Former Yankees infielder and coach Mike Ferraro dies at age 79

The New York Yankees have announced the death of former infielder and coach Mike Ferraro at the age of 79. Ferraro passed on Saturday, with no cause of death revealed.

Ferraro played for the Yankees in 1966 and 1968 as well as the Seattle Pilots in their lone season in 1969 and later with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1972.

But Ferraro was best known for his time as a coach in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

He became a manager in the Yankees farm system after retiring 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 to the Utica Observer-Dispatch in 2020 that he didn't think at the time that he was ready: 'I didn't think that I could do it. When I was playing, I wasn't thinking about what I would be doing afterwards.' 

He coached in two separate stints with the Yankees from 1979-1982 and again from 1987-1991.

Ferraro famously waved Willie Randolph home in Game 2 of the 1980 ALCS with the Yankees down by one in the eighth inning against the Kansas City Royals. Randolph was thrown out and New York lost the game, drawing ire from team owner George Steinbrenner.

After being swept in the series, Steinbrenner wanted manager Dick Howser to fire Ferraro. Howser refused and he was eventually replaced as manager despite winning 100 games in his first season. Ferraro would return as first base coach the next season.

He would go on to be the manager of the Cleveland Indians in 1983, but was fired after 100 games.

Ferraro would reunite with Howser in Kansas City and won the 1985 World Series. He took over for Howser as manager in 1986. 

After a single season managing the Royals, Ferraro coached the Yankees again for five years before ending his career as a third-base coach for the Baltimore Orioles in 1993.