After a 15-Year Hiatus, Kubek Is Back (Briefly)
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — For a few days here, Tony Kubek will finally be back in baseball, celebrated by the Hall of Fame for a broadcasting career he left abruptly 15 years ago.
Kubek, the onetime Yankee shortstop, walked into the Otesaga Hotel on Friday, talking rapidly, greeting friends, acting as if he were preparing to call a game.
He embraced Whitey Ford, teased Bob Costas, commiserated about life as a middle infielder with Harold Reynolds of the MLB Network and, characteristically showing little inhibition, asked Reynolds, the former Mariners second baseman, about the legal problems that got Reynolds fired from ESPN.
On the lawn outside the hotel, Costas recalled a hot day in Boston in the 1980s when he and Kubek were at Fenway Park for NBC, Costas as the game announcer, Kubek as the analyst. Costas said on the air that the network’s cameras had to be wrapped in dry ice to keep them functioning. “I’ll wrap your head in dry ice, you lippy kid,” Costas remembered Kubek responding, his tart humor in full display.
And on Friday, two decades later, it was as if nothing had changed. As they finished taking pictures, Kubek merrily said of Costas, “Isn’t he a cute little fella?”
Said Costas: “I’m teasible.”
Apart from the banter, Kubek and his wife, Margaret, are using the weekend as a family outing, with his two sons, two daughters and five grandchildren in attendance. Underlining Kubek’s individuality, they are staying in a house separate from the Hall of Famers’ headquarters at the Otesaga.
And when the weekend ends, the Kubeks will drive back home with one of their daughters to continue their lives without baseball and resume helping the Hmong community in Appleton, Wis., where they live most of the year.
Kubek’s last visit to this upstate New York village came 44 years ago when the Yankees faced the Philadelphia Phillies in the annual Hall of Fame game. His last assignment as the Yankees’ analyst on the MSG Network was in 1994. Then, as the players’ strike moved into its second month, he resigned, upset with the greed that he felt had taken hold of the sport.
“People finally realize it was a divorce,” he said the other day by telephone from his summer home on a lake in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. “I just got a different life. It was time to move on. More than once, people have said, ‘You must hate baseball,’ but I never said that because I don’t. I didn’t like some of the things I saw. I’m not averse to either side making money, but money was becoming more important than the game itself.”
A conversation with Kubek is a reminder of what he brought to a broadcast — an acute intelligence, a contrarian’s view and a no-frills demeanor — and why he is receiving the Ford C. Frick Award from the Hall for nearly 30 years of broadcast service with NBC, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Yankees. Kubek said he tried to follow the advice of Chet Simmons, the former NBC Sports president, who told him, “Every word that comes out of your mouth, you’re responsible for.”
It was advice from which he never wavered. “I had the easiest job in the world with Tony,” said Dewayne Staats, Kubek’s MSG partner. “He was always there, on point, never superfluous, with something that always pertained to strategy. He was always engaged.”
Kubek’s brand of technical analysis brought him renown, but his criticism of the Yankees principal owner, George Steinbrenner, became an unavoidable part of his legacy, too. Kubek’s time with MSG, from 1990 to 1994, coincided with Yankee teams that did not reach the postseason, and Steinbrenner’s meddling and bombast became natural targets.
Bob Gutkowski, who hired Kubek at MSG, described the day Steinbrenner came to his office armed with 10 or 12 tapes that he felt proved that Kubek had a strong antipathy toward both him and the Yankees.
“This was after George was reinstated from his ban, and maybe an hour after it was announced, he called and said, ‘I’m coming to your office, I’ve got a problem with Kubek,’ ” Gutkowski said, recalling that having heard that Steinbrenner was building a video case against Kubek, he had countered with a pile of tapes showing positive comments.
“He was after Tony’s head and he wasn’t going to get it. So we closed the door and went at it. He’s flipping in an anti-Tony tape and I’m flipping in a pro-Tony tape. We’re arguing but finally, we listened to each other, and we walked out arm in arm, laughing. For all his bluster, he respected people who went back at him.”
To Costas, the Kubek-Steinbrenner conflict, while intriguing, resonates more in New York than it does nationally. For him, Kubek’s legacy stands on its own, with the Yankees just being a part.
“I think fans remember that he worked with Garagiola and Gowdy,” Costas said, referring to Joe Garagiola and Curt Gowdy. “They associate him with every World Series and All-Star Game for many years and think of him as a straightforward guy whose judgments could be trusted. He thought of himself as a baseball man with a microphone, and while he developed a certain amount of broadcasting craftsmanship, he was largely disdainful of showmanship.”
Kubek’s television era is now a lifetime ago. Kubek is 73. Steinbrenner is 79 and ailing. The steroid era took hold after Kubek departed. MSG lost the Yankee rights to the YES Network. NBC no longer carries baseball. Major League Baseball has its own network. There has been labor peace since the disastrous strike.
Kubek’s distance from the sport makes it unlikely that he will discuss Steinbrenner or the current state of baseball during his speech Sunday afternoon. He has said for years that he hasn’t watched any major league baseball games since retiring and that he doesn’t keep up with current players. Costas takes his old friend at his word yet marvels a bit that he doesn’t get involved in a game, if only while channel-surfing. But life for Kubek is different, by his own design.
“I don’t like to make speeches,” he said. “I’ve given maybe two in my life. When I first heard I was getting the award, I told Margaret, ‘I can go to my thesaurus and write a very eloquent speech,’ and she said, ‘Ha!’ Or maybe I can pull out some old jokes from Garagiola or Uecker, or maybe a message speech. Margaret said, ‘No, just get off quickly.’ It’ll be emotional, which is good, but I don’t need messages. I sent my message when I walked away.”
