Mychael Urban
Mychael Urban is a longtime Bay Area sportswriter and multi-media personality.
Biography
Education
Mychael is a graduate of the University of San Francisco, where he majored in Communications and was a left-handed pitcher for the baseball team. He also attended Canada College in Redwood City, where the basketball and baseball teams for which he played won the school's first Central Coast Conference championships in each sport.
Media
From October 2009 through October 2011, Mychael was the "MLB Insider" for Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, providing online coverage of both Bay Area baseball teams in addition to serving as an in-studio analyst and on-site reporter for pre- and post-game shows. He also hosted, after the 2010 season, the network's "Hot Stove Show" every Tuesday. Prior to joining CSNBA, he covered the Oakland A's and was a National Writer for MLB.com from 2001-2009.
Radio
Mychael has been a fixture on local Bay Area radio since 2002, first with KNBR and then 95.7 The Game. He hosted KNBR's weekend edition of "SportsPhone 680" before and after every San Francisco Giants broadcast from 2007 thru 2010. In 2011, Urban was replaced full-time by Marty Lurie, who was hired part-time in 2010, in part because Urban’s work with CSNBA prevented him from hosting his pre- and post-game shows during the Giants’ postseason run, which culminated in the team’s first World Series title since moving to the West Coast from New York for the start of the 1958 season. KNBR brought Urban back after the 2011 All-Star break, but he left for more regular air time at The Game shortly thereafter. While at The Game, he started with frequently co-hosting The Wheelhouse" with John Lund, who now works for KNBR, and has since been a regular part-time host and co-host, filling in when needed in every time slot. Urban also has hosted "Inside the Bigs" every weekend during the baseball season since 2011.
"Aces" Book
Mychael is the author of the book "Aces: The Last Season on the Mound with the Oakland A's Big Three: Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito.” It was published and released by Wiley & Sons in March 2005 and made the San Francisco Chronicle Best-Seller list.
Personal
Urban spent the summer of 1996 as the pitching coach for the Slovakian National Baseball Team, which finished fifth at the European Championships in Hull, England. The team had never before finished higher than 13th in a major international competition, and Slovakia had the lowest team ERA in the tournament. Urban also has coached at the high school and youth levels, and from 2010-2017 provided pitching lessons for children ages 6–18. Mychael was born in San Francisco, grew up in Redwood City, and currently lives in Livermore with his wife and two daughters. He maintains a personal blog—Urbs Unchained—and frequently contributes to a variety of publications and websites, including 957thegame.com. In October 2012, he left full-time media work while recovering from alcoholism and went to work for Generations Healthcare, for whom he was a licensed Nursing Home Administrator, running Skilled Nursing facilities in Daly City and San Jose. In August 2017 he left the healthcare industry in an effort to return to full-time media work.[1]