John Kruk - Post-baseball Activities

Post-baseball Activities

A quotable character throughout his career, who later wrote a book called I Ain't an Athlete, Lady published in 1994, Kruk turned to broadcasting and commenting on the game. He has since worked for Major League Baseball on Fox, The Best Damn Sports Show Period, and local telecasts in Philadelphia. In 2004, he was hired by ESPN as an analyst on Baseball Tonight. He also writes a column called Chewing the Fat on ESPN.com.

Kruk also coached for a year within the Phillies organization. He coached the Phillies' AA minor league team in Reading, Pennsylvania during the 2001 season prior to his broadcasting career.

Kruk went on to have a few acting roles in film and television, including the 1996 film The Fan, The Sandlot: Heading Home, American Pastime, and the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Sirens," where he voiced himself. Kruk also appeared in the Sawyer Brown music video "Round Here."

Kruk has been a resident of Mount Laurel Township, New Jersey.

He also appears in MLB on ESPN Commercials where Kruk himself is part of moments in baseball history; for example, an old briefcase belonging to Kruk buried in the infield dirt containing a rotten sandwich caused the bugs to attack Karl Ravech dressed up as Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain, mocking game 2 of the 2007 ALDS between the Yankees and the Indians.

Kruk coached the National League team in the Taco Bell All-Star Legends & Celebrity Softball Game in Anaheim, CA on July 12, 2010.

As an ESPN analyst, his eating habits are well documented, as described by Buck Showalter:

"Have you seen the rigors of ESPN at 3 o'clock in the morning when a guy blows a save on the west coast and you have to stick around for another two hours? And then try to go through the Taco Bell with John Kruk? That ain't fun. I mean, basically, we don't have any taco salad back there with John Kruk. Everybody should, at some point in their life, you wanna think about tough times, is being around him at 2 o'clock in the morning when he's hungry. That's not good."

Kruk, along with Steve Phillips, was also a commentator on the video game MLB 2k10, 2k11, and 2k12.