Matt Strahm on the Royals bullpen getting the John Pork card that’s creating a buzz
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- A fan left John Pork Royals cards around Kauffman Stadium on April 25.
- One John Pork card was picked up by Alex Lange and taped inside the Royals bullpen.
- Strahm said he saw the card and thought it was probably sitting on a shelf.
Alex Brough’s timing couldn’t have been better.
As a graphic designer in Kansas City, Brough took an internet sensation and turned it into a Royals baseball card.
Perhaps you’ve seen the John Pork baseball card that is being credited by some fans as having turned around the Royals season.
Brough was on WHB-AM’s “New Day with SSJ” on Wednesday and shared the backstory of his John Pork Royals baseball card, which has become a fan favorite.
Brough went to Kauffman Stadium on April 25 and left the cards around the ballpark.
A day earlier, the Royals won following a stretch in which they lost eight of nine games. The bullpen pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings in that 6-3 win over the Angels.
One of the John Pork cards was dropped in the bullpen the following day and picked up by Alex Lange. A video shows the card being taped up in the bullpen. Since then, the Royals have gone 8-2.
“John Pork is an internet meme,” Brough said on WHB. “He’s kind of a hero. He played baseball and fought in the UFC, and he once caught a baseball game in the MLB without a chest protector.
“So we dropped a John Pork card down into the bullpen, and Alex Lange grabbed it and (pitcher Matt) Strahm taped it up onto the bullpen wall. And since then, I think they’re nine two, and their ERA has gotten way better.”
In addition to catching the attention of WHB’s Steven St. John, the John Pork card was featured in a Barstool story. And someone brought it up Tuesday on the Royals’ postgame show.
As noted, the Royals relief corps turned a corner a day before the card was dropped in the bullpen.
I asked Strahm about the card, and while he recalled seeing it, John Pork is not something the pitchers have rallied around.
“I know it got thrown down,” Strahm said. “It’s probably sitting on a shelf.”
After being taped to the wall, as the video showed, the John Pork card was taken down that first night.
“I don’t think it stayed up there,” Strahm said. “I think it got put up, and then the game got tight, and it got taken down.”
Still, the card has created a buzz among fans who see the Royals’ winning ways tied to John Pork.
