Local senior league baseball star gets call to the hall

Longtime Eden Prairie Over-35 baseball star Carlos Ubiera will be inducted into the Minnesota Senior Men’s Amateur Baseball Association (MSMABA) Hall of Fame on Friday, Aug. 9, in a ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park, 430 Skaro St., St. Peter.

A reception at 5:30 p.m. will precede the 6:30 p.m. enshrinement and the opening game of the 2024 MSMABA State Tournament.

Ubiera compiled a sterling 25-year MSMABA career with the Eden Prairie Lions Tap team as its standout shortstop and leading hitter every year. 

A native of the Dominican Republic, Ubiera grew up in the resort city of San Pedro de Macorís, where he and his boyhood friends wound baseballs out of yarn and played stickball in the fields and streets of their hometown.

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As he gained polish in the sport and completed high school, Ubiera received attention from the Los Angeles Dodgers, but a weightlifting accident ended his major league dreams. 

He became an event coordinator at a resort, gave dancing lessons and met his wife-to-be, Janet, in 1990.  He and Janet married in 1998, the same year Carlos moved to Eden Prairie.

Ubiera – with Janet at every game – starred year after year for Lions Tap. He holds every Lions Tap batting record, averaging well over .400 almost every year, with a career-high of .556 in 2005.

Ubiera, a longtime Eden Prairie resident who now lives in Savage, retired from playing in MSMABA games after the 2022 season, but he remains active in baseball. He plays for the Eden Prairie Saints in a league for players in their 50s and 60s and was named the most valuable player for his national Roy Hobbs World Series Apple Valley team in 2022.

Other Lions Tap players in the MSMABA Hall of Fame include Pat Thompson, the late Scott Stein and Dave Sobiech.