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.’”
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.”
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