Josh Kinney

Josh Kinney was an unlikely candidate to become a major-league ballplayer. He grew up in rural Pennsylvania and spent most of his time dreaming not of baseball, but of hunting turkeys and deer. He attended a high school that lacked a baseball program, forcing him to commute each afternoon to a neighboring school to play. He might just as easily have entered the family logging business after high school if not for several serendipitous events that led to a baseball career at Quincy University. Even then, when college was finished, he was ready to forgo any future in baseball in order to take a job as a fly-fishing guide. It was only as a favor to his college coach that he tried out for an independent league team at the exact moment that a local scout for the St. Louis Cardinals was desperate to sign capable pitchers to fill roster spots in the low minor leagues. There are other professional players with stories marked by greater obstacles and more unlikely events, but it is hard to argue that Kinney’s baseball journey from small-town Little League player to standout reliever for a World Series champion does not make for a compelling narrative.

Joshua Thomas Kinney was born on March 31, 1979 to Tom and Debbie Kinney in Coudersport, Pennsylvania, a small town just south of the New York border. As Kinney would later quip, both Coudersport and nearby Roulette, where he spent his childhood, were located in a part of the country “with more turkeys than people.”1 It was the kind of rural setting that gave plenty of opportunities for outdoor adventure. Kinney loved to hunt and fish and developed an aptitude for working with wood, a knack instilled in him by his father, a logger.2 It was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with outdoor pursuits, which would later inspire manager Tony La Russa to refer to Kinney as “Daniel Boone.”3

Along with hunting and fishing, there was also baseball to play. By age 7, Kinney was riding his bike to a friend’s house and recruiting him to play catch at the local T-ball field, basking in the carefree joy of throwing a baseball, but also strengthening a pitching arm that would serve him well in later years.4 After T-ball, it was on to Little League, where Kinney collected a number of trophies, including the Don Hoak Award.5 He was a fitting recipient: Just as Hoak, who grew up in Potter County, Pennsylvania (of which Coudersport is the county seat), won World Series championships with the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers and the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates, so too would Kinney one day serve on a World Series-winning team as a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals.

At nearby Port Allegany High School, Kinney played basketball and baseball. His commitment to baseball was especially impressive given that his school lacked a team. Along with a handful of other students, Kinney had to commute 30 minutes each afternoon to a second high school, Oswayo Valley, in order to compete. The commute was worth the trouble: Kinney excelled as a player and won conference co-MVP honors in his senior season.6

Kinney threw hard on the mound with good downward movement on his pitches, a fact not lost on a local high-school umpire named Carl Atwell. Atwell moonlighted as an informal scout for his son, Pat Atwell, who led the baseball program at Quincy University in Quincy, Illinois. Carl told Pat about the talented young pitcher he had seen and Pat, trusting his father’s judgment, set out to recruit Kinney to play for him at Quincy.7

The recruitment process, however, posed challenges. For one thing, it was not clear that Kinney envisioned himself as a college baseball player. Many of his classmates were considering the military or entering the work force directly after high school; attending college was certainly not a given.8 There was also a second problem: Quincy University, an NCAA Division II school far from Pennsylvania, was completely unknown to Kinney; in fact, he could not even locate Quincy on a map.9 Pat Atwell worked to overcome these obstacles by connecting personally with Kinney and helping him imagine what a college baseball career might entail.10 Still, what clinched the deal was something else altogether.

Kinney discovered that Adams County, Illinois, part of a region known as the Golden Triangle, was a mecca for those in pursuit of white-tailed deer. And Quincy, the county seat, was generally regarded as one of the best hunting towns in Illinois – if not the entire country – both for its local amenities and its prodigious population of large whitetails, not to mention its abundance of turkeys and waterfowl.11 For an avid hunter like Kinney, it was too tempting to resist.12 “I didn’t even go visit Quincy,” Kinney remembered, “I enrolled and just winged it. … I don’t think my parents were real happy I made my decision based on deer antlers.”13

Kinney’s talent was evident as a freshman, although his college career got off to an inauspicious start. In his first game, appearing in relief with men on base, he hit the only batter he faced. Upon being removed from the game, Kinney could only watch in dismay as the hit batter came around to score, representing the winning run and making Kinney the losing pitcher of record (as one of his teammates helpfully pointed out).14

Despite this rough start and a significant bout of homesickness, Kinney began learning how to control his pitches and to believe in himself on the mound. He could already throw in the 90s with exceptional movement and once he tightened up his volatile windup, his sinker/slider combination became especially deadly. The slider, in particular, was “legendarily nasty,” according to Atwell.15 It was already clear that when Kinney was healthy and focused, he could dominate at any level.

