nothing as a GM. Maybe he has a different perspective on it as a coach now.”
Amaro did sound regretful about playing his part. He said he had to step into it when his boss, Pat Gillick, bailed out for some meeting. The plot, said Amaro, was hatched by some “salty veterans” who “wanted to mess with one of the young kids.”
They succeeded in the short term, but not the long term.
Kendrick not only survived the embarrassment, but he is still an effective pitcher, on the verge of his 10th big league season.
That, said Amaro, is what counts. Kendrick agreed.
“The reality of it is, he was an extremely effective pitcher for us from the time he got to the big leagues,” Amaro said. “He’s an 81-game winner and was a big part of us having some success. He should be really proud of the things that he’s done. He’s had a lot more success than a lot of guys, and I think he should be more remembered for that than that silly prank.”
That’s the plan with Kendrick, and don’t forget it.
And if you do, search for this story on the internet.
It will be here forever.