Shore's Streak Resurrects Memories of Kibler's Splendid Senior Season
Friday, April 22, 2016 | Baseball, Scott Carter
Gators junior goes for 13th consecutive win tonight
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Russ Kibler has never strayed too far from his Florida roots.
He grew up in Jacksonville and attended Sandalwood High, where he was a standout pitcher. He left home to pitch for Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City for two years, and then transferred to the University of Florida.
The greatest distance between Kibler and the Sunshine State occurred when he was a fourth-round pick in the 1984 MLB amateur draft by the Oakland A's. Kibler spent the next several seasons pitching for minor-league teams in outposts such as Medford, Ore., Madison, Wis., and Tacoma, Wash.
Still, the 54-year-old Kibler, who returned to UF to finish his degree in the late 1980s after his baseball career ended, recently was surprised when he read about Gators pitcher Logan Shore closing in on a school record for most consecutive wins.
His record.
"I didn't know I had this record,'' Kibler said. "I don't know whose record I broke. At the time I didn't even know about it. I was just trying to beat Miami in a regional. Times are different now. Stats are more available."
Now that he knows about it, Kibler will gladly pass it on to Shore, who seeks his 13th consecutive win Friday night when he takes the mound against Georgia.
Kibler doesn't know Shore, a junior right-hander from Minnesota who is 7-0 with a 2.50 ERA, but he knows all about him. He will be at McKethan Stadium tonight in recognition of the school-record 12-game win streak he now shares with Shore, who won all five of his postseason starts last season and hasn't stopped winning since.
"I'm very impressed with his command,'' Kibler said. "He pitches with a purpose. That sinker and dynamite change-up is fantastic. And he's got great defense behind him. Why wouldn't he just throw it in there and let them do it?"
While Shore has been Florida's Friday night starter the past three seasons, Kibler threw his final pitch for the Gators 32 years ago.
But what a season it was in 1984.
Kibler went 12-1 with 11 complete games to give first-year Florida coach Joe Arnold a reliable ace as Florida won the SEC East title and the SEC Tournament championship.
The Gators' run toward Omaha eventually ended in Tallahassee when Kibler, who was 5-1 against Miami during his two seasons with the Gators, suffered a 6-5 loss to the Hurricanes in regional play. It was Kibler's only loss during his senior season.
More than 30 years later, ask Kibler about his favorite baseball memory at UF, and he doesn't hesitate.
"Every time I beat Miami,'' he said. "They were strong at the time, especially in '83 when they had just come off their championship."
Kibler has plenty of stories from his career -- to read more about Kibler's time at UF, check this story out by Mark McLeod at FightinGators.com -- including a gutsy 5-3 complete-game victory over Alabama in the 1984 SEC Tournament. The win launched the Gators to the crown, but only after Arnold opted to keep Kibler in the game after running into trouble in the ninth.
Kibler escaped and the Gators then won two of three against Tennessee to win the tournament.
Kibler showed promise in the A's organization, winning seven games for Triple-A Tacoma in 1986. He was a teammate of several future mainstays for the A's teams that went to the World Series three consecutive seasons (1988-90), including future home run champ Mark McGwire.
His career ended in 1988 due to a bad shoulder. That's when Kibler returned to UF and graduated. He now stays close to sports as owner of Kibler Medical, which is a manufacturer's agent in the sports-medicine field, and the Athletic Bracing & Medical Supply, which features a wide range of products for injured athletes at AthleticBracing.com.
What kind of pitcher was he?
"I was really a fastball, slider and a 12-to-6 curve,'' he said. "Not until I got to pro ball did I establish a change-up. My out pitch was a slider. I'd get a lot of ground balls and a lot of first-pitch outs."
Sounds familiar to fans who have watched Shore work efficiently for the past three seasons.
Like Kibler, Shore had no idea he tied the record with a victory at Arkansas last weekend until it was pointed out to him.
If he beats the Bulldogs tonight to surpass Kibler's mark, Shore can expect a hearty handshake afterward from the man whose record he broke.
