Mars graduate Kwong working with Pirates
For Alex Kwong, the new year doesn’t begin when the ball drops.
It gets underway with the thud of a pitch into a catcher’s mitt.
“You know when baseball comes around that the winter is over,” said Kwong, a 27-year-old Mars graduate and Pittsburgh Pirates clubhouse attendant. “Spring and summer are coming, not as much snow, warmer weather. For me, it’s like the sign of a new year. ... People in the city love baseball and love the Pirates. It’s just very exciting to see that come back around again when the season’s about to get started.”
One of just two undefeated clubs in Major League Baseball as of Monday afternoon, the Pirates will start the home portion of their schedule against Baltimore on Friday.
It will be Kwong’s fourth Opening Day as part of the team.
His job consists of a little bit of everything. He helps wash the player and coach apparel; tidies up the locker room, dugout, and bullpen; and even serves as a bat boy.
“We kind of just do whatever the players ask or coaches ask and find a way to get the job done for them,” Kwong said. “Whatever we can do to make their lives easier, that’s what we’re there for.”
Kwong revels in all of the behind-the-scenes work. With Mars coach Jason Thompson’s help as an eighth grader, he helped the junior varsity baseball team as its statistician.
“I just remember that kid that absolutely just loved to be around the game of baseball,” Thompson recalled. “We were able to connect pretty easily.”
Kwong’s days at PNC Park can be long. Fittingly, he likened them to baseball games.
“For the most part, you do fall into a routine every day,” he said. “But at the same time, just like every baseball game is different — you’re going to watch — every day can be different, too. ... The premise is going to be the same, but how you might get there or what happens in between might vary every day.”
Kwong added that the beginning of a series and days where the team comes home from a road trip can be the busiest. On a day where first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m., Kwong arrives six hours before and leaves around two hours after the final out.
“That’s my life every day while they’re home,” Kwong said. “It’s just one of those types of things where its a lot of hours and it’s a lot of work. But the experience of just being around everything and seeing everything, it’s very rewarding.”
As the players trot onto the diamond in uniforms that look brand new, fans can thank Kwong and the rest of the staff.
“It takes a lot of work,” Kwong said. “There’s a couple people on our staff that really do a good job of taking care of (the uniforms). ... There’s days when it’s rainy and those uniforms come in really dirty — really, really bad. Then there’s other times with the grass stains, too. It takes a lot of time and effort to get out. It’ll take multiple washes and multiple different uses of chemicals.
“People say they get new uniforms every day because that’s how good they make them look.”
A year ago, Kwong watched the ovation that Andrew McCutchen received in his return to Pittsburgh as a Pirate. When the 2013 National League MVP decided to sign back with the team prior to last season, Kwong’s mother sent him a picture of his college freshman dorm room, complete with a McCutchen poster overlooking it.
“He was that guy, especially bringing back the prominence of Pirates baseball at the time,” Kwong said. “He was someone I looked up to. ... Now I get to work with him every day and be around him. It’s like, ‘Wow!’ It’s kind of a surreal feeling in a sense.”
Kwong was a men’s basketball student manager at Duquense for four years and held the same position with the Dukes’ football team for two. Heading into his senior year there, he was a marketing intern for the Pittsburgh Steelers and, from there, he earned an internship with the team’s equipment staff. The opportunity to be around professional baseball presented itself after that.
“Just being around it every day is everything I could ask for and more,” Kwong said. “Just being around baseball, the big league atmosphere, it’s just a really awesome experience all around.”
Kwong played baseball through high school and has since transitioned to slow pitch softball. He’s a former Planets teammate of Pirates closer David Bednar. Bednar’s younger brother, Will, is a pitcher in the San Francisco Giants’ organization. JJ Wetherholt, a Mars grad and junior infielder at West Virginia University, has been projected to go No. 1 overall in this summer’s MLB Draft by MLB.com, Baseball America, and Perfect Game.
Thompson credits former Mars head coach and current assistant Andy Bednar for the Mars-to-Majors pipeline that has come about.
“Throughout the years, I’ve just watched this program just grow into the things that it is today, into all these different avenues and places,” Thompson said. “Just coming from Mars baseball has (helped) the opportunity for kids of our community to do and participate in.”
Kwong is part of the success, but in a more inconspicuous way.
“It’s very cool, that little connection, that little niche, that we all have,” Kwong said.
