Theodore Rodger Kubiak (born May 12, 1942) is an American former professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

player and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

. He played as an infielder in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

from through , most notably as a member of the Oakland Athletics dynasty that won three consecutive

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

championships between 1972 and 1974. He also played for the Milwaukee Brewers,

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

, Texas Rangers, and the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penn ...

Baseball career

Kubiak grew up in

Highland Park, New Jersey Highland Park is a borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States in the New York City metropolitan area. The borough is located on the northern banks of the Raritan River, in the Raritan Valley region. As of the 2020 United States Cens ...

and is a graduate of Highland Park High School, class of 1960. He was signed by the Kansas City Athletics as an amateur

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

before the 1961 baseball season. He played in the

minor leagues Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in No ...

for six seasons before making his major league debut at the age of 24 with the Athletics on April 14,

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

. The Athletics franchise moved from Kansas City to

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

prior to the 1968 season. On December 7, 1969, the Athletics traded Kubiak along with

George Lauzerique George Albert Lauzerique (born July 22, 1947) is a Cuban former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher from 1967 to 1970 for the Kansas City / Oakland Athletics and the Milwaukee Brewers. 196 ...

to the Milwaukee Brewers for

Ray Oyler Raymond Francis Oyler (August 4, 1937 – January 26, 1981) was an American baseball player, a major league shortstop for the Detroit Tigers (1965–1968), Seattle Pilots (1969), and California Angels (1970). He is best remembered as the slic ...

and Diego Segui. Kubiak produced the best offensive statistics of his career while playing for the Brewers in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

, posting career-highs in games played (152), batting average (.252), home runs (4) and runs batted in (41). Kubiak still holds the Brewers' record for most RBIs in a single game with 7 (later equalled by 8 other Milwaukee players), which he set at Boston on July 18, 1970, the team's first year in Milwaukee.

Managerial career

Kubiak reentered baseball as a manager and took over as the manager of the Modesto A's in mid-1989 from

Lenn Sakata Lenn Haruki Sakata (born June 8, 1954) is an American former professional baseball player who played in the Major Leagues primarily as a utility player from 1977 to 1987 and was a member of the Baltimore Orioles 1983 World Series Championship tea ...

. He remained in Modesto for four more years before joining the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...

organization in 1994. He managed the Canton–Akron Indians in 1994 and 1995, then moved down to the

New York–Penn League The New York–Penn League (NYPL) was a Minor League Baseball league that operated in the northeastern United States from 1939 to 2020. Classified as a Class A Short Season league, its season started in June, after major-league teams signed th ...

for five years. He was with the Watertown Indians from 1996 to 1998, and the

Mahoning Valley Scrappers The Mahoning Valley Scrappers are a collegiate summer baseball team of the MLB Draft League. They are located in Niles, Ohio, a city in the valley of the Mahoning River, and play their home games at Eastwood Field. From 1999 to 2020, they were ...

in 1999 and 2000. He moved up to the

Columbus RedStixx The Columbus RedStixx were a minor league baseball team in Columbus, Georgia. They were a Class A team in the South Atlantic League, and a farm team of the Cleveland Indians. The RedStixx played home games at Golden Park, except during 1996. The ...

in 2001, the

Kinston Indians The Kinston Indians were a Minor League Baseball team of the Carolina League (CL) located in Kinston, North Carolina, from 1978 to 2011. They played their home games at Grainger Stadium, which opened in 1949. The team began play in 1978 as the Ki ...

in 2002, then returned to Mahoning Valley in 2003. From 2004 to 2008 he was the minor league defensive coordinator for the

. In 2009, he returned to managing with the Arizona Extended League Indians, in 2010 managed the

Lake County Captains The Lake County Captains are a Minor League Baseball team in Eastlake, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, that plays in the Midwest League as the High-A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians. The Captains joined the Class A Midwest League following ...

to the

Midwest League The Midwest League is a Minor League Baseball league established in 1947 and based in the Midwestern United States. A Class A league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganizat ...

Championship, and in 2012 he returned to Mahoning Valley to begin his 4th season at the helm of the Scrappers.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kubiak, Ted 1942 births Living people Kansas City Athletics players Milwaukee Brewers players Oakland Athletics players San Diego Padres players St. Louis Cardinals players Texas Rangers players Major League Baseball infielders Highland Park High School (New Jersey) alumni People from Highland Park, New Jersey Sportspeople from New Brunswick, New Jersey Major League Baseball second basemen Major League Baseball third basemen Major League Baseball shortstops Minor league baseball managers Sarasota Sun Sox players Binghamton Triplets players Lewiston Broncs players Dallas Rangers players Fort Worth Cats players Austin Senators players Birmingham Barons players Vancouver Mounties players Baseball players from New Jersey