The Kevin McGonigle Fan Club has traveled far and wide to see him play. Now, Delco’s All-Star is coming home

In March, Patty Martin and Liz Warren sat in an office at Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast High School, poring over the Detroit Tigers’ 162-game schedule.

It wasn’t how the administrative assistant and math teacher typically spent their lunch breaks. But these were unusual circumstances. The women scanned each date, city, and time, looking for the right confluence of all three.

Former student Kevin McGonigle had just been named to the team’s opening-day roster. Martin and Warren were eager to see the 21-year-old shortstop play, ideally at Citizens Bank Park.

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They realized, to their dismay, that this wasn’t going to happen. The Tigers were scheduled to face the Phillies only once in 2026, in Detroit. Undeterred, the Bonner & Prendie staffers continued their search.

Martin circled May 14, a 1:30 p.m. game against the New York Mets. This seemed like the perfect fit; teachers could drive to the stadium, and it was Ascension Day — a Holy Day of Obligation — which the Catholic school occasionally had off.

Only this year, it didn’t. The administrative assistant decided to throw a Hail Mary. That afternoon, Martin emailed a friend who worked for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

“And I said, ‘Do you think maybe somebody would allow us to close school that day?’” she recalled.

The answer was swift and unequivocal.

“‘Nah, don’t think it’s gonna work,’” Martin said. “‘Not gonna work.’ And we kind of knew, in our hearts, that we were shooting for the stars. But hey, it was worth a try.”

The co-workers found an alternative. On the morning of July 1, 55 members of the Bonner & Prendie community — coaches, students, maintenance workers, secretaries, teachers — piled onto a bus bound for the Bronx.

They arrived at Yankee Stadium at 12:45 p.m., donning Kelly green T-shirts with “Friars” on the front and “McGonigle” on the back. New York City was in the midst of a heat wave, but that didn’t seem to matter.

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McGonigle greeted the group before the game and rewarded their efforts in the third with a 422-foot home run to right-center field. The Delco contingent went berserk.

“We’re all cheering, and everyone’s like looking at us like, ‘Who are these people?’” said Bonner’s baseball coach, Steve DeBarberie. “They’re wearing Kelly green to a Yankees-Tigers game?”

Added Martin: “We all went wild, of course, because we’re like, ‘He did that for us.’ I’m very certain, he did.”

Ever since McGonigle was drafted by the Tigers in 2023, Delaware County has shown up to support him. When he was in the minor leagues, residents traveled to places like Grand Rapids, Mich., Lakeland, Fla., and Erie, Pa.

They’ve attended spring training games and Arizona Fall League games and even an All-Star Futures Game. A few Bonner alums flew to San Diego in April for McGonigle’s big-league debut. Nearly 300 people made the trip to see him in Baltimore in May.

Some know the shortstop personally, but not all. Yet the Kevin McGonigle Fan Club keeps growing, and on Tuesday night, after years of cross-country travel and hourslong drives, their hometown hero will return to Philadelphia to compete in the 2026 All-Star Game.

It’ll be the first time McGonigle plays at Citizens Bank Park. To local supporters, this is almost too good to be true: an athlete who represents them wholeheartedly, on baseball’s biggest stage, mere minutes away.

“Everyone is so excited, especially for the Philly aspect,” said Warren. “Not only is it amazing that it’s his rookie year, but [also] that he gets to come home.”

Delco has gone to such lengths for a reason. The future All-Star was not the type of ballplayer built in a lab, under the careful guise of top hitting instructors. He did not have endless resources for equipment or travel.

Rather than a baseball hotbed like Florida or Georgia, McGonigle was raised in a working-class home in Aldan. His parents, Kevin George and Tracy, worked opposite shifts at a local water utilities company.

When Tracy was growing up, in Lansdowne, the sport was relatively inexpensive. Kids would share bats and gloves. She’d never heard of anyone driving far to tournaments.

