Mike Ferraro

Michael Dennis Ferraro (born August 18, 1944 in Kingston, New York) is an American former Major League Baseball third baseman. He played for the New York Yankees (1966; 1968), Seattle Pilots (1969), and the Milwaukee Brewers (1972). Ferraro threw and batted right-handed, stood 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) tall and weighed 175 pounds (79 kg).

Playing career

Ferraro was originally signed as an amateur free agent by the Yankees, where he would have two stints in the Majors with New York. He was left unprotected in the 1968 expansion draft, and he was selected by the Seattle Pilots, but after only five games and four at-bats, he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles, where he spent two years in the minors. However, in 1971, he was traded back to the Brewers (the Pilots moved to Milwaukee after only one season in Seattle), where he would play his only season as a regular player. In 1973, he was traded to the Minnesota Twins, but was promptly released. He tried one last comeback with the Yankees in 1974, but he never made it back to the Majors.

Managerial career

He turned to managing in the Yankee farm system in 1974, and he was highly successful in his five-year career (through 1978), winning pennants at Class A, Double-A and Triple-A levels. He was the Yankees' Major League third-base coach in 1979–80, but his tenure in that post included some controversy. After Game 2 of the 1980 American League Championship Series, owner George Steinbrenner publicly criticized him for waving home runner Willie Randolph, who was thrown out at home plate for the final out of the eighth inning with Kansas City leading New York, 3–2. Steinbrenner wanted Ferraro fired summarily, but he remained at his post through the end of the LCS, which New York lost. Then, his manager, Dick Howser, resigned over the Ferraro brouhaha. Ironically, Ferraro ultimately returned to New York as a coach in 1981–82, and again in 1987–88 and 1990–91.

Ferraro got his first managerial job with the Cleveland Indians to replace Dave Garcia after the 1982 season, but after a 40–60 start in 1983, he was fired. Ferraro coached with the Kansas City Royals from 1984 to 1986, working again with Howser, and when Howser stepped down to undergo treatment for a brain tumor in July 1986, Ferraro (himself a survivor of kidney cancer) finished the season. His Major League managerial record was 76–98 over parts of two seasons. He also worked as the third base coach of the Baltimore Orioles in 1993.

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or The Baseball Cube