UVA’s Mike Cubbage among former Charlottesville Valley Leaguers to make the Majors

Lane High graduate Mike Cubbage played Major League Baseball for eight seasons, once challenged Rod Carew and Fred Lynn for a batting title and then managed in The Show after his playing career in an interim role for the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox.

And his path to the majors got a jumpstart by playing in the Valley Baseball League at a young age for his hometown team in 1970. “I was 17 and my first game was at Waynesboro,” Cubbage, who passed away last August in South Carolina, told this reporter in 2020. “My first two at-bats, I struck out against some really good curveballs. My third at-bat I hit a home run.”

Cubbage, a member of the UVA Baseball Hall of Fame as well as the state of Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, played briefly for the Staunton Braves before he was signed by the Washington Senators in 1971 after he was drafted in the second round after playing for the Cavaliers. The infielder played for Texas, Minnesota and the New York Mets from 1974-1981, and there is Youtube.com video of him hitting a pinch-hit grand slam for the Twins against Seattle on Aug. 8, 1978.

Cubbage is one of three former Charlottesville Hornets to play in the Majors. And the other two also had lengthy MLB careers: lefty pitchers Mike Caldwell and Rick Honeycutt.

A native of North Carolina, Caldwell was drafted by the San Diego Padres out of North Carolina State in the 12th round in 1971. He posted a record of 137-130 in 475 games with 307 starts and 18 saves for the Padres, San Franciso Giants and Milwaukee Brewers.

San Diego was not as fortunate with its second-round pick in 1971. Jay Franklin of James Madison High in Vienna pitched just three games in the Majors – just weeks out of high school – and his post-playing career has been filled with unemployment and mental health challenges, according to a story in The Washington Post. Another pitcher for the Padres in 1971 was Clay Kirby, a native of Arlington who went to the former Washington-Lee High.

Caldwell went 22-9 with a league-high 23 complete games with the Brewers in 1978, was second in Cy Young voting to Ron Guidry of the New York Yankees and pitched a shutout in the 1982 World Series for Milwaukee against the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1.

Honeycutt was drafted out of high school by the Baltimore Orioles but didn’t sign. He did sign with the Pittsburgh Pirates after he was chosen in the 17th round out of the University of Tennessee in 1972.

The Georgia product went 109-143 with an ERA of 3.72 in the majors with 797 appearances, 268 starts and 38 saves for Seattle, Texas, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland, the Yankees and Cardinals.

He appeared in the postseason an impressive seven times and 11 different series, winning his only World Series ring with Oakland in 1989. Honeycutt was 3-0 in the playoffs despite a 6.93 ERA. Another pitcher for Oakland in 1989 was Brian Snyder, a product of Chantilly High in Northern Virginia. Honeycutt was the Dodgers pitching coach for several years through the 2019 season. “It’s been a pleasure being home all this time,” he told a Dodgers’ fan website from Tennessee in 2020 after his role was diminished, partly due to the pandemic.

Cubbage, a lefty swinger, had his best season in 1978, with the Twins.

“I had a really good first half that year,” he recalled. “At the All-Star break, I think I was third in the league in hitting. Of course, Carew was leading, and then Fred Lynn (of the Red Sox), and then Mike Cubbage. It is the best first half I had. I could never put a full season together.” Hall of Famer and teammate Carew hit .333 to lead the league while Cubbage finished at a career-best .282.

Cubbage hit .258 in his career with a homer in last at-bat in The Show, on Oct. 3, 1981, for the Mets against Jeff Reardon and the Montreal Expos. Cubbage was the interim manager for the Mets for seven games in 1991 and in spring training with the Red Sox in 2002. The 2002 Red Sox roster included Chris Haney, a pitcher from Orange County High and the son of former MLB catcher Larry Haney. Jacob Haney, the grandson of Larry Haney, played at William & Mary and was with the Charlottesville Tom Sox in 2021.

Charlottesville native Cubbage managed the Lynchburg Mets in the Carolina League for two years, and his pitching coach was Jim Bibby, a long-time resident of Lynchburg who pitched for the Pirates in the 1979 World Series. Cubbage, who also managed the Norfolk Tides, played for managers Gene Mauch and Billy Martin, among others.

After his playing career, Cubbage was a scout and was with the Washington Nationals in 2019. Late in the season he was scouting the Brewers and lefty reliever Josh Hader, and it was Juan Soto who had a bases loaded single in the last of the eighth off Hader as Washington beat Milwaukee in the wild card game that year en route to a World Series title.

