John King spent two years as part of Angelina College head baseball coach Jeff Livin’s pitching staff, taking the mound at Roadrunner Field in 2014 and 2015. King cemented his AC legacy during the 2015 regional tournament, when he tossed a complete-game shutout over a high-powered San Jacinto team, helping send the ‘Runners to the tournament final.
From there, King signed with the University of Houston, where he continued his reputation as a big-game pitcher: As the Cougars’ lone senior in 2017, King was the winning pitcher on both the regular-season title game against Cincinnati and in the American Championship tournament title game against East Carolina.
Drafted in the 10th round by the Texas Rangers, King this week received the phone call every baseball player dreams of hearing. The Rangers have called up King to join the big squad, where he could see action as soon as Friday.
Livin said King’s path to the majors held its share of bumps and bruises, but the lefty’s determination played a massive role in achieving his dream.
“John did a great job at the University of Houston,” Livin said. “I talked with his coaches, and they commented on John’s work ethic and his focus in that area.”
Livin described King as a player who arrived at AC “pretty much under the radar.” Some arm issues during King’s freshman season left the Laredo product with little to show for his efforts. However, those issues helped King realize how much harder he would need to work to achieve success.
“I think that’s when his work ethic really kicked in,” Livin said. “John decided he was going to work his way through this thing. He really got into things such as his diet and training as we went along, and he added quite a bit of velocity while he was here. He came on strong toward the end of his sophomore season and pitched us into the regional tournament. His career just took off from there.”
As for seeing King’s potential as a future major leaguer, Livin said, “I don’t think there’s ever an indication for any player that he’s going to make it to the big leagues. Did I think he’d have a chance to play pro baseball? Yeah, I did. He didn’t have a ton of velocity coming out of high school, but he had a big-time curve ball. The ability to make the ball spin is such a big deal for any pitcher, and he’s had that from the beginning.”
Livin also mentioned how King’s path led him to having the right people see his big-game mentality and overall ability to get hitters out.
“It’s a small world for sure,” Livin laughed. “Bob Laurie, who was my assistant last season, was actually the scout who led to John getting drafted by the Rangers out of the University of Houston. Bob had John on his radar years ago.
“John had some arm troubles his last year at U of H and was scheduled for surgery after the season, and the Rangers still thought enough of him to draft him fairly high. I have no doubt John’s stock would have been even higher had he been completely healthy at the time. The Rangers and Bob took a chance on him, and it looks like it’s paying off for John very well.”
The email address for AC’s Sports Information Director is gstallard@angelina.edu