Kinney won three games as a freshman and beginning with his sophomore season he became hard to beat on the mound. All told, he finished his Quincy career with a 22-12 record, leaving school as the leader in innings pitched (291⅓) and strikeouts (229) and contributing mightily to the success of the Hawks in both 1999 and 2000 when they went a combined 85-30.16

At the end of his Quincy career, Kinney found himself at a crossroads. Although he had the talent to continue in baseball, he also had a strong desire to return home and take up a position as a fly-fishing guide, a job he had greatly enjoyed during his college summers. As Atwell remembered it, Kinney arrived at his office at the end of the year, packed up and ready to leave for home. Atwell had never asked Kinney for a favor, but on this occasion, he persuaded him to try out for the River City Rascals, an independent Frontier League team in O’Fallon, Missouri.17  Kinney initially dismissed the suggestion: “I told him I really didn’t want to do it.”18 Atwell, however, was insistent: “Try out for me,” he implored, to which Kinney finally acquiesced: “I couldn’t tell him no.”19

It was no surprise to Atwell when Kinney proceeded to make the Rascals squad as a 22-year-old starting pitcher. His time there was brief, but not due to underperformance. In three games, he went 1-0 with a 1.71 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 21 innings pitched. As it happened, Scott Melvin, a scout for the St. Louis Cardinals, lived in Quincy and had seen Kinney pitch on several occasions. He asked Atwell if Kinney would consider signing with the Cardinals; Atwell answered affirmatively. Melvin next called Kinney directly and in short order signed him as an undrafted free agent. As Kinney remembered it, his signing bonus amounted to a prime rib sandwich and a plane ticket.20 Nevertheless, it was a dream come true. Kinney had made it into a major-league organization, and not just any organization, but the one his family had rooted for during his childhood.21

As with many young players, Kinney’s signing marked the beginning of a peripatetic and perennially uncertain minor-league existence. He was signed to fill a roster spot for the summer, beyond which nothing was guaranteed. However, Kinney did well in his first assignment with the New Jersey Cardinals in the New York-Penn League in the summer of 2001. After only three games (5⅔ innings pitched, five strikeouts, zero runs) he was promoted to Class-A Peoria, for whom he accumulated a 4.39 ERA over 41 innings to finish the season.

Kinney showed even more promise in 2002 as a 23-year-old, pitching for the high Class-A Potomac (Virginia) Cannons (2.29 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 55 innings), before blossoming further in a 2003 season split between the high Class-A Palm Beach Cardinals and the Double-A Tennessee Smokies (Knoxville). In 81 innings for the two teams, he went 5-1 with a 1.11 ERA and 83 strikeouts against only 22 walks. His success not only put him firmly on the Cardinals’ internal radar, but earned him recognition in the larger baseball community as he appeared for the first time in the 2004 Baseball America preseason rankings of the Cardinals’ top prospects.

Kinney’s time in the minors was a process of development and maturation, both professionally and personally. He willingly accepted instruction at each step of his journey and relied on a strong work ethic, instilled by his parents, to maximize his talent.22 He took a relentless approach to his pitching craft, even seeing it as a kind of selfish pursuit, albeit a necessary one in order to play baseball at a high level. “I don’t know how to describe it other than that,” he said. “You’ve got to be committed to the game – the work … and I’ve always been good with that.”23

After a subpar 2004 season (64 innings, 5.34 ERA) pitching for Palm Beach and Tennessee, Kinney rebounded in 2005. Pitching now for the Double-A Springfield Cardinals, he put up exceptional numbers (42 innings pitched, 1.29 ERA, 11 saves, and 42 strikeouts) and had an equally outstanding visit to the local Bass Pro Shop one day where he met his future wife, Jorni. Although he left Springfield behind after a promotion to Triple-A Memphis by season’s end, he would eventually return to settle there with his family at the conclusion of his career.24

