As a Kansas City native, Tommy Hottovy is ready to make his debut at home for the Royals. While he already broke into the majors last season, Dick Kaegel has the story of Hottovy's excitement to finally pitch at Kauffman Stadium -- a place he's dreamed about since he was a kid.
"Pitcher-wise, I loved [Bret] Saberhagen, obviously, and [Jeff] Montgomery. But [Dan] Quisenberry was one of my favorites, too, and now that I kind of throw sidearm, it's fun to look back," Hottovy said, remembering Quiz's famous side-winding delivery.
"And the way we'd do it is we'd go through the lineups. My brother would hit and he'd be George Brett, he'd be Steve Balboni, then he'd be Frank White. And I'd throw one pitch like Montgomery or one pitch like [Kevin] Appier or one pitch like Quisenberry. That's just what we did, and then we'd switch. We loved it."
His family is making the trip for the upcoming Yankees series, and he's quite excited to finally pitch in front of everyone -- including his wife for the first time.
"That first night will be the first night that my wife will be at a big league game I've pitched in," Hottovy said. "Every one that I made last year, she was 35 weeks pregnant and couldn't fly."