Krukky Turns 51!

Today's post is a FoC record-setter. It marks the first time in blog history that I've posted five days in a row. I thought this might be the case so I looked through the archives and, sure enough, I've strung together four days a few times but this is the sad new pinnacle. The bar will get raised to at least seven after tomorrow's fourth annual FoC Bip Roberts Day and Saturday's nod to birthday-haver and OGP Ollie Brown. Of course, five days in a row is nothing when you consider that Kevin at Orioles Card "O" The Day posts EVERY SINGLE DAY. I find it rather appropriate that, as card bloggers, he and I both embody our franchise's most iconic player. His consistency is Ripken-like and I am like Tony Gwynn in that only 33.8% of my posts are hits...
You may have noticed that the players featured today lack a certain something in comparison with all the others shown so far this month- that certain something being pigment. Black History Month or not, today is John Kruk's birthday. It's his 51st birthday at that and- I don't know about you, but- when I think of the number 51 I think of one man and one man only.
Kruk and Hoffy's careers had a brief overlap in '93 and '94. They faced off four times, two in each season. June, 20, 1993, when Trevor was still with Florida, Kruk touched him up for a three run shot- his seventh homer of the season- to put the Phillies up 4-3. This came two months to the day after he hit a walkoff solo job off of Jeremy Hernandez to sink our beloved Friars. Twelve days after their first matchup, Trevor was by now a Padre. They faced off in the second game of a doubleheader at Veteran's Stadium. Hoffman won this battle but lost the game. An unrelated but interesting bit about this series was that Roger Mason pitched for the Pads in both games of the doubleheader, got traded to the home clubhouse for Tim Mauser, and pitched against the Padres in the fourth game of the set. Fast forward to '94 and Kruk and Hoffman each won one battle apiece, the results being a double and a strikeout.
And, oh yeah, that trivia answer I've been dragging out for the fair portion of a week... Yep, Kruk, along with the aforeblogged Wynne and Gwynn, was part of the first triad to lead off a game with three homers. So there.