Former Major League Baseball coach, manager and player Mike Cubbage has passed away at the age of 74.
Cubbage died Saturday after a year-long battle with cancer.
Cubbage was drafted twice by the then Washington Senators, and decided not to sign a professional contract in 1968 and instead play for the University of Virginia.
The now Texas Rangers drafted Cubbage again in 1971 and he made his MLB debut with the franchise after moving to the Dallas area in 1974.
Cubbage remained with the Rangers until 1976 and signed with the previous incarnation of the Washington Senators and played for the franchise until 1980.
Mike Cubbage passed away on Saturday at age 74 after a year-long battle with cancer.
As a player, Cubbage played for the Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins and New York Mets.
His final season of professional baseball was spent with the New York Mets, playing for them for a single season in 1981.
After retiring, Cubbage began coaching within the Mets organization and worked his way up, managing the teams’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates before working for the Mets themselves in 1990 and 1991.
Cubbage spent a week as the team’s interim manager after Bud Harrelson was fired near the end of the 1991 season.
Following the hiring of Jeff Torborg as full-time manager, Cubbage remained with the team until 1996.
Cubbage then spent five seasons as a bench coach with the Houston Astros before finishing his coaching career in the same position with the Boston Red Sox.
Cubbage also spent a brief stint as interim manager of the Red Sox, just before they broke their World Series curse in 2004.