The 2006 season was surely the pinnacle of Kinney’s career, although at the time it seemed to be just the beginning of a steady ascent. He started the year in Memphis, accumulating a 1.52 ERA and 76 strikeouts in 71 innings, which was good enough to earn him a place as a Triple-A All-Star. His pitching coach claimed at the time that Kinney’s breaking pitches gave him “the best stuff in our league.”25 The question, however, was how that “stuff” would play at the next level. Kinney would find out in early July. In an interview that year, his father, Tom, recounted the early morning call, around 2:00 a.m., when his son informed him of the good news. The elder Kinney did not sleep the rest of the night. How could he? His son was headed to the majors.26

Officially called up on July 2, 2006, Kinney entered his first game the next day for a division-leading Cardinals club playing the Atlanta Braves on the road. He threw his first pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning, trailing 5-3, and avoided the ignominy of hitting the first batter, as he had done in college. Still, the result was no better: Braves left fielder Ryan Langerhans deposited the ball over the right-field fence for a home run.

It was a tough way to begin a major-league career, but there was a certain justice to the proceedings. After all, as Kinney scrambled to arrange a game ticket for his sister on short notice, it was Langerhans, of all people, who offered one of his own through their mutual agent.27 Having repaid his debt to Langerhans, Kinney rebounded in the inning, retiring the side, and pitched a second scoreless inning which included his first major-league strikeout.28

Kinney pitched in nine more games that July, allowing runs in four of them, and was optioned back to Memphis on August 1. Crucially, however, the Cardinals recalled him on September 5 to bolster the bullpen for the stretch run. This time, Kinney’s success in Triple A carried over to the big-league club. He appeared in 11 games (several in high-leverage situations) and surrendered only two earned runs while striking out 10. His performance not only earned him a place on the playoff roster, but a favored position in Tony La Russa’s bullpen hierarchy during the postseason.

In the National League Division Series, against the San Diego Padres, Kinney appeared in high-leverage situations in Games Two and Four, surrendering zero hits and earning two holds. In the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets, he appeared in Games Two, Three, and Five, pitching 3⅓ innings and earning a win (Game Two) and a hold (Game Five) without allowing a run. In Game Two, in particular, Kinney showed his poise, entering a 6–6 game in the bottom of the eighth and working around a single and walk before inducing a double-play groundball from Carlos Beltrán. Thanks to an improbable home run from So Taguchi off dominant Mets closer Billy Wagner, Kinney earned the sole postseason win of his career.

Kinney’s season culminated with two more appearances in the World Series against the Detroit Tigers. His work in Game Four helped preserve a narrow Cardinals lead in the seventh inning, a game they won 5-4. All told, Kinney pitched 6⅓ innings in the postseason, allowing no runs and striking out six.

The future looked bright for Kinney in the afterglow of his World Series success. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch remarked on Kinney’s “durable arm” and “electric breaking stuff” and said he had “the makeup of a setup man.”29 It was not just the St. Louis journalists who were high on Kinney’s future with the Cardinals. The 2007 Baseball America Prospect Handbook ranked Kinney the ninth best prospect in the Cardinals system, mentioning his “fearless approach and his ability to generate strikeouts and grounders” and viewing him as a “key cog” in the bullpen going forward.30

In an alternative reality, Kinney became a shutdown setup man – perhaps even the closer – for the defending champion Cardinals; as it happened, such possibilities never materialized as Kinney injured his arm in the run-up to the 2007 season and had Tommy John surgery in March. He celebrated the Cardinals’ 2006 World Series championship with his teammates on Opening Day 2007, but it was bittersweet: he knew he would be unavailable for the entire season. “It was a disappointment,” he said. “I felt like a bum. Here I was riding around in a convertible … with my arm brace on, just a week out of surgery and miserable. You’re not a part of the team and it wasn’t a glamorous first Opening Day for me.”31

In typical Kinney fashion, he diligently worked his way through rehab during the 2007 season and looked to be on the path to full health when he fractured his elbow in August during a routine throwing session. This second injury meant that not only would he miss the 2007 season, but almost the entire 2008 season as well. There was doubt about whether he would make it back at all.32

Kinney managed to return briefly in September 2008, pitching seven innings, and he attended spring training in 2009 competing for a spot in the Cardinals bullpen. Pitching coach Dave Duncan commented on the “remarkable” nature of Kinney’s career up to that point. “Stop and think where he was in 2005. And before that, independent league. Throw-away pitcher. He persevered.”33 “I’m not a quitter,” Kinney remarked. “I was bound and determined that no matter what, I was going to prove to myself and my family that I could get back on the field.”34

Kinney fulfilled his vow to return by making the big-league club out of spring training in 2009, although he was unable to solidify a spot in the bullpen. He appeared in only 17 games for the Cardinals, spending considerable time at Triple-A Memphis. Nevertheless, he did achieve a career milestone in 2009: his first regular-season victory.