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But the mother quickly learned that to capitalize on her son’s talent, she’d have to invest. Kevin George learned this, too. The parents, who divorced when Kevin was young, began saving money where they could.

Sometimes this meant working more. Sometimes it meant cutting back on expenses. Tracy remembers her son and his teammates standing outside a supermarket, or wandering through The Yard Pub in Havertown, selling raffle tickets to pay for travel.

“You scraped it together, you put it away, and you used the credit cards, and you worried about the payment later,” Tracy said. “And I think any parent would do that. You do what you have to do to make your kids happy.”

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By middle school, McGonigle was playing for Drexel Hill Little League, St. Bernadette’s CYO, and a local travel ball team. He’d train every day with his father, who had recently purchased a bright blue Jugs pitching machine.

The McGonigles didn’t have much yard space, but one of Kevin George’s teammates, Jac Campbell, did. Kevin George asked Jac’s father, Jim, if they could use his lawn, where he’d set up a makeshift batting cage.

The elder Campbell agreed. Kevin George moved the pitching machine 60 feet away from home plate, and began toying around with it. Before long, the device was spitting out curveballs, change-ups, and sliders.

“It was an expensive machine that threw mid-90s,” said Campbell. “It wasn’t some candy-ass machine that you would set up down at the Little League.”

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McGonigle did not like that his parents were financing his passion, and would often tell Tracy he needed to find a job. But with the time constraints of travel baseball, coupled with Bonner-Prendie baseball and his training schedule, it was difficult to get hired.

So, the mother and son came up with an agreement. The future All-Star would clean the bathroom, dust the family room, and do other tasks around the house to earn his keep.

Still, the guilt persisted, especially when it came to daily expenses like gas money. McGonigle hated asking for it. Tracy came up with another idea.

“In my kitchen, I have a little box,” she said. “It’s a wooden box, and on the top it says, ‘Blessed.’ And I said to him, ‘You know what? You don’t have to ask me anymore.’

“I said, ‘I’m just gonna put money in the blessed box. Whatever you need. And then you don’t have to ask me. You don’t even have to feel bad about it.’ And it worked.”

McGonigle was painfully aware of his parents’ sacrifice, and determined to make the most of it. By his senior year, MLB scouts were flocking to Bonner-Prendergast for games.

This became somewhat of a spectacle, so the shortstop started leaving class early to take batting practice on his own. His hope was that it would create less of a distraction for his teammates.

“Just so that it didn’t interrupt the routine,” said his former CYO, Little League, and Babe Ruth League coach, Jason Shepherd. “His teammates respected the fact that he thought of them before himself.”

It wasn’t the first time Shepherd had seen the selfless trait from McGonigle. When he was 14, juggling travel ball and Babe Ruth, the high schooler had two tournaments fall on the same weekend.

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One was in Tampa, the other in Williamsport, Pa. McGonigle decided he’d play in both. After the game in Florida, he drove through the night to Delaware County with a teammate.

The next morning, McGonigle met Shepherd in his driveway for the three-hour ride to Williamsport.

“Obviously, he was the best player on the team,” Shepherd said. “One of the best players in the state at the time. When we knew we were getting Kevin for the rest of the playoffs, it brought a lot of energy.”

McGonigle has continued to give back to his community since being drafted by the Tigers in the first round in 2023. He’s donated signed bats to Drexel Hill Little League, and has occasionally stopped in during the winter to serve as a volunteer coach.

In 2024, fresh off his first season in the minors, the shortstop donated $40,000 to Bonner & Prendie. To Campbell, it’s gestures like these that compel people to travel so far.

“If he wasn’t a good kid, you wouldn’t have half of that [stuff] going on,” he said. “You know what I mean? The fact that he’s a good kid makes it easier for everyone to want to go see him.”

At times it can seem like the Kevin McGonigle Fan Club has the entire season mapped out. In April, Shepherd and his son, Justin, flew to San Diego for the rookie’s debut, but their flight was delayed a few hours and they missed most of the game.

