RON KITTLE: THE MAN, THE GLASSES & THE LAUGHS

In his prime, we knew Ron Kittle for three things – his long home runs, his sense of humor, and those enormous glasses. He first came up for his rookie season in 1983 with the Chicago White Sox, and he landed with a bang. He hit 35 home runs and 100 runs batted in, and he won the American League Rookie of the Year. At age 25, the White Sox looked like they had someone around which to build their franchise. 

In old Comiskey Park, there was a lot of attention paid to the rare rooftop home run, which required the ball to go at least 550 feet, according to estimates of the day. Ron Kittle hit seven of them in his time at Comiskey – a record. Unfortunately, his displays of power could not compensate for his lack of ability to get a hit, barely getting his average over .200. 

(In Photo: Ron Hassey)
In 1986, the White Sox gave up and traded him, along with Wayne Tolleson and Joel Skinner, to the Yankees for Ron Hassey and a couple of minor leaguers. Personally, I remember the Tolleson part of the trade, since we were starving for a shortstop who could hit at the major league level, and Tolleson was hitting decently. Kittle did okay with the Yankees, hitting .277 with 12 homers and 28 RBI in 1987 before he left the Yankees. Despite the hitting stats, I have to say that his Strat-O-Matic card was a pretty good one, and it won me a few close games. 

Nevertheless, he bounced around between Cleveland, Baltimore, and the White Sox before retiring in 1991 at the age of 33.  His on-field play, however, does not even tell half the story. He had a dry, deadpan sense of humor and loved standing out and poking fun at himself. Look, lots of us are near-sighted, but not even in the 1980’s did we all run around with glasses that had the coverage of NORAD over the Soviet border. His quotes were hilarious. 

When told that his 35 home runs broke the franchise rookie record for home runs held by Zeke Bonura, he quipped, with a perfectly straight face, “Oh yeah, Zeke...he was my hero", read HERE. He started and finished his career in Chicago, and he still works for them today. Given his love of the team, you would think he would not be in a joking mood when they traded him. Did he see it coming? “I won money on this. I knew I was gone. I got a hint when they gave me black spikes in spring training", read HERE. What are his thoughts on the fan’s appreciation for hitting home runs? “Fans appreciate home runs, I mean, they don't stand up for singles" he once said. The list goes on and on.
 

In recent years, he wrote a book about his time in Chicago - "Ron Kittle's Tales from the White Sox Dugout" - with some funny stories, and currently it's in our BYB Book Club. These days, Ron does marketing for his White Sox, He also does lots of charity work and motivational speaking. While he has lost the glasses for something a little more fashionable, his sense of humor has shown no signs of slowing down. 

Last month the Sox ran a Ron Kittle bobble-head doll night, and he was on the streets outside U.S. Cellular Field in his retro 1983 White Sox uniform and a sandwich board, promoting the event, read HERE. If you would like to see a picture of him in a tiger suit, just go to the front page of ronkittle.com. 

As chairman of the Indiana Sports Charities, he has been running an annual golf tournament in recent years to raise money for several hospitals in his area. This year, he is hosting The Ron Kittle Retro Jersey Motorcycle Ride to raise money for cancer research. Ron had a short stay with the Yankees, but we always appreciated his humor and his love of the game. We wish him all the best with his work and his charities, and hey, maybe we could get an interview with him and bring it to the BYB readers, huh? I know for a fact that Casey loves reviving the 80's with old Yankee stories... we'll see what we can do!

 --Ike Dimitriadis, BYB Writer
Twitter: @KingAgamemnon
My blog is: Shots from Murderer's Row