The victory occurred on June 27 just after Kinney had been recalled. The Cardinals faced the Minnesota Twins on a hot day at Busch Stadium and called upon Kinney in the top of the third inning, trailing 3-2. Kinney dutifully recorded two outs to finish the inning and then watched from the dugout as Albert Pujols, at the height of his powers, blasted a two-run homer to make the score 4-3 Cardinals. After another run scored later in the inning, Kinney found himself pitching the top of the fourth with a 5-3 lead; he got two more outs before leaving the game. His final line was not overly impressive – 1⅓ innings, two hits – but he earned his first and what would be his only regular-season major-league victory to complement his single postseason victory.35

Kinney would remain an effective reliever into his 30s, despite battling further injuries (a shoulder impingement in 2010 and a stress fracture in 2013). In 2010, pitching for Triple-A Memphis, Kinney recorded a 1.80 ERA in 60 innings with 17 saves, helping the Redbirds advance to the Pacific Coast League championship. In 2011, having signed as a free agent with the Chicago White Sox, he pitched for the Triple-A Charlotte Knights (61⅔ innings, 2.77 ERA, 66 strikeouts, 17 walks) for much of the season, and earned an August call-up to the White Sox, for whom he pitched 17⅔ innings. “It’s been a long road for me in my career,” Kinney commented wryly.36 In fact, at the finish of the 2011 season Kinney had tallied 21 innings in independent ball and over 550 innings in the minor leagues. He had missed almost two complete seasons due to injury. His 65 innings in the major leagues were a testament to his can-do attitude. “My dad always told me I could do anything I wanted to if I put my mind to it,” Kinney said in an interview. “He was right.”37

Then 33 years old, Kinney signed a one-year contract with the Seattle Mariners for the 2012 season, pitching first for Triple-A Tacoma and then for the Mariners, where he displayed a strong 10-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 32 innings. He also earned his first career save, which came after a three-inning outing against (once again) the Twins. Seattle manager Eric Wedge asked Kinney after the game whether it really was his first career save. “I was like, ‘First what?,’” Kinney said, “I really didn’t have any idea it was a save, so it was pretty cool.”38 As of 2022 Kinney still held the distinction of being the only major-league player to earn, in order, a postseason win, a regular-season win, and a regular-season save.

Kinney’s injury-marred 2013 season saw him pitching only 33 innings for Tacoma. In 2014 he joined the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, but never earned a promotion from the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians. With no one expressing interest in Kinney’s services after the 2014 season, he retired at age 35, content with his accomplishments and excited about the life ahead of him.39 He finished his 93-game major-league career with a 1-3 record, a 4.73 ERA, 94 strikeouts in 97 innings pitched, one save, and a magical 6⅓ innings of scoreless ball in the 2006 postseason when he helped the St. Louis Cardinals become World Series champions.

Whatever regret Kinney has from a playing career marked by injury is difficult to discern. He told a sportswriter he missed the camaraderie of the clubhouse. But he added that he relished his role as a husband and father to four children and enjoyed the variety of life in Springfield, Missouri. He owns Cardinal Country Logging & Sawmill, following in the tradition of his father. He spends time doing the things he has loved since childhood: hunting and fishing, working with wood, and enjoying friends and family.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com for statistical data and game notes and YouTube.com for game footage.

Photo credit: Digital image enhancement by Bob Plant, based on Josh Kinney’s 2006 Topps rookie card.

Notes

1 David Adam, “Sunday Conversation with Josh Kinney,” Quincy (Illinois) Herald-Whig, May 22, 2016, https://www.whig.com/archive/article/sunday-conversation-with-josh-kinney/article_2092d491-038e-5fc3-b3f6-43684477c0b7.html, accessed January 12, 2022.

2 Adam.

3 Pat Atwell, telephone interview, November 18, 2021.

4 Lori Chase, “Kinney Still Has Passion for the Game,” Potter Leader-Enterprise (Coudersport, Pennsylvania), August 15, 2014, https://www.tiogapublishing.com/potter_leader_enterprise/sports/kinney-still-has-passion-for-the-game/article_320691b4-2431-11e4-aece-001a4bcf887a.html#tncms-source=signup, accessed January 12, 2022.