Cubbage is also in the Valley League Hall of Fame. Cubbage was on the coaching staff with the Houston Astros when new Hall of Famer Billy Wagner was with Houston.

In addition, five former Charlottesville Tom Sox have made the majors, according to information supplied by long-time Staunton Braves general manager Steve Cox. They are Wyatt Langford (debut with Texas in 2024); Vinnie Pasquantino (Kansas City in 2022); Carlos Rodriguez (Brewers in 2024); Kyle Nicolas (Pirates in 2023); and Carson Spiers, a Clemson product who broke in with the Cincinnati Reds in 2023. He has been teammates on the Reds with former Cavalier lefty Andrew Abbott.

Langford had just four at-bats with the University of Florida in 2021 – then that summer hit .346 with three homers and 20 RBI for the Tom Sox. He was the first player since Jackie Robinson, and the first rookie ever in the Majors, to hit for the cycle, a walk off grand slam and inside the park homer in the same season. Langford had 15 homers this season through the All-Star break.

Pasquantino (hitting .272 with 15 homers through July 17) is the only member of the group to play high school ball in Virginia – at James River. The Richmond native starred at ODU before he was drafted by the Royals.

In spring training this year, Nicolas had a locker in the back row of the Pirates’ clubhouse in Bradenton, Fla. He was drafted out of Ball State by the Miami Marlins after playing in the VBL.  The right-hander was 0-0 in 10 games with an ERA of 7.50 with the Pirates this year before being sent to Triple-A on June 11.

Notes

• The Tom Sox had nine former players taken in the MLB draft earlier this month, according to John Leonard of allthingsvalleyleague.com. That is most of any VBL team – and the Tom Sox have had the most picks in the last three years combined of any VBL team. The alums taken this year were Zachary Root, LHP, in the first round out of Arkansas by the Dodgers; Chris Arroyo, fifth round, 1B, Virginia, Miami); Josh Tate, eighth round, OF, Georgia Southern, Pittsburgh; Tyler McLoughlin, 10th round, RHP, Georgia, Mets;  Justin Thomas, 11th round, OF, Arkansas, Houston; Tayler Montiel, 12th round, LHP, Tulane, Arizona; Logan Forsythe, 13th round, RHP, Louisiana Tech, Atlanta; Zack Mack, 16th round, RHP, Loyola Marymount, Mets; Liam Best, 19th round, RHP, Appalachian State, St. Louis.
• The head coach for the Tom Sox this year is Randy Tomlin, who grew up in Madison Heights, and pitched at Liberty University and for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The pitching coach last summer for the Tom Sox was Adam Dofflemyer, a former pitcher at Spotswood High in Penn Laird and Lynchburg University. He just finished his first season as director of pitching development at Notre Dame after gigs at George Washington and Mary Washington. The head coach at Notre Dame is Shawn Stiffler, the former VCU coach who played at George Mason in Fairfax for retired legend Billy Brown.
• Former Staunton Braves drafted this month were Will McCausland, seventh round, RHP, Ole Miss, Cleveland; Nick Rodriguez, 10th round, 2B, Missouri State, Los Angeles Angels; and Andrew Shaffner, 15th round, RHP, NC State, Cincinnati. No former ex-Waynesboro Generals were taken. The only former Harrisonburg Turks player selected was Cameron Nelson, an outfielder from Wake Forest who went to Colorado in the fifth round.
• Andrew Abbott joined a select group of Virginia natives to make an MLB All-Star team as a pitcher. The list includes (but is not limited to) Hall of Famer and University of Virginia product Eppa Rixey; new Hall of Famer Billy Wagner of Marion and Ferrum; Justin Verlander, from Goochland and ODU; Mike Williams, a Radford native who pitched at Virginia Tech; Joe Saunders, who pitched at West Springfield High and Virginia Tech; and Jim Coates, who was from Farnham on the Eastern Shore and was an All-Star with the Yankees in 1960. Vic Raschi, who was born in Massachusetts and went to William & Mary, won six World Series rings with the Yankees in the 1940s and 1950s and made the All-Star team four times as a pitcher.
• Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh, who was born in Harrisonburg and grew up in North Carolina, won the Home Run Derby during All-Star week. He is the only player born in Harrisonburg or Rockingham County to make an MLB All-Star team.

David Driver is a Harrisonburg native who played baseball at Turner Ashby, Harrisonburg Legion Post 27, EMU (one light-hitting season) and for Clover Hill in the RCBL. He is the co-author of “From Tidewater to the Shenandoah: Snapshots from Virginia’s Rich Baseball Legacy,” which is available on the websites of Amazon and Barnes and Noble and at daytondavid.com.