Ted Kubiak

Theodore Rodger "Ted" Kubiak (born May 12, 1942 in New Brunswick, New Jersey) is a former switch-hitting infielder for the 1965 Birmingham Barons and for ten seasons in the major leagues from 1967 to 1976.

Kubiak signed with the Kansas City Athletics as an amateur free agent in 1961. He played one year with the class D Sarasota Sun Sox before moving up to the single-A Binghamton Triplets in 1962. He split his time in 1963 between Binghamton and Lewiston. In 1964 he played with the Fort Worth Cats and Austin Senators in the Texas League and the Dallas Rangers in the Pacific Coast League. He then came to Birmingham as a member of the 1965 Birmingham Barons. Kubiak distinguished himself as a batter and scored a team record six runs in a game against Montgomery on August 12. In 1966 he played for the AAA Vancouver Mounties of the Pacific Coast League, then debuted with Kansas City on April 14, 1967.

He was with Charlie Finley's A's when they made the move to Oakland, California in 1968, but was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers after a somewhat disappointing first year (6 runs and 16 hits in 102 at bats). In the midst of the 1971 season, during which he batted .232, he was traded to the St Louis Cardinals. After the season he was dealt to the Texas Rangers. Then on July 20, 1972 he was returned to the A's in a five-player deal. He rotated through Oakland's infield on that year's World Series winning team, and helped the A's rack up two more world series championships in 1973 and 1974. Early in the 1975 season he was traded to the San Diego Padres for All-Star Sonny Seibert. Over the course of his major league career, Kubiak hit for a .231 average with 565 hits, 238 runs, 13 home runs, 202 RBI and 271 walks in 2,447 at-bats. He found his stroke against Boston pitcher Ed Phillips who set him up with two of his home runs, one a grand slam to right center at Fenway Park. He was more appreciated for his fielding skills than as a batter, turning in a career fielding percentage of .973 with 90 career errors in 6,045 innings of play, including 1,373 putouts, 1,834 assists and 366 double plays turned.

After retiring from the major leagues, Kubiak reentered baseball as a manager and took over as skipper of the Modesto A's in mid-1989. He remained in Modesto for four more years before joining the Cleveland Indians organization in 1994. Kubiak managed the Canton-Akron Indians in 1994 and 1995, then moved down to the New York-Penn League for five years. He was with the Watertown Indians from 1996 to 1998, and the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in 1999 and 2000. He moved up to the Columbus RedStixx in 2001, the Kinston Indians in 2002, then returned to Mahoning Valley in 2003. He currently works as the Indians' minor league defensive coordinator.

References

• "Ted Kubiak." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 19 Mar 2009, 03:49 UTC. 19 Mar 2009 [1].

External links

• Ted Kubiak at baseball-reference.com