5 Chase.

6 Port Allegany High School, Tiger Lilly 98 (Port Allegany, Pennsylvania: 1998), 129.

7 Atwell interview.

8 Atwell interview.

9 Adam.

10 Atwell interview.

11 Jeffrey Dorsey, “Quincy Area in Top Ten for Best Places to Hunt,” 100.9 The Eagle, June 10, 2015, https://101theeagle.com/quincy-area-in-top-ten-for-best-places-to-hunt/, accessed January 12, 2022.

12 Adam.

13 Adam.

14 Atwell interview.

15 Atwell interview.

16 Atwell interview. Riley Martin eclipsed Kinney’s career strikeout total in 2021. See Will Conerly, “Martin Becomes QU’s Strikeout King, Hawks Top USI 3-2,” Quincy University Hawks Baseball Webpage, March 19, 2021, https://quhawks.com/news/2021/3/19/baseball-martin-becomes-strikeout-king-hawks-top-usi.aspx, accessed January 12, 2021.

17Atwell interview.

18 Adam.

19 Adam.

20 Adam.

21 Although Kinney’s affections tended toward the Pittsburgh Pirates – he often imagined himself in a Pirates uniform during backyard Wiffle Ball games – the Cardinals were in the Kinney family blood ever since his great-grandfather spent time in St. Louis as a bottle maker before returning to Pennsylvania. See Kary Booher, “Kinney Not About to Hang It Up,” Springfield (Missouri) News-Leader, February 3, 2014, https://www.news-leader.com/story/sports/baseball/Springfield-Cardinals/2014/02/04/kinney-not-about-to-hang-it-up/5197395/, accessed January 12, 2022.

22 “Catching Up with Josh Kinney,” March 11, 2007, https://www.milb.com/news/gcs-190115, accessed January 12, 2022.

23 Lori Chase, “Kinney Gets the Call from ChiSox,” Port Sports (Port Allegany, Pennsylvania), August 25, 2011, https://portsports.wordpress.com/category/pahs-sports/baseball/, accessed January 12, 2022.

24 Atwell interview.

25 Derrick Goold, “Going Looper: Seeking an Alternative Starter,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, December 6, 2006, https://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/birdland/going-looper-seeking-an-alternative-starter/article_cea1fb57-2c25-5c9d-b350-6a31a598f9ac.html, accessed January 12, 2022.

26 Neil Linderman, “Port Allegany’s Kinney in World Series,” Potter Leader-Enterprise, October 25, 2006, https://www.tiogapublishing.com/potter_leader_enterprise/sports/port-alleganys-kinney-in-world-series/article_ac8ab0f9-8972-5388-abf6-4b21d1bcea47.html, accessed January 12, 2022.

27 Atwell interview.

28 After Kinney struck out Andruw Jones on a ball in the dirt, the ball was flipped into the Braves dugout where a batboy retrieved it and subsequently threw it into the crowd as a souvenir. Kinney’s roommate, attending the game, immediately left his seat, talked his way through security, and found the boy who had caught the souvenir ball. After a brief negotiation involving a $50 bill, Kinney’s roommate returned to his seat, triumphant, with ball in hand. Atwell interview.

29 Goold.

30 Jim Callis, Will Lingo, John Manuel, eds., Baseball America Prospect Handbook (Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007), 373.

31 Rick Hummel, “Kinney Relishes Opening Day,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 3, 2009, https://www.stltoday.com/sports/kinney-relishes-opening-day-a-postseason-hero-for-the-cardinals-in-2006-championship-run-reliever/article_513bc08f-f24d-566e-9532-1ee8900cd978.html, accessed January 18, 2022.

32 Hummel.

33 Hummel.

34 Hummel.

35 Kinney also recorded his first (and only) major-league at-bat, striking out on three pitches.

36 Sahadev Sharma, “Sox’s Kinney Thrown into the Fire.” ESPN.com: Chicago White Sox Report, August 20, 2011, https://www.espn.com/blog/chicago/white-sox/post/_/id/7068/soxs-kinney-thrown-into-the-fire, accessed January 18, 2022.

37 Adam.

38 Geoff Baker, “Josh Kinney Works Late for First Career Save,” Seattle Times, August 19, 2012, https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/josh-kinney-works-late-for-first-career-save-mariners-notebook/, accessed January 28, 2022.

39 Adam.