He was two games away from playing in his second World Series finals. But he sat there in the dugout after his last at-bat. Face emotional and emotionless. Cap removed. Looking outward from the field he’d just stepped off, seeing nothing. Blank stare, blank slate. Camera on him, tight close-up. Not for us to look at him, but to look inside of him. To imagine what the kid must be thinking in this moment. Knowing that he might not even know.
The beauty in Eddie King Jr.’s face this week, as he watched his college career as Louisville’s best player come to an end, was everything it didn’t show. And if you didn’t know his full story, you wouldn’t find a reason to dive deeper into what might have been beneath the layers of thought on his face.
But it’s beneath that lasting impression where the story resides. See King was one of the kids from that historic Jackie Robinson West team that was the pride and the prejudice of this city in 2014. The U.S. Little League World Series champions (who lost the International LLWS title to South Korea 8-4) who had their title infamously and somewhat cruelly stripped from them in 2015 for breaking residency regulations. (All triggered by an Evergreen Park Little League official after JRW defeated its team 43-2 in four innings.)
King was the only 11-year-old on that team. The youngest on the squad. Da baby who has reversed the order of his baseball life, turning an imposed (not self-imposed) tragedy into triumph, a situation of hopelessness for a child into a new level of hope for not just himself, but for everyone who has rooted for something good to come out of the whole JRW saga.
A “standout” outfielder, a low-ball hitter extraordinaire with great wrist speed and awareness at the plate who hit a walk-off sac fly to get the Cardinals into the College World Series bracket final last week while hitting .531 during the NCAA Tournament going into that last game (in which he went 1-for-4). Add to that his .367 batting average, 17 home runs, 63 RBI, .435 on-base percentage, .750 slugging percentage and 1.185 OPS for his senior season, and you have the exact player that was supposed to come from that JRW team. But at the same time, because of the way it ended, it’s a story about a player from that team that was supposed to never happen.
Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen had, as Chicago Magazine put it in 2014, “the most thoughtful and empathetic response to the JRW story.” Saying then, “For all the backlash around the Jackie Robinson West team ‘cheating,’ most people are ignoring the truth of how these 12-year-old kids make it out of their towns and onto a national stage. . . . Somebody probably watched their Little League World Series run and saw one of them make a smart play in the field or hit a perfect line drive up the gap. That kid might not have been the best player on the team. But somebody saw something in him, and they’re going to reach out and say, ‘Hey, I want you on my team.’ They’re going to become like a second father or mother to that kid.”
Not saying that’s how it unfolded for King, but Cubs baserunning coordinator Corey Ray, a Chicago native, might be that guy. The former star player who also played for Louisville and made it to the majors to play at least one game (fifth overall pick in the 2016 MLB Draft by the Brewers) also is a JRW alum. He found out that King happens to be his cousin and knows and relates to King’s story not just more than most but intimately.
That makes the story more immeasurable. To know that through all King has had to do to remove the scarlet letter(s) from his life that there’s a North(side) Star in place for not only him to relate to but to rise above. And if there was ever a kid who had the fortitude to overcome that very specific incident that shaped his past and seems destined to get in front of the BS and put it behind him, this is that kid.
After not hearing his name called in the 2024 MLB Draft, King decided to return to Louisville for himself and for his team. A second-team All-ACC selection and getting the Cardinals within two wins of the World Series finals, his latest mission consummated. Next month’s MLB Draft will not be as silent for him.
There will be no internal investigation questioning his team’s motives and integrity. There will be no ill will or ill-doing, no negative referendum on what he was a part of accomplishing. Stigma gone. And even though he didn’t win a World Series — like he did in 2014 — just putting himself and his team in the position to win one is going to be enough. This time, King is able to see a future, his future. This time, they can’t take it from him.