Tony Kubek: Educating a generation of Canadian baseball fans

Broadcaster Tony Kubek, at right, with partner Don Chevrier called Toronto Blue Jays games right through the '80s on CTV.

Source: https://markhebscher.substack.com/p/why-isnt-chevy-in-the-canadian-baseball

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“(Tony Kubek) educated a whole generation of Canadian baseball fans without being condescending or simplistic…” ~ Toronto Star

From the moment the Toronto Blue Jays joined Major League Baseball in 1977 until they won their second American League East Division title in 1989, the action was brought to Canadians live by CTV.

For those first 13 seasons of Toronto’s existence, baseball analyst Tony Kubek provided his thoughts and insights, educating a whole generation of Canadian baseball fans as stated above.

When I read it was Kubek’s birthday today, it reminded me how big an influence he had on what I know about baseball.

Blue Jays Baseball
Although the Toronto Blue Jays began play in 1977, I really did not start watching them, or the Montreal Expos, play until 1981. The Expos were exclusively on the peasant vision dial on CBC Channel 9, with Duke Snider and Dave van Hore calling the games. The Blue Jays, who were owned by Labatts Brewery, were exclusively on CTV Channel 13 on Labatts Blue Jay Baseball, with Don Chevrier and Tony Kubek calling the games.

Chevrier, who I first saw on CBC Curling Classic, was the play-by-play man and Kubek was the colour man, or baseball analyst.

The Jays were most often on Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. Since the games were usually broadcast from Toronto or some other city in the Eastern Time Zone, they were usually “Joined in progress” or on tape delay, meaning they were taped earlier and played from the beginning. There was not as much danger of spoilers. There was no Internet, so no way to find out what was happening in real time.

There were also Blue Jay games on Sundays, at 1 p.m., and sometimes on Saturdays. It was not like later on when TSN came along, or now, where virtually every one of the Jays’ 162 games is broadcast live.

So, when I tuned in that first time in 1981, Tony Kubek was there to tell me about what was happening on the field.

The player
Tony Kubek brought a lot of experience as a player to the broadcast booth. He played his entire nine-year Major League career primarily at shortstop with the New York Yankees. He was 21 years old when he made his Major League debut in 1957, and would go on to be the American League Rookie of the Year in 1957.

Kubek was part of New York Yankee pennant-winning teams in 1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, and 1964. He won the World Series with the Yankees in 1958, 1961, and 1962. He was also an all-star in 1958, 1959, 1961, and 1962.

I recall watching a playoff or World Series game that flashed back to the 1960 World Series. The Yankees were leading in Game 7 against the Pittsburgh Pirates, when a ground ball to short took a funny hop and hit Kubek in the throat. My first thought, especially when I saw him on the ground clutching his throat was, “Is he okay?” The runner reached base safely, and the Pirates would go on to win the World Series on a walk-off home run by Bill Mazeroski. I also remember thinking how young Kubek looked, and he had a crew cut.

A back injury forced him to retire after the 1965 season.

Kubek played a total of 1,092 games, batting .266, with 1,109 hits, 57 home runs, 30 triples, 178 doubles, and he drove in 373 runs.

The broadcaster
Tony Kubek is one of two broadcasters who taught me all about baseball. The other was Joe Morgan. Kubek shared insights, talked about positioning, the history of the game, strategy, and so much more.

He was also humble. Until I saw that clip of the 1960 World Series, I did not know he was a former Major League ball player. He never talked about his playing days and, looking back, I really appreciate that. Talking about the good old days, like some former players do, makes the broadcast more about them than the game on the field.

Kubek never did that. Instead, he focused on the action on the field. He described Dave Stieb’s wicked slider; and why the Blue Jays platooned Garth Iorg and Rance Mulliniks at third, and Ernie Whitt and Buck Martinez behind the plate.

He talked about how Cliff Johnson provided leadership to the young outfielders who looked up to him; and that San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic produced a lot of great Major League shortstops such as Tony Fernandez.

He explained how Fernandez fielded on the run because, growing up in the Dominican Republic and playing on fields full of rocks, he learned early on if he fielded straight on the ball was liable to hit something and break his nose.

There was so much more.

The one thing he predicted, which I hoped was wrong but wasn’t, happened during the 1985 season. The Blue Jays were on their way to the best regular season in their history, when they won 99 games, the most in club history.

They were playing the Kansas City Royals and Kubek told everyone to watch out because the Royals had these young guns pitching for them – Danny Jackson, Mark Gubicza, and Bret Saberhagen. He said their names sounded funny, but they were going to make an impact.

All three of those pitchers would go on to help the Royals upset the Jays in the American League Championship Series then beat St. Louis to win the World Series.

And we all heard it first from Tony Kubek. Damn you Tony Kubek.

He also called Jays games for TSN, and worked 24 years for NBC calling regular season and playoff games. He began in 1966 with Jim Simpson, then later Curt Gowdy, Joe Garagiola, and Bob Costas. He also called 11 World Series, 14 American League Championship Series, and 10 All-Star Games. I recall at Christmas time in 1992, TSN replayed a game from the 1972 World Series between the Oakland A’s and the Cincinnati Reds, and I was surprised to see Kubek calling the game. It was also the first time I ever saw Curt Gowdy.

After the 1989 season, NBC lost the baseball broadcasting rights to CBS and Kubek stopped broadcasting games nationally. He also left TSN and CTV. He broadcast the last edition of NBC’s Game of the Week in 1989, which saw the Jays beat Baltimore at SkyDome to clinch the American League East Division. His last broadcast was also at SkyDome, when Oakland beat Toronto in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series to advance to the World Series.

Kubek moved on to broadcasting Yankee games on the MSG Network from 1990 to 1994, then retired.

He was awarded the Ford C. Frick Award in 2009 by the National Baseball Hall of Fame for a broadcaster making major contributions to baseball. He was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016, for his work broadcasting the Jays.

Book of Lists
There is one other odd memory I have of Tony Kubek. Every summer I would spend a couple weeks in Brooks with my cousins, and aunt and uncle. One year, my cousin Fred had a really cool book called “The Book of Lists”. It had lists covering a wide range of subjects. One was a page of lists of various baseball teams such as the “All-Puerto Rican Team” and the “All-Jewish Team”.

Kubek was the shortstop for the All-Polish Team. Interestingly, Bill Mazeroski who hit that World Series winning home run against Kubek in 1960, was also on that list.

Parting thoughts
Tony Kubek was a major influence on my baseball life. As I sit and think about all the bits and pieces I picked up from every Blue Jays telecast I watched, they can all be attributed to him.

I recall him talking about how the Jays had this young phenom at shortstop in the minors who was making more and more major league plays every day. His name was Tony Fernandez. Or how in 1984 when the Detroit Tigers started the season 35-5, that might be enough to carry them through the season to win the American League East Division over the Jays. It did.

There is so, so much more.

And it was all brought to me by Tony Kubek.