Futures Game Provides Once in a Lifetime Experience for Kris Bubic by JJ Michalski

Futures Game Provides Once in a Lifetime Experience for Kris Bubic By JJ Michalski When you ask Kris Bubic to describe his 2019 All Star break in one word, he would likely tell you it was exhilarating. A once in a lifetime experience, Bubic was one of 50 players who got to show off his talent on the big stage, during MLB All-Star Weekend in Cleveland Ohio. The weekend began on July 6th and concluded with the All-Star game on July 9th. The MLB Futures game began in 1999 and was played at Fenway Park. Since 1999 the game has become a Sunday tradition of the All-Star break. Until 2019, the game was played between the top international prospects and the top prospects from here in the United States. The 2019 game featured the American League vs National League prospects for the first time ever. Bubic, along with former Blue Rocks’ pitcher and top prospect in the system Brady Singer were selected to represent the Kansas City Royals at the game. Bubic never really expected to be a part of this game, but he was grateful to have been a late addition. “I got the call from our assistant GM, J.J. (Piccolo)” Bubic said. “He just let me know that I was replacing Brendan McKay who had been called up. For me, it was a little unexpected and honestly, I was pretty speechless at the time, I didn't really know what to say.” Despite a whirlwind of emotions for the 21-year-old after learning of his accomplishment, his first action was to contact his mom and share the news. “I tried to call my mom” Bubic said, “but she was she was busy on a conference call, which is kind of funny; so it took a couple of times to get her. It was just pure excitement from everybody. And it was a moment that just made me step back and think about how this year has gone and what I was about to go do in Cleveland.” Bubic was on the road with the Blue Rocks in Potomac when the MLB All-Star break rolled around. Since the Advanced A break was from June 17th- 20th Bubic’s participation would mean he would miss a start in the rotation. The weekend began with a flight out of Washington DC to Cleveland Ohio. The first event Bubic attended was the fan fest in downtown Cleveland. This was an opportunity for the young stars of tomorrow to play games with kids and encourage them while playing baseball. After that, the real chaos for Bubic began. “We went to bus to the field and we got to the field all our stuff was already laid out. It was pretty cool” Bubic said. “We had media availability from one to two o'clock and that was obviously pretty busy in the locker room. Coming from a minor league clubhouse, you don't really have that. Essentially, it's like a big-league locker room for a whole day. The whole weekend it’s like a big-league media type atmosphere where you have cameras everywhere and reporters walking around. It’s pretty eye opening at first.” The day became more like a regular day at a baseball stadium as the teams took the field for batting practice and team photos. The one difference being the pomp and circumstance of Progressive field. “It was cool just to get down on the field and kind of look at how big it was obviously, just to kind of talk with the other the other pitchers and the other position players who were out there shagging.” After batting practice, the gates opened, and Mrs. Bubic had her chance to see her son out on a big- league field. A few of Kris’ cousins from Pittsburgh made the drive to see him play for the first time ever. Bubic’s agent made an appearance at the game and was in Cleveland throughout the weekend to represent Home Run Derby champion Pete Alonso along with Bubic. Also waiting to see Bubic was Lonnie Goldberg, the assistant General Manager/Ametuer Scouting for the Royals. While all of that was going on, Bubic was a bit starstruck as he watched the celebrity softball game which was played prior to first pitch of the Futures Game. Bubic was impressed by a pair of celebrities during the exhibition. “Because he just came out with a new album, I want to say MGK. He's also in bird box, which I watched last year. But he just came out with a new album. I like the album. So that's kind of what first comes to mind for me right now. And then the second guy, I'll have to go Stipe Miocic. He's a UFC fighter in the heavyweight division. He's Croatian, and I'm Croatian as well. So we have that kind of bond even though we've never talked to each other. I was going to try to get a picture with him, but you know the timing of everything didn’t work out and it’s obviously pretty crowded there.” Finally, the opportunity came to play baseball. The first eye opening part of the game for Bubic was the quality of the bullpens. “They had a little setup down there with leather chairs and whatnot. We also had a TV down there. There was a little area where you can warm up, a bathroom, and obviously some snacks here and there. Then you walked up the steps to the bullpens which were up top.” Bubic was one of three pitchers going into the game that didn’t have an inning of his own. He knew going into it that he would be called on to split an inning with someone, or bail one of his teammates out of trouble. His time came in the top of the 4th inning with the bases loaded and 1 out. “Next thing you know, I'm running through the outfield on to the mound and felt what seemed like, at least there's probably at least 20,000 or 25,000 people. So that was pretty cool for sure.” Bubic recorded two outs in the inning in which he allowed one hit, an unearned run, and picked up a strikeout. He threw only seven pitches and five of them were strikes. The hit came with the bases loaded and resulted in an RBI which put the NL up 2-0. He also threw out Reds’ prospect Taylor Trammell trying to steal home plate to cap off his appearance. “I was thinking about a couple different things on the mound but it was all a blur,” Bubic said. “At the end of the day, I just try to keep doing what I was doing. It's just the same pitching I'm doing here in Wilmington or college, or high school. It's the same sixty feet six inches. So that's what I came back to kind of ground me when I was on the hill” After pitching, the night became a little more relaxed. Bubic had an opportunity to talk to a few players who are also on the rise. “So obviously we spend more time with pitchers, but Jordan Balazovic, who is with the Twins. He's in high A as well. We were just chatting in the bullpen a lot. Just about how we both came up as pitchers doing both starting and relieving, so we kind of had that in common. Grayson Rodriguez, another pitcher with the Orioles and low A he's 19. He was the youngest pitcher in the game. We just talked because we played them earlier in the year in Lexington, so I just talked about that. I kind of got the ball rolling, our lockers were also right next to each other too. He's an easy guy to talk to. Finally, Royce Lewis for position players and he’s with the Twins as well. He's actually a super nice guy. I had a guy as a teammate at Stanford who played high school with Royce, so I that's how I got the conversation started with him. He was a guy that was super friendly and super open to talking to everybody. He's a super nice guy.” With all of these awesome interactions there was still one guy that really stuck out to Bubic, and for good reason. Sitting on the American League bench during the game was baseball legend—Ken Griffey Jr. “After pitching I was just hanging out in the dugout talking to the guys,” Bubic said. “Ken Griffey Jr. was actually in our dugout for most of the game, so he was talking hitting a lot with the hitters. I would just peep in and try to overhear some stuff, pick up on some things that maybe some hitters are trying to do. So obviously, I know as a pitcher, ways to combat that and go after them. Kind of listening to them say what they wanted to do at the plate was helpful to me.” The Futures Game ended in a tie 2-2 after the 8th inning of play. Only seven innings were scheduled and one extra inning if necessary. This was Bubic’s second appearance in a Major League Stadium. During a high school showcase he had the chance to step into Dodger Stadium. “Obviously Dodger Stadium was really venerable in itself,” Bubic said, “but there was nothing like this.

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