Reese Kaplan -- Lesser Pitcher Makes Major Contribution Outside of Baseball

At this clean up part of the season when people are anxious to see new faces from the minor leagues or acquired over the waiver wire, not everyone who puts on a Mets uniform is destined for greatness.  Some are added to the active roster out of necessity due to injuries.  Some make it because they've pitched well in their previous stop and the club needs to see if that success is replicable.  Other times the scouts see something in the pitcher's mechanics or spin rate or use of the entire zone to suggest better output is possible than what has been shown.

Back in 2000 the Atlanta Braves used their third round draft position to select a pitcher by the name of Blaine Boyer who they hoped would develop into the kind of quality arm that their organization has often enjoyed.  He started off rather well in his first showing in rookie ball for the Gulf Coast Braves going 1-3 with a 2.51 ERA.  That certainly would make the scouts who advocated signing him smile in a big way, but then reality hit.  

In parts of 13 seasons in the minors plus one in Japan he pitched fairly well to about a 3.86 career ERA with a losing record.  That kind of performance was enough to get him tastes of the major leagues for parts of 12 seasons with the Braves, Cardinals, Diamondbacks, Mets, Padres, Twins, Brewers, Red Sox and the Royals.  His major league numbers were worse than his minor league ones, finishing his career with a 4.55 ERA with a losing record and terrible WHIP, walking way too many and giving up a lot of base hits.  His one brief trial with the Mets was especially bad, going 0-2 with a 10.80 ERA back in 2011.  

Boyer ended his well traveled career at age 36.  He did not go into coaching as many other former players have done, but he made some headlines for a non-profit organization called The Exodus Board that actively worked to try to stop the sex trade with young and poor children in southeast Asia.  Working with former Braves teammate Adam LaRoche, they were able to go undercover to stop some of the underage sex trafficking in that part of the world.

So what's the big deal about Blaine Boyer right now?  Well, like the Moe Berg situation there is life outside of baseball that we sometimes forget exists and Boyer became a part of it. 

Back in the year 2012 near Atlanta there was a horrific crime that took place at the Kristofak home.  Young Zac Kristofak was a hot shot high school baseball player at age 15 when he arrived home to a scene of police cars and tape around his home.  It turns out that after his parents split up, his father maintained a hostile and threatening relationship with his ex-wife.  At one point he was found to be stalking her with a large knife on the seat of his car.  He was reprimanded but Zac's mother did everything she could to shelter him and his brother from the reality of what his father was really like.

When they got inside the garage there was a large pool of blood under the Honda Odyssey as a result of the multiple gunshot wounds Donna Nations Kristofak received through the windshield of the vehicle.  She was rushed to the hospital but did not survive the attack.  No one knew initially who committed the murder nor where to search for the culprit.  Later when the inflammatory emails surfaced showing the history of communication between John Kristofak and his former partner, he was eventually apprehended in a Union City motel where he gave up with a bit of resistance to the law enforcement officers.   He was tried and convicted for aggravated assault and murder of his ex wife and will spend the rest of his life in jail.

His best friend since age 9 was Carter Kieboom who now plays for the Washington Nationals.  The Kiebooms were given confidential instructions to shelter the Kristofak children if ever they came running to their home.  It was the Kiebooms who took Zac and his brother to the hospital and who put him up until eventually his grandmother moved to Georgia so that he could have family around and resume his baseball career just 2 months after the police scene at his garage.  

So put yourself in Zac Kristofak's shoes for a moment and comprehend what all had happened.  It was just another routine afternoon and living with a single mother he probably focused most of his attention on getting better at the game of baseball, appealing to college and eventually pro scouts and somehow making the sport his long term career.  It never crossed his mind that he would lose his mother to a murder and his father to prison all at once and change his life forever.

Much to everyone's pleasant surprise this month it was revealed that the Angels for whom Zac Kristofak has worked his entire professional baseball career have kept moving him up through the system.  His numbers are modest and he may or may not make it to the majors, but given the magnitude of what he's had to overcome it's pretty remarkable he's even gotten to the upper minors.  At age 25 and in AA he's not a top prospect, but everyone who knows the back end story is sure rooting for something good to happen to this Billy Wagner-sized relief pitcher.

What helped bring him full circle was finding people in college and in the minor leagues who he met that helped him not only to become a better ballplayer, but  even more importantly to live through what has happened and providing him with a pseudo family replacement now that his parents are out of the picture.  One of those important people in Zac Kristofak's life was pitcher Blaine Boyer. 

When they met Boyer was already a big league pitcher and Zac was still in middle school.  They got to talking at the gym and Boyer befriended the youngster.  He offered him advice on training, preparation and what it was like to work your way up the ladder until making it to the majors.  After the murder happened, Boyer let it be known to Kristofak that his home was always open to him.  He became one of the adults who found himself in the position of consoling the distraught teen but Boyer knew it was the right thing to do.  He helped organize people in the community to support Zac and help him to return to some semblance of a normal life.

So the next time you see a wannabe ballplayer who never measured up on the playing field to what the scouts, his friends and family all expected of him, remember that there is life before and after baseball that often is far more important than strikeouts, RBIs or stolen bases.  Here's a big tip of the cap to a very brief time former Met Blaine Boyer and to baseball prospect Zac Kristofak.  Good news stories can indeed sometimes happen after tragedies.