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Former Yankees infielder and coach Mike Ferraro died last Saturday at 79 years old, the team announced.
A cause of death was not revealed.
Ferraro, who played for the team in 1966 and 1968, tied an MLB record for third basemen with 11 assists in a nine-inning game in a 4-1 win over the Senators.
Ferraro became a manager in the Yankees system after he retired in 1972, winning pennants at the Class-A, Double-A and Triple-A levels.
”I remember going up to see the Oneonta club and being impressed with how organized it was,” Gabe Paul, the Yankees president in the 1970s, told the New York Times. ”Mike had those kids using better fundamentals than some big league clubs. Nobody missed a cutoff man, things like that. And as a Yankee coach, he planned their spring training workouts. He’s organized.”
Ferraro admitted he didn’t think he was ready.
“I didn’t think that I could do it,” he told the Utica Observer-Dispatch in 2020. “When I was playing, I wasn’t thinking about what I would be doing afterwards.”
Ferraro coached with the Yankees in two stints from 1979-1982 and 1987-1991.
In Game 2 of the 1980 ALCS, with the Yankees trailing by one in the eighth inning against Kansas City, Ferraro decided to wave infielder Willie Randolph home, who was later thrown out.
The controversial move infuriated team owner George Steinbrenner.
”George never said anything to me in the clubhouse that night,” Ferraro said later. ”He just stared at me.”
After the Yankees were swept in the series, Steinbrenner wanted manager Dick Howser to fire Ferraro but Howser refused and was replaced as manager — despite winning 100 games in his first season.
Ferraro returned to the Yankees next season, and became the first base coach.
He became Cleveland’s manager in 1983 but was fired after 100 games.
Then he reunited with Howser in Kansas City and was part of the staff that won the 1985 World Series.
Ferraro managed the Royals in the second half of 1986 after Howser left because of a brain tumor.
He returned to the Bronx as a coach for five seasons and was later third-base coach for the Orioles in 1993.
Ferraro is survived by two children, two grandchildren and a brother.
