Skubal wasn’t born in Kingman but he made his name there on the way to Major League Baseball and now the town honors its hometown hero every week.
KINGMAN, Ariz. — If you leave a town like Kingman, it might feel like nobody knows who you are.
But if you grow up in a town like Kingman, everyone there will know your name.
It’s a place that treats its people like kings, and a baseball coronation is a weekly occurrence at one of the local high schools.
>> Download the 12News app for the latest local breaking news straight to your phone.
“Kingman’s Tarik Skubal inks big deal with the Detroit Tigers,” athletic director Bill McCord said, reading a newspaper clipping from January. “Baseball prodigy Tarik Skubal is a millionaire.”
McCord was Skubal’s baseball coach a decade ago. He remembers when Skubal first got to campus.
“He had a little baby fat on him, not going to lie,” he said.
Skubal turned into a superstar by the time he was a senior.
“This kid’s the real deal. He just is. My son’s a pretty good ballplayer, went on and played college ball, but Tarik was the real deal,” McCord said.
Skubal took the mound for every big moment for Kingman Academy of Learning.
He threw a 16-strikeout one-hitter to win the state championship in 2013 and a 14-strikeout perfect game in the first round of the playoffs in 2014.
Those memories are still etched in McCord’s mind.
“It was touching for all of us. As you can see I’m tearing up a little so it was kind of cool,” McCord said.
Skubal’s subsequent rise is taught like a graduation requirement for the rest of the school. His former English teacher, Hollie Christacopulos, puts her lectures on pause every fifth day. A Skubal start is mandatory in-class viewing for current students.
“We’ve actually moved our students from one room to another, put it up on a screen and we all just watch the game,” McCord said.
While watching Skubal pitch is a group assignment at his high school, it’s a solo and sometimes stressful experience right down the road.
Skubal’s dad, Russ Skubal, is the principal at Cerbat Elementary School.
He knows there is nothing elementary about watching his son pitch. He said Tarik is so talented, he almost can’t believe it.
“It’s still kind of weird to think that he’s pitching in a Major League Baseball game right now,” he said.
Like the rest of the town, time stops for Russ when Tarik toes the rubber.
He takes a quick break from the game at the end of the school day to safely usher kids to the buses and wish them a good evening—his way of being a father figure to students.
It’s back to being an actual father a few minutes later, as he returns to his office to watch the game on MLB.TV.
“There’s a part of you that… it’s not real,” he said. “Like how is my kid, how is he doing this?”
The other question: How did a kid from Kingman become baseball’s reigning strikeout king?
“I knew he was kind of a big deal when some pro scouts were driving down to get to Phoenix for spring and they stopped in Kingman to watch him do a workout,” Russ said.
Russ moved the family to Arizona from California’s Bay Area when Tarik was 12.
“I got out of the car… It was so hot,” Russ said.
His son’s fastball was even hotter.
“He came out of the womb that way,” Russ added.
The town of Kingman is positioned as one of the gateways to the Grand Canyon. It was Skubal’s gateway to pro baseball.
“I don’t think Tarik would’ve ever been seen if we hadn’t moved to Arizona,” Russ said.
“It’s not about what he’s become, it’s what he’s always been,” McCord added.
He comes from a town where everyone knows your name. For Skubal, now the world does too.
“If a kid from Kingman can win the Cy Young, any kid from Kingman can be anything,” Russ said.
Arizona sports
The city of Phoenix is home to four major professional sports league teams; The NFL’s Arizona Cardinals, NBA’s Phoenix Suns, WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Cardinals have made State Farm Stadium in Glendale their home turf and the Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix is home to both the Suns and the Mercury. The Indoor Football League’s Arizona Rattlers play at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale.
Phoenix also has a soccer team with the USL’s Phoenix Rising FC, who play at Phoenix Rising FC Stadium in Phoenix.
The Valley hosts multiple major sporting events every year, including college football’s Fiesta Bowl and Guaranteed Rate Bowl; the PGA Tour’s highest-attended event, the WM Phoenix Open; NASCAR events each spring and fall, including Championship Weekend in November; and Cactus League Spring Training for 15 Major League Baseball franchises.
12Sports on YouTube
Get the latest news and stories from 12Sports on the 12News YouTube channel. And don’t forget to subscribe!
The post Why an Arizona town shuts down when Tarik Skubal pitches for the Detroit Tigers appeared first on World Online.
