Tony Kubek was busy making a copy of a CD for his good friend and former World Series rival Sandy Koufax, on this particular day. The CD is a baseball symphony called “Forever Spring” by composer Fred Sturm.
Kubek is the narrator of the piece. Other than former teammate Moose Skowron’s Heroes in Pinstripes fantasy camp, that’s about as close to baseball the former Yankees shortstop and Hall of Fame broadcaster gets these days. That’s just fine by him, because life’s busy.
At age 73, Kubek’s passion is working with about 5,000 Hmong immigrants living in the Appleton, Wis., area. He teaches English to Hmong and Latinos and helps with their everyday needs and a scholarship program.
After copying the CD, Kubek was going out to buy rice for families in need. He pointed out that a 100-pound bag of rice used to sell for $27. Because of the ethanol gas craze, a 50-pound bag is now $50 – an increase of nearly 400 percent. His wife, Margaret, is equally devoted to the cause.
Kubek hasn’t watched a major league game on TV or in person since 1994.
“I can’t explain it,” he said. “I’ve got a new life, I guess. We’re involved in a lot of stuff here and we’ve made a lot of friends that way. It’s been fulfilling to do the things we’re doing.”
Kubek has deep respect for the Hmong people, who paid a steep price for being U.S. allies in the Vietnam War. “We got out and we left them there, that was it,” Kubek said, noting he learned of their incredible heroism from talking to people in area Asian markets.
This work began when Kubek donated some furniture about 10 years ago. Kubek always has been the type of person to practice what he preaches. When he thought the major league game was getting out of control and had enough of traveling, he walked away, still at the top of his broadcast game.
He will be inducted into the Hall this summer as winner of the Ford C. Frick Award. “I am very grateful,” he said of the honor given annually to a broadcaster.His family is a family of service. His wife was a social worker and his four children, two boys and two girls, all have jobs that are in service to others.
Kubek always was quick to credit his baseball family – Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra and the others – for his success.
“Like Mantle and Whitey and Yogi and Ellie Howard dragged me along on their coattails, that’s what my family does for me now,” he said with a laugh. “They tell me, ‘You better start doing something worthwhile, so I guess that’s the way it is. It’s neat to get involved after so many years of traveling as a player and as a broadcaster. Your whole life is consumed by the game.”
That’s all he ever knew.
“My dad was a professional baseball, who made it to Triple-A and hit .350 and had a contract to go to the St. Louis Browns,” Kubek said. “He couldn’t afford to take it because he had a family. He had to go work at a tannery instead.”
Kubek hasn’t been back to Yankee Stadium since ’94.
“I don’t look back at all,” he said. “I enjoyed it when I played; I enjoyed it when I was a broadcaster. I wasn’t burned out. It was just time to move on. It was time to go and I decided, ‘I’m going.’ “
He got an invitation to the final game at the Stadium, but declined. That night Ralph Terry called and asked why he wasn’t there.
Kubek told his old teammate that he received an invitation, but decided not to go. Kubek then asked Terry, “Why aren’t you there?”
“I didn’t get an invitation,” Terry said.
Kubek was stunned, noting Terry won 23 games in 1962, the most by a Yankees right-hander since 1928 and he pitched the 1-0, Game 7 gem to beat the Giants to win the World Series that year.
“For whatever reason, I didn’t want to go,” Kubek said he told his friend, “but as long as I know you didn’t go either, I’m happy.”
At one point in the “Forever Spring” symphony, Kubek narrates: “The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again.”
In Kubek’s busy and caring world, no matter the weather, it is always spring.