Instead of facing his former teammates Tuesday, a rainout gave Michael Dubee a chance to go out to dinner with them.
Dubee, a relief pitcher who now plays for the Trenton Thunder, was on the Curve's roster for part of the 2009 season and for the greater parts of the 2010 and 2011 campaigns.
With Trenton visiting Peoples Natural Gas Field for the first time this season, Dubee had the opportunity to catch up with some of his old teammates. And while Dubee received many high-fives and hugs from current Curve players outside the locker room, he said he knows his team's trip is still about baseball.
"A lot of them are my friends, but at the same time we have a job to do when the game starts," Dubee said. "I'll go have dinner with them now, but tomorrow when the game rolls around, it's game time."
Dubee was very effective out of the bullpen while he was a member of the Curve. In 114 appearances over a three-year span, he was 11-8 with a 2.75 ERA and 12 saves.
In 2010, Dubee was a key member of the Curve's Eastern League championship team, as he went 6-2 with a 2.24 ERA. Eleven players from that championship team already have made it to the majors, which Dubee said is great.
"The fact I get to watch half of them on TV now makes it better," Dubee said. "I couldn't be happier for those guys."
Though he posted good numbers for the Curve, Dubee never made an impact at the Triple-A level, mainly because he never had much of an opportunity.
In his time in the Pirates organization - despite his great success in Double-A - Dubee pitched in just five games for Triple-A Indianapolis (one in 2010, four last season). In his four appearances in 2011, Dubee struggled, as he allowed six earned runs in 5 2/3 innings before being sent back down to Altoona.
"I had the opportunity to go to Triple-A, and I didn't pitch very well. I look at it that way," said Dubee, who is the son of Philadelphia Phillies pitching coach Rich Dubee. "They sent me up there, and last year I didn't do good enough, so I came back."
So far for the Thunder in 2012, Dubee is 2-0 with a 3.76 ERA in 21 games. He actually started this year still in the Pirates organization but was released by the club at the end of spring training.
"I don't think either of us saw it in my best interest to come back here and pitch," Dubee said. "Look at the numbers, how they were in spring training, there's a lot of the guys on the roster that are in Indianapolis' rotation or in their bullpen. And I guess they didn't see a fit for me."
