Mychael Gordon Urban was born in San Francisco and grew up in Redwood City. He graduated from Woodside High School where he played four sports, was a First-Team All-County selection in baseball and basketball, and earned All-Bay Area honors in the latter. Following high school graduation in 1986, he accepted an offer to attend and play baseball at USF but transferred to Cañada College in Redwood City for 1987 to 1989, where he played basketball and baseball for the Colts and became the first athlete in school history to win a Central Coast Conference Championship in two sports. He then returned to USF, where he was the Sports Editor of the Foghorn, the color analyst for USF basketball radio broadcasts, and hosted a late-night program on KUSF-FM. While earning his Degree in Communications and Journalism, he played baseball for two more years as a 6' 8" left-handed pitcher for the Dons, earning a spot on the All-West Coast Conference Scholar-Athlete list of honors. He graduated in 1991.
His career was in Sports media as a writer, TV commentator, and radio host dealing mostly with the Oakland A's and SF Giants. At different times he worked for MLB.com, NBC Sports Bay Area, KNBR Sports, 95.7 The Game, SF Examiner, NBC Winter Olympics, and The Athletic. Mychael was 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. Urban spent the summer of 1998 as the pitching coach for the Slov.
His brother Dan also attended USF and played baseball for the Dons from 1986 to 1987. They were both sons of Hal Urban, who played basketball for the Dons, graduated in 1962, and earned the Edward J. Griffin Award for his teaching and post-graduated work in the psychology of peak performance.
