Chronicles of the Lads

During the game yesterday, Bob Boone came to visit Rory and Guby in the booth. Boone used to manage Gubicza in KC, and Guby told the story of pitching in a game against the Angels, and he had two outs in the ninth, and Boone came to take him out with Garret Anderson coming to the plate. Gubicza told Boone he'd get Anderson to hit a groundball, Boone believed him and let him stay in the game.

Guby then coerced Anderson to hit a groundball -- which he did for a base hit. And out came Boone to take Gubicza out of the game.

This is exactly the kind of story that doesn't seem to be true at all, but I went into Mark Gubicza's records and ... it happened.

May 9, 1996. Bottom of the ninth, Royals up 8-2, Gubicza enters the inning with 107 pitches. He strikes out Tim Salmon looking on five pitches, gives up a first-pitch single to Chili Davis, but then takes eight pitches to retire JT Snow.

So you can see Boone's thinking, let him finish the game, when the inning begins. But now he's up to 121 pitches, the lefty Anderson is coming up, you got your shot, but Snow took it out of you. He comes out, Guby insists on getting the last out, Boone acquiesces. And then:

G Anderson Single to RF (Ground Ball thru 2B-1B)

And then Boone came out and removed Gubicza, and Julio Valera got the last out.

I guess that's a pretty memorable circumstance for Guby, but that's still over a decade ago, and he nailed it.