The Champagne Whisperer: Mike King Has Been a Part Of The Yankees AA, AAA, And Major League Champagne Celebrations This Year
Yesterday Yankee pitching prospect Mike King was called up to the big leagues in wake of the Domingo German incident. He found out yesterday morning he was getting the call and headed to The Bronx just in time to enjoy all of the festivities as the Yankees clinched the American League East division championship.
I mean how many people can say that? How was your first day in the bigs? You get a hit? You hit a home run? Record a strikeout? Yeah that’s cool and all, but on your first day did you pop champagne with Aaron Judge, Voit, Gardy, Giancarlo and have an absolute blast with the 100 win American League East division champion Yankees? That’s awesome.
What makes King’s 2019 season even crazier is that he’s been a part of AA and AAA celebrations this year as well. Originally thought to be a possible part of the Major League rotation early on, King suffered an arm injury that caused him to miss a lot of time. Finally late in the season he was healthy enough to get into rehab games in the minors. Back in early September he found himself in Scranton when the Railriders came back from 7-1 down to beat the Syracuse Mets 14-13 to win the division. Then a few weeks later he was in Trenton as they popped bottles to their Eastern League championship, pitching four shutout innings in Game 1 of that series and getting the win. The man just cannot get enough of champagne and I think we might have to carry him on the postseason roster just for that reason alone.
Aside from his amazing good luck, King is just the man. We sat down with him during spring training as he told us how he used the Giancarlo Stanton trade to pick up girls at the bar. Pure genius.
He’s also a helluva pitcher. He battled back from a scary arm injury this year to get back to this point, but he’s no slouch. In 161 innings in 2018 he posted a 1.79 ERA, dominating all three levels of the minors. About a month ago he stuck out 11 guys in a game. The man can pitch.
He can help this team for the next two weeks as well as for years along in the future. But for now, he’s our good luck charm.