BOSTON -- The current television advertisement featuring a worldwide express shipping company attempting to deliver a well-traveled Kenny Lofton his equipment is:
A) Funny.
B) Really funny.
C) Cute.
Cute?
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| Even at 40, Kenny Lofton can still energize the Indians. (Getty Images) |
"But I don't think that's the funniest part of the commercial because he's never played in Japan."
Except. ...
"I've been there," Lofton said. "When I was with the Yankees and they played Boston in Japan."
Over 17 seasons in the majors, Lofton has been up, down, around and around and back again. The point here is, you never know where he's headed next and, in a case of life imitating art, that includes this American League Championship Series as the Red Sox and Indians swing back to Boston for Game 6 Saturday night.
Just as the DHL commercial has been running incessantly on network television over these past few weeks, Lofton has been persistently popping up throughout this postseason in all sorts of scenes.
After batting .375 with a .444 on-base percentage to help Cleveland past the Yankees in the first round, he cracked two doubles in Cleveland's Game 1 ALCS loss, belted a two-run homer in Game 3, scored one of Cleveland's seven runs in Game 4 and charged Boston pitcher Josh Beckett to spark a brief, bench-clearing altercation in Game 5.
As Lofton himself said, "Wherever life puts me, that's where I'll be."
It has pretty much been that way throughout his career. Though he has made a career out of antagonizing pitchers, he has been even harder on moving companies.
This is his third stop in Cleveland. He's also played in Houston, Atlanta, Chicago (White Sox), San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Chicago (Cubs), New York (Yankees), Philadelphia, Los Angeles (Dodgers) and Texas.
