"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of K-Boys, it was the age of Bobby
Hill, it was the epoch of a mid-summer playoff run, it was the epoch of a late-season collapse..."
Though the summer of 2005 will forever be known in Syracuse as the "Summer of The K-Boys", what follows is the rather simple tale of an ordinary group of guys
who would become extraordinary, and, in the process, forever change Syracuse Chiefs baseball.
On a warm, beautiful summer day in Syracuse, a fellow by the name of Shawn gave a call to his good friend Chris, to see if he would care to go to
a Syracuse SkyChiefs baseball game. It was dollar-day, and the deals were too hard to pass up. By the end of the day Chris was able to consume a couple hot dogs, and
watch an enjoyable game of baseball, without sparing a single cent. "It was great", he would later say, adding "I'd like to do this again." So they did.
In the following weeks Shawn and Chris, and sometimes Shawn's brother Mike, would take advantage of any and all promotional days offered at Alliance
Bank Stadium. Church bulletin night? They were there. Pepperidge Farm night? They were there. But unfortunately for Shawn and Chris the number of promotional nights
in which they could attend the game free of charge were far less than the number of games they were hoping to attend. They decided to scrape together some money
and purchase a packet of 20 lower-level tickets. Now, promotion night or not, they were there.
And then suddenly Chris had an idea. It was the type of idea that, if applied, could change everything. While watching SportsCenter late one night,
Chris noticed that during a Florida Marlins game a few loyal fans were hanging up K's, counting the strikeouts of the Marlins' starting pitcher. "You know, I just thought about
it and realized, if they can do that for the Marlins, why can't [Shawn and I] do that for the Chiefs?". The next day Chris and Shawn started to design the perfect "K"
sign. The result was very similar to what you see today: a large black K, with an old version of the Syracuse Chiefs logo on the side. A quick trip to Kinkos, and
within minutes Shawn and Chris were equipped with a stack of K's, and were ready for the night's game. The K-Boys were born.
That night each time the Chiefs would record a strikeout, the K-Boys would hang one of their K's on the facade of the SkyDeck along the first-base side.
In order to admire their work, Chris walked over to the third-base side and immediately realized a problem. The K's were too small. After the game Shawn and Chris
decided that some improvements would have to be made to the initial set of K's. They reported back to Shawn's place and began creating a large K stencil. The new
plan would result in K's that were several times larger, making them very easy to see from even the furthest seat in the stadium. As Chris recalls, "It was a crazy night.
Shawn was pretty meticulous with the stencil, and it wasn't until a few hours later that we even had the stencil done. I remember driving home at 4am, and the K's
weren't even done, it was a long night." And it would only get longer. Upon returning home, Chris began to assemble the various parts of the K signs, gluing the large
black K's to the white posterboard, and then fixing each one with the signature old-school Chiefs logo. They were ready for laminating, and a day later they were ready
to make their Alliance Bank Stadium debut.
In the games to come the K-Boys began to expand their routine. In those early games they would simply hang up K's to count the strikeouts. Soon, though, they realized
that they could actually help create the very strikeouts they were counting. The 'BANG!' was born. There is some speculation that the K-Boys actually borrowed the
idea of the BANG! from another Chiefs fan. When asked about it, Shawn said "Well, somewhat, but not really. That's like saying Vanilla Ice borrowed from Queen. Though
similar, the two riffs are clearly distinct." The 'BANG!' turned out to be a great success. The batters were dropping like flies, some more than others. Like Bobby Hill.
During a mid-season game between Indianapolis and Syracuse, the Indians' third-baseman Bobby Hill had a night that he would rather forget. It went something like
this...
| First at-bat: |
K |
| Second at-bat: |
K |
| Third at-bat: |
K |
| Fourth at-bat: |
K |
Bobby Hill simply couldn't handle the K. He would later take out his frustration by launching
water and sunflower seeds over the dugout, in an attempt to shower the K-Boys with a delightful treat. Instead, the ony thing the K-Boys
were showered in was praise by the rest of the fans in attendance. They were now both respected and adored by everyone in attendance.
The K-Boys finished out most of the season, and left the Chiefs in great position to take the division. Unfortunately once the
K-Boys returned to school, leaving the Syracuse area, the Chiefs returned to their old ways of losing, and missed out on the playoffs.
Hoping to avoid a repeat of last year, the K-Boys will now be at every Chiefs home game, from Opening Day all the way through to
the end. With their help the Chiefs will not only make the playoffs, but make a legitimate run at the International League championship. If all goes
well and the Chiefs bring home the title in 2006, during the ticker-tape parade and celebration they can all thank a special group of guys. The K-Boys.
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