They ended up staying for the rest of the series, and the following week drove eight hours from Delco to Detroit for his home opener. DeBarberie and four other Bonner coaches met them there.

McGonigle’s best friends, Michael Anderson and Joey DeMucci, visited him in June. Martin will watch McGonigle play in Chicago later this month. Jim and Jac Campbell will be in Detroit in August, and DeBarberie has plans to drive to Pittsburgh after that.

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But the biggest showing to date was over Memorial Day weekend at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Tracy reserved 265 tickets through group sales, and Shepherd coordinated a tailgate at Pickles Pub across the street from the stadium.

“They’re like, ‘Well, do you want us to put McGonigle on a sign?’” Shepherd said. “And I’m like, ‘No, do not make any reference to McGonigle. Just put ‘Delco tailgate.’ People will know where to go.’”

Saturday’s game was rained out, which turned the tailgate into a whole-day affair. The entire top floor of the bar was full of Tigers and Bonner McGonigle jerseys.

It ended up being the highlight of the trip. McGonigle stopped by and stayed with friends and family for two hours, taking photos and catching up.

This wasn’t just a kind act on the shortstop’s part. Shepherd and his son visited him last November, while he was playing in the Arizona Fall League. One night, while the former coach was grilling steaks outside, he asked the future All-Star a question.

“I asked him, ‘What’s been the hardest thing so far?’” Shepherd recalled. “And he’s like, ‘Coach Shep, honestly, I still miss home.’ And it just struck me.

“I was expecting, ‘The workouts are hard,’ or, ‘This pitcher was really tough.’ He’s just like, ‘No, I just miss home.’ And I get it. No different than a kid going off to college, far away. Just homesick a little bit.”

As McGonigle wrapped up his first-half campaign, it became clear to his mother that the All-Star Game was within reach.

The rookie was near the top of a number of American League leader boards. He has more walks (60) than he did strikeouts (56), and is second among regulars in on-base percentage (.392).

But Tracy didn’t dare broach the subject. She knew her son wouldn’t want her to. So, she was surprised a couple of weeks ago when he brought up the Midsummer Classic on his own.

“He said, ‘Whether I’m in the game or not, I’m staying at home,’” Tracy recalled. “And that’s all he said.”

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The shortstop reiterated this stance after the roster was announced.

“I’m coming home,” he told her. “I’m not staying in the hotel.”

Throughout All-Star Week, the eight-year, $150 million man is sharing a bedroom with his brother, Ryan, in Aldan. A signed watercolor of Cole Hamels still hangs on the wall there, alongside some framed USA Baseball jerseys and caps.

Just like any other parent with a 21-year-old sleeping under their roof, Tracy’s maternal instincts routinely kick in.

“He’ll say, ‘Mom, I can do my own laundry,’” she said with a laugh. “And I’m like, ‘But why? I’ll do it. It’s fine.’ When he’s home, in the offseason, he still has a job. He’s at the training facility every single day, all day.

“But yeah, it’s, ‘Who wants dinner? How about I do your laundry?’ He’s just a normal kid.”

Of course, there are plenty of things that aren’t normal. McGonigle doesn’t borrow cash from the blessings box anymore. He no longer takes swings in the privacy of Campbell’s backyard.

But amid all this change, the Bonner alumnus can always return to a place that is refreshingly static. Full of people who are proud of him, not just for his talent, but also for the unglamorous work behind it.

And if he ever needs a reminder, McGonigle can look for the Kelly green T-shirts, scattered among a sea of Tigers blue; a sign that Delaware County is never too far away.

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Ryan Howard was a three-time All-Star and champion of the 2006 Home Run Derby in his legendary run with the Phillies. With the baseball world coming together in Philadelphia for the 96th All-Star Game, Howard sat down with Phillies Extra to discuss his All-Star memories, his expectations for a Home Run Derby at Citizens Bank Park, his outlook on the Phillies' season, Kyle Schwarber's chances of breaking his single-season franchise mark for homers, and more. Watch here.

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