Mark Gubicza

Mark Steven Gubicza (born August 14, 1962), nicknamed "Gubie", is an American former professional baseball pitcher and sportscaster.

Mark Gubicza was born on August 14, 1962, in Philadelphia.

He is the son of Anthony Gubicza Jr., who pitched in the Chicago White Sox organization for three years and later served as a part-time coach for the Villanova Wildcats.

Gubicza is of Hungarian and Polish ancestry.

Growing up, Gubicza was interested in several sports, including baseball, basketball, football, hockey, and boxing.

In Little League, he played shortstop and pitched.

In one 17-game stretch in Little League, Gubizca accrued 57 hits.

Gubicza attended the William Penn Charter School where he was teammates with eventual professional player Rubén Amaro Jr. Though he grew up in Philadelphia, he idolized Baltimore Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer.

Coming out of high school, Gubicza had collegiate offers from Alabama, Georgia, Duke, and USC, among others.

Gubicza and his father were present at Veterans Stadium for game six of the 1980 World Series, witnessing the Philadelphia Phillies win their first championship.

After being drafted out of William Penn Charter School in the second round of the 1981 Major League Baseball draft and playing three seasons in the minor leagues, Gubicza spent nearly all of his MLB career with the Royals, making all but two of his career appearances with the team.

Gubicza was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the second round of the 1981 Major League Baseball draft, the 34th overall pick.

He began his professional baseball career at age 18 with the Royals Gold in the Gulf Coast League, where he went 8-1 with a 2.25 earned run average (ERA) and 40 strikeouts in 56 innings.

Gubicza played for the Fort Myers Royals in the Florida State Class A League in 1982 and missed most of the season due to injuries.

In 1983, he was assigned to the Jacksonville Suns, the Royals Double-A team in the Southern League, managed by Gene Lamont.

Gubicza was 14–12 with a 2.72 ERA and 146 strikeouts in 196 innings.

Gubicza played for 14 major league seasons with the Kansas City Royals (1984–96) and Anaheim Angels (1997).

He is a color commentator for Los Angeles Angels games on Bally Sports West.

On April 6, 1984, Gubicza made his major league debut against the Cleveland Indians at Royals Stadium at the age of 21.

He pitched 6 innings, gave up 5 hits, 1 run, and struck out 4.

Through the first 10 starts of his career, Gubicza posted a 3.14 ERA across 66 innings.

He threw his first shutout on May 12 against the Boston Red Sox.

Despite Gubicza's pitching stats, he did not accrue many wins as the Royals had trouble providing run support during his starts.

Following a 3–0 loss to the Minnesota Twins on June 15 where he pitched 7 1⁄3 innings and gave up 2 earned runs, Gubicza dropped to a 3–6 record on the season.

It was the fourth time that season that the Royals were shut out while Gubicza was pitching and the seventh time that the Royals scored three or fewer runs in one of his starts.

By the end of the regular season, Gubicza had a 10–14 record with a 4.05 ERA across 189 innings.

The Royals offense provided an average of 4.06 runs per Gubicza start, nearly equal to his ERA.

Despite being a member of the four-man rotation that helped the Royals win the American League Western division that year, Gubicza did not get a chance to pitch in the 1984 American League Championship Series because Kansas City was swept in three games by the eventual World Series champion Detroit Tigers team.

For his sophomore season in 1985, Gubicza joined a five-man rotation alongside Bud Black, Danny Jackson, Charlie Leibrandt, and Bret Saberhagen.

The rotation posted a combined ERA below 3.00 through April and a combined 3.47 ERA by the end of the regular season, the sixth-best in the majors.

Gubicza posted similar statistics to his previous season: a 4.06 ERA through 177 1⁄3 innings worked.

His win-loss record improved to 14–10 as the Royals were able to provide him with more run support at an average of 4.70 runs per start.

Gubicza made his only career postseason appearances during the 1985 American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays.

In game one of the series, Gubicza entered the game as a relief pitcher in the fifth inning following a two-inning start by Leibrandt that resulted in five runs being surrendered.

He was a mainstay in the Royals starting rotation for years, earning back-to-back MLB All-Star selections in 1988 and 1989 and making an Opening Day start for the team in 1989.

Gubicza played a reduced number of games later in his career due to three arm injuries and a leg injury between 1990 and 1997.

He was traded to the Anaheim Angels before the 1997 season and retired after that year.

At the time of his retirement, Gubicza held the Royals franchise record for strikeouts with 1,366, was third in wins at 132, and was second in pitching wins above replacement with 38.0.

He was inducted into the Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame in 2006.

Following his playing career, Gubicza became a sportscaster and worked in various roles before joining the Angels broadcast booth on Fox Sports West as a color commentator in 2007.