K-Man? Yes and No

By Jiayang Zhang

“Taco, taco, taco!” People at NBT Bank Stadium chanted every time they saw the young Asian face showing up on the big screen. “We want free food!” They shouted, hoping this guy would strike out at least once Monday night so they could get free tacos from Taco Bell.
 

Robert Refsnyder, who wears number 13 for the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders was the “Taco Bell K-Man.”

 

It’s one of the promotions sponsored by Taco Bell: at each game, a player from the visitors is chosen as the K-Man. When the K-Man strikes out, everyone in the stadium gets a free taco from Taco Bell by presenting a ticket stub. 

Kevin Weinheimer, an intern at the press box of NBT Bank Stadium and his colleague, stadium DJ Jeremy Hernandez picked Refsnyder to be the K-Man for Monday night's game.

“They've done this as old as the ballpark is I would say, at least ten years,” Weinheimer said. “It’s pretty random. We will go through the lineup and sometimes it’s the player that we know people will know, then we will make him the K-Man or if a guy is on rehab assignment. But most of us just see the name and we are like ‘Yeah, he can be a good K-Man.’”

“We were watching highlights in our office earlier today,” Weinheimer said, explaining the reason for choosing Refsnyder tonight. “One of the other interns came down and said how good he was. And we said ‘You know what, fine, he is the K-Man’. We picked him just because he is a good player. But not in our house! We just hope we could get him.”

But they didn’t. Robert Refsnyder wouldn't let them.

Born in South Korea and adopted by an American family, Refsnyder went to California when he was only three-months old, as soon as he was healthy and heavy enough to travel overseas. He has Korean blood, which makes him a K-Man – Korea man, but he refused to be the K-Man who gets struck out and treats the audience to free tacos,

“Everyone likes free food and I can feel them getting excited every time I appeared,” Refsnyder said. He doesn't think been chosen as the K-Man had any effect on his approach. “They probably are going to choose me tomorrow so they can get tacos. That’s fine because they didn't get any taco tonight.”

Actually, Refsnyder is considered as a rising star in professional baseball world. He was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 5th round of the 2012 MLB June Amateur Draft from University of Arizona. After spending two years in A Ball, he was promoted by Yankees to Double-A Trenton, and then to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders on June 10th this year.

To Refsnyder, being an Asian guy on a baseball team is not that big a deal, because he considers baseball as a kind of multi-culture sport which can welcome people with different races, cultures and backgrounds.

“It’s cool. My parents took me to some conventions when I didn't understand something,” Refsnyder said, “So I learned to appreciate the culture. It’s totally fine. There are some African-Americans, a lot of Latinos and guys from Jamaica on our team. Asians are the big minority in baseball. Yankees is gravitates to signing players from overseas. It’s cool to be part of it.”

The 6’1’’ Refsnyder hopes to play out and has Yankees to call him up at sometime.

 

“I’ll just learn as much as I can, keep working hard and enjoy it.”