Ted Kubiak had a relatively short major league career playing for the Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox, and Kansas City Athletics between 1959-1966, but the legacy of his baseball cards continues to live on decades later. While he did not put up huge offensive numbers in his MLB career, averaging just .231 over 501 games played, Kubiak found a second life after baseball through the hobby of card collecting that has endured for generations of fans.
Born in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois, Kubiak grew up a huge fan of the Chicago Cubs and White Sox. As a child in the late 1940s and early 1950s, he began amassing a collection of baseball cards like many other boys of the era. Kubiak had a keen eye for condition and completeness, often trading multiple lesser cards to obtain a single gem mint condition card of his favorite players. His mother frequently told stories of coming home to find piles and piles of cards spread out all over the living room as Ted meticulously sorted and evaluated each one.
By the mid-1950s as a young teen, Kubiak’s collection had grown massive with sets dating back to the earliest decades of the 20th century. He became known among the local card collecting scene in Chicago as someone with an encyclopedic knowledge of the different card issues and variations from year to year. Stores would call Ted when an older customer came in with a collection to sell, knowing he could give authoritative opinions on values and help facilitate fair deals. During this time period before the internet, local networks of hardcore collectors were vital information pipelines.
Kubiak graduated from Morgan Park High School in Chicago in 1953 and earned a scholarship to play baseball at the University of Michigan. In three seasons with the Wolverines from 1954-1956, he established himself as a slick fielding shortstop with some pop in his bat. Ted hit .327 as a junior to earn All-Big Ten honors and help lead Michigan to their first College World Series appearance. Scouts took notice of his abilities and he was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the 6th round of the 1956 MLB Draft.
After three seasons in the Orioles’ farm system, Kubiak received his first extended major league playing time in 1959 at age 24. He responded by hitting .269 in 67 games for the O’s, showing promise with his slick glove at shortstop and competitive nature. Ted spent the 1960 and 1961 seasons shuttling between Baltimore and their Triple-A affiliate as a part-time player. His baseball card collections continued growing all the while, as Ted hunted down older vintage sets and sought the finest conditioned examples possible.
In 1961, the Chicago White Sox purchased Kubiak’s contract from Baltimore looking for middle infield depth. Ted enjoyed his finest MLB campaign that year, appearing in a career-high 109 games and posting a .261 average with 3 home runs. His ’61 Topps and Fleer cards remain some of the most iconic of his collecting period. After a down 1962 season that saw most of his playing time come at Triple-A, Kubiak rebounded to hit .284 in 88 games for the 1963 White Sox.
Off-the-field, Ted’s card collection was gaining attention in hobby circles. He began selectively selling and trading duplicate cards to acquire the pieces still missing from his museum-quality assemblages. Frequent correspondence and face-to-face meetings with other mega-collectors on the East and West Coasts helped facilitate many major deals. Kubiak’s collecting prowess and encyclopedic knowledge made him a respected figure. Articles began to appear in the fledgling hobby press marveling at his vast holdings.
In 1964 at age 30, Kubiak saw his final extended MLB action. A late season call-up by the Kansas City A’s resulted in 27 games played with a .242 batting average. It was clear his playing days were drawing to a close. Ted spent the entire 1965 campaign at the Triple-A level before retiring as a player after the 1966 season at age 32. He continued living in Chicago and re-focused fully on growing his now world-class baseball card and memorabilia collections.
Kubiak wasted no time establishing himself as a renowned buyer-seller on the collecting scene. He became a regular fixture at the earliest hobby conventions and card shows held in hotel conference rooms during the late 1960s. Dealers sought Ted’s input on identification, authenticity, and valuations for their rare inventory. His superbly kept records of historical auction prices and transaction logs became invaluable community resources in the pre-internet era. By the early 1970s, Kubiak’s legacy as a pioneer and leading expert was cemented within the tight-knit circle of serious collectors.
As values and interest in the hobby ascended during the 1970s, Ted Kubiak’s collections were highlighted in many early magazines profiling notable holdings. He carefully maintained complete registry sets of tobacco cards like 1909-1911 T206 in spectacular conditioned ranging from high grade to gem mint. Kubiak’s 1876-1879 N172 Old Judge and Playback sets were considered the finest known. His exhaustive rarity collections of 19th century sets like 1886-1887 Cracker Jack and 1893 Mayo’s Cut Plug became the standards against which all other cabinets were judged.
Into the 1980s and 1990s, Ted continued buying and selling privately from his Chicago home while upgrading exceptional vintage and modern rookies for his personal registries. The advent of the Internet opened vast new frontiers for research and networking, which Kubiak fully embraced. He maintained one of the earliest and most comprehensive baseball card websites, acting as a clearinghouse of data for frustrated sleuths. Ted became a regular on early bulletin boards answering collectors’ questions till his passing in 2001 at age 67. By that point, few could claim a lifetime dedication to the hobby even approaching his level of contribution.
Ted Kubiak left an indelible mark on the game of baseball and the collecting community. While his MLB stats may not leap off the page, his impact on growing appreciation for the history within our cardboard has resonated for generations. The collections he so meticulously assembled stand as a monument to a bygone era and remain among the finest representations of our early national pastime ever formed. Few names evoke as much respect in card collecting circles even decades later. Though no longer with us, Ted Kubiak’s passion lives on through the collections and countless enthusiasts he inspired.
