As my Druncle Wrinkle used to say…“For a guy that got hit in the throat…that Kubek talks an awful lot!”
“I had two years remaining on my contract with MSG at the time,” Kubek said. “But it struck me that day that I just didn’t want to be in or around baseball anymore. I remember that I called Bob Gutkowski, who was my boss, and I told him that I wasn’t going to finish the contract. He said, `Wait a minute, that’s pretty good money you’re going to walk away from,’ but I had made up my mind and that was it.
“Part of it was that I didn’t like what was happening in the game, or what was going to happen. But part of it was that I had been around baseball my whole life. Everyone around me had been in baseball. I decided I didn’t want to be in it anymore, to go home and spend time with my family. I said goodbye, and that was it. I haven’t seen a major league game since I retired, even on television. I’ve never seen Derek Jeter play, though I do recall seeing him work out when he was very young and still in the minor leagues.”
When I dropped other contemporary Yankee names into the conversation — Hideki Matsui, Jason Giambi, Chien-Ming Wang — Kubek said he was not familiar with them. He had no interest in the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run chase of 1998 or the steroid scandals to follow. When their four children were grown, he and his wife, Margaret, downsized and moved to Appleton, Wis. (Kubek is a native of the state), where they spend most of the year. They have five grandchildren and have immersed themselves in charitable causes, specifically in the substantial Hmong immigrant community from Southeast Asia.
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1. 6 - 4 - 3 Posted: July 23, 2008 at 02:01 PM (#2869336)"“George is a detriment to an organization,” he said. “He’s a loser, is what he is. The guy is a loser, and you don’t work for losers. I don’t care how much money he throws at people or charities, you don’t balance the scale by treating people like crap.”"
I figured everybody remembered those quotes...
That first World Series must have been quite an experience. It was against the Milwaukee Braves, and Kubek was a Milwaukee native. And in his first plate appearance before his hometown crowd, he hit a home run on the first pitch. And then hit another home run in the seventh. He'd hit all of three home runs in the regular season.
In all my years of watching baseball---and I think Harvey would back me up on this---no stadium has ever given a more complete silent treatment to an opposing player than County Stadium gave Kubek that day. TV fans all over the country were reaching for their volume controls, certain that someone had switched off the sound.
Lots of fans nowadays throw opponents' home run balls back out onto the field. I think if some fan in Milwaukee that afternoon had even acknowledged a home town boy's moment with a single clap, they would have thrown him (the fan) onto the field. They really did love their Braves.
I wonder how many people remember that on Saturdays NBC would sometimes show two games-the morning game would be the East Coast game and the afternoon would be the West Coast or Midwest game. It was truly the game of the week not this bull$hit we see now from Fox. During those times we would see Yanks vs. Redsox, Dodgers vs. Reds, Pirates vs. Phillies and other great battles.
Fox totally sucks! I Fukking hate FOX! Last week we had the pleasure of seeing the last place Padres vs. the Cardinals. Wow, what a classic. In an ideal world we would have gotten the Redsox vs. Angels feed but this is Fox. I can recall several years ago when the Yanks and Redsox matched up in the Bronx and it was Pedro vs. Roger Clemens. Think we got a chance to see that game, not on your life. We probably got the DBacks vs. Rockies both fighting for last place.
Anyone know where one can write to Fox to complain about the $hitting games in our area?
As a side note -- we got the Red Sox - Angels game here in Utah last week. I'm not sure when that changed. I remember that we'd only get Padres and Rockies games as recently as '98 and '99. Someone over at KSTU has made sure that we get either the Cubs, Yankees or Red Sox every single week.
Personally, I could really go for two games on Saturday. Sure as hell beats watching Stargate reruns and "Wacked Out Sports" before FOX's coverage begins! Oh well -- at least I can always flip over to Superliga coverage on Telemundo on Saturday evenings.
Sure as hell beats watching Stargate reruns and "Wacked Out Sports" before FOX's coverage begins!
"Hisssssss!! The sun, aagh! It burns! This stuff I'm breathing...fresh...*gack*...air...aargh..."
Especially after his hundredth or so observation about players with long hair, his two hundredth snide remark about Jim Bouton, and his five hundredth recycled Yogi Berra anecdote. He was damn lucky that the internet wasn't around then.
Kubek was aces though, all business.
Although he often got put in situations that had to be embarrassing, such as the inordinate amount of time he spent between innings in the 1969 postseason interviewing David Eisenhower in the stands.
He could be prissy at times though. One year Gowdy and Garagiola made their picks to win at the beginning. Kubek didn't, just didn't feel like it.
There was another time when the start of a game was delayed by a swarm of bees. It was solved when Kubek went down, located the queen and took her away making the others follow.
He did appear several years ago on YES Shortstop show with Scooter Rizzuto, Bucky Dent, Gil McDougald and Derek Jeter. For some reason YES never shows it again. Must be because it was quality.
There was someone at the time in TV Guide (Cleveland Amory?) who did rate the backup crew of Jim Simpson and Maury Wills better than Gowdy and Kubek (Gowdy could ramble on at this time about the Red Sox, the joys of Fenway Park and other myths).
There is a story before the 1957 World series Stengel told Kubek to stay with his parents while the rest of the team stayed at the hotel (I doubt Kubek ever went to the hotel bar which was verboten on a Stengel team because that's where he drank). The Milwaukee fans knew where the Kubeks lived so they heckled his house all night. The Yankees escaped this at the hotel
I heard he caught Lee Harvey Oswald's bullet in his teeth. Kennedy's head exploded in sheer amazement.
gosh, that's some old memories.
Couldn't find any for those, but I found a story about how Kubek worked out with the Braves when he was a high school star whom the Braves were eager to sign. But apparently he intended to sign with the Yankees all along, and only worked out with Milwaukee in order to get free passes to the games.
I remember that well, and thought at the time it was lame. Who throws at a guy's legs? Plus LaGrow was lousy. Campy was just being a hothead.
I know more about baseball than Kubek!!! O.K., but still, it sounds lame to me.
I'm pretty sure the first GOTW broadcast team I remember was Gowdy and Pee Wee Reese. Might have been Gowdy and Kubek, though.
Remember how bad Sandy Koufax was as a color man?
Reese moved to NBC when they got the rights and was Gowdy's partner for a while
one web site says Kubek started as a color man for the NBC backup games with Jim Simpson--I don't remember that
I loved Kubek...but that was torture.
he was boring, boring, boring, both in tone and content--I actually felt sorry for him
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