Hok Talk: Favorite spring training memories

Jeremy Affeldt might be remembered as a Giant, but he started as a Royal.I’ll never forget the spring of 2002. There was a young kid in camp named Jeremy Affeldt. He had never pitched above AA but he shared my given first name and he was striking seemingly everyone out, that year. According to ESPN he struck out 14 batters across the same number of innings over eight appearances. Only 10 batters reached. Here was the pitcher who was going to save the team from the horrors I had witnessed since I first started following them back in 1998. And did I mention he had my same name?

Of course, as it turned out, Jeremy Affeldt didn’t save the Royals from themselves. He didn’t even pitch particularly…