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COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — For a few days here, Tony Kubek will finally be back in baseball, celebrated by the Hall of Fame for a broadcasting career he left abruptly 15 years ago.
Kubek, the onetime Yankee shortstop, walked into the Otesaga Hotel on Friday, talking rapidly, greeting friends, acting as if he were preparing to call a game.
He embraced Whitey Ford, teased Bob Costas, commiserated about life as a middle infielder with Harold Reynolds of the MLB Network and, characteristically showing little inhibition, asked Reynolds, the former Mariners second baseman, about the legal problems that got Reynolds fired from ESPN.
On the lawn outside the hotel, Costas recalled a hot day in Boston in the 1980s when he and Kubek were at Fenway Park for NBC, Costas as the game announcer, Kubek as the analyst. Costas said on the air that the network’s cameras had to be wrapped in dry ice to keep them functioning. “I’ll wrap your head in dry ice, you lippy kid,” Costas remembered Kubek responding, his tart humor in full display.
And on Friday, two decades later, it was as if nothing had changed. As they finished taking pictures, Kubek merrily said of Costas, “Isn’t he a cute little fella?”
Said Costas: “I’m teasible.”
Apart from the banter, Kubek and his wife, Margaret, are using the weekend as a family outing, with his two sons, two daughters and five grandchildren in attendance. Underlining Kubek’s individuality, they are staying in a house separate from the Hall of Famers’ headquarters at the Otesaga.
And when the weekend ends, the Kubeks will drive back home with one of their daughters to continue their lives without baseball and resume helping the Hmong community in Appleton, Wis., where they live most of the year.
Kubek’s last visit to this upstate New York village came 44 years ago when the Yankees faced the Philadelphia Phillies in the annual Hall of Fame game. His last assignment as the Yankees’ analyst on the MSG Network was in 1994. Then, as the players’ strike moved into its second month, he resigned, upset with the greed that he felt had taken hold of the sport.
“People finally realize it was a divorce,” he said the other day by telephone from his summer home on a lake in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. “I just got a different life. It was time to move on. More than once, people have said, ‘You must hate baseball,’ but I never said that because I don’t. I didn’t like some of the things I saw. I’m not averse to either side making money, but money was becoming more important than the game itself.”
A conversation with Kubek is a reminder of what he brought to a broadcast — an acute intelligence, a contrarian’s view and a no-frills demeanor — and why he is receiving the Ford C. Frick Award from the Hall for nearly 30 years of broadcast service with NBC, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Yankees. Kubek said he tried to follow the advice of Chet Simmons, the former NBC Sports president, who told him, “Every word that comes out of your mouth, you’re responsible for.”
It was advice from which he never wavered. “I had the easiest job in the world with Tony,” said Dewayne Staats, Kubek’s MSG partner. “He was always there, on point, never superfluous, with something that always pertained to strategy. He was always engaged.”
Kubek’s brand of technical analysis brought him renown, but his criticism of the Yankees principal owner, George Steinbrenner, became an unavoidable part of his legacy, too. Kubek’s time with MSG, from 1990 to 1994, coincided with Yankee teams that did not reach the postseason, and Steinbrenner’s meddling and bombast became natural targets.
Bob Gutkowski, who hired Kubek at MSG, described the day Steinbrenner came to his office armed with 10 or 12 tapes that he felt proved that Kubek had a strong antipathy toward both him and the Yankees.
“This was after George was reinstated from his ban, and maybe an hour after it was announced, he called and said, ‘I’m coming to your office, I’ve got a problem with Kubek,’ ” Gutkowski said, recalling that having heard that Steinbrenner was building a video case against Kubek, he had countered with a pile of tapes showing positive comments.
“He was after Tony’s head and he wasn’t going to get it. So we closed the door and went at it. He’s flipping in an anti-Tony tape and I’m flipping in a pro-Tony tape. We’re arguing but finally, we listened to each other, and we walked out arm in arm, laughing. For all his bluster, he respected people who went back at him.”
To Costas, the Kubek-Steinbrenner conflict, while intriguing, resonates more in New York than it does nationally. For him, Kubek’s legacy stands on its own, with the Yankees just being a part.
“I think fans remember that he worked with Garagiola and Gowdy,” Costas said, referring to Joe Garagiola and Curt Gowdy. “They associate him with every World Series and All-Star Game for many years and think of him as a straightforward guy whose judgments could be trusted. He thought of himself as a baseball man with a microphone, and while he developed a certain amount of broadcasting craftsmanship, he was largely disdainful of showmanship.”
Kubek’s television era is now a lifetime ago. Kubek is 73. Steinbrenner is 79 and ailing. The steroid era took hold after Kubek departed. MSG lost the Yankee rights to the YES Network. NBC no longer carries baseball. Major League Baseball has its own network. There has been labor peace since the disastrous strike.
Kubek’s distance from the sport makes it unlikely that he will discuss Steinbrenner or the current state of baseball during his speech Sunday afternoon. He has said for years that he hasn’t watched any major league baseball games since retiring and that he doesn’t keep up with current players. Costas takes his old friend at his word yet marvels a bit that he doesn’t get involved in a game, if only while channel-surfing. But life for Kubek is different, by his own design.
“I don’t like to make speeches,” he said. “I’ve given maybe two in my life. When I first heard I was getting the award, I told Margaret, ‘I can go to my thesaurus and write a very eloquent speech,’ and she said, ‘Ha!’ Or maybe I can pull out some old jokes from Garagiola or Uecker, or maybe a message speech. Margaret said, ‘No, just get off quickly.’ It’ll be emotional, which is good, but I don’t need messages. I sent my message when I walked away.”
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