Bronx, N.Y., Oct. 27, 2002 — I got to thinking a little bit ago when it made the headlines that Boston was interested in interviewing Yankee exec Gene Michael for their opening at General Manager. As one who always falls in love with the Yankee players and ex-players, wishing them well wherever they go, I was on the one hand delighted that others were acknowledging him for the job he’s done as a talent evaluator these last 15 years or so. But I do have to confess: Although I read some conflicting reports about whether or not Gene would have been interested in accepting such a challenge, I was delighted that George and the Yankee brass just said, “No!”

Gene Michael was the first ballplayer I ever actually met. Many many moons ago, after I had become indoctrinated into the Yankee way of life through my love and worship of The Mick and all things Pinstriped as a kid, times became very tough in a crazy world. I had dropped out of school and returned to my suburban house in Edison, New Jersey. But after a few frank discussions with my father during the waning days of life in this country in 1968, we came to a parting of the ways (i.e., he threw me out — though not physically).

I took a bus to New York, rented a room that so creeped me out that I never unpacked my stuff in the months I was there, got a menial job as a clerk in a downtown Manhattan bank, and lived pretty much hand to mouth. I remember buying a hot dog a day at lunch for $.60 at a stand down by the river at what would later become the South Street Seaport. (They called it that then too, but there was nothing there but an old fireboat, an ancient anchor lying on the dock and a small sailboat moored in the river.) The baseball season had ended disappointingly (again); I used to listen to the Knicks on my sound system, which was a battery-powered turnstyle with an AM radio.

Deeply involved with the bigger questions in life on the one hand, and surviving on the other, I did not spend as much time thinking or talking about the Yankees in those days. I had rooted for them all that year and the next Mickey Mantle-less one, keeping the faith through that seemingly interminable 1969 season as well. Never realizing how big a part that that childhood choice (to be a Yankee fan) would play in my life at this late (2002) date, I guess I rather assumed that it was time I put off the things of youth and consider living my life as a man.

There is probably no place on the planet where one can be more alone than in the middle of the metropolis of New York when you know no one. And my hours spent on the job at the bank were not satisfying ones either: The work was bland, poor-paying and boring. But then it happened — the only day of my stint at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (I kid you not) that stands out in my memory to this day. We had a Christmas party in downtown Manhattan. Nervous, alone and uninspired, I was tempted to blow it off, but the temptation to interrupt the day in, day out drudgery that framed my existence at the time won out, and I attended. I had no idea they would be giving us, the employees, a present of a famous guest speaker (rather than the monetary prizes most of the staff coveted — would not have been a downer for me either, truth be told) until the gentleman strolled in, in the person of New York Yankees shortstop Gene Michael. Buffeted by lack of money, poor living conditions and too little fun in a very young life, I’m sorry to say I didn’t spend the night in spasms of witty conversation with “The Stick,” but I did ask him a thing or two, and the evening does survive as a lone glowing memory of a very dark and gray period both in my life and (coincidentally) in the fortunes of the New York Yankees baseball team.

Gene was a good-glove/no-hit shortstop (“Stick” referred to physique, not talent with a baseball bat) on a team that had little of the former and plenty of the latter. He was just lucky enough to have missed the absolute nadir of the franchise, as the Yanks finished 10th and then ninth in the 10-team American League in 1966 and 1967. The Yanks got him from the Dodgers for the 1968 season (Mickey’s last), when he played 61 games and batted .198. (He actually pitched three innings when pressed, surrendering five hits and no runs, with 3 K’s and no walks allowed.)

He was the starter at short from 1969 through 1973. During those five seasons (combined with five years playing less than 100 games in Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, New York and Detroit) he amassed a lifetime batting average of .229, with only 15 homers and 226 rbi. He won no awards. He made the top 10 in sac bunts once. The team finished fifth out of 10 his first year, fifth in a six-team AL East division the next, and in fourth every other year that followed, except 1970, when they achieved second (but a full 15 games behind the Orioles) and in 1974 (another second place finish, after which he would be shipped off to the Tigers). He had an uncharacteristically better year at the plate in 1969 (batting .272 with an obp of .341), and I listened to the Scooter make his case for an All Star slot for three months. The Yanks had to have a player on the squad, and even though Mel Stottlemyre was having a second consecutive bounce-back year after losing 20 in 1966 (and 15-15 in ’67), Scooter had me (and Gene, I’ll bet) believing he actually had a shot. But California’s Jim Fregosi got the nod as Rico Petrocelli’s backup at short, and Gene’s only shot at fame as a player (outside New York) had passed.

He would go on to manage, too, returning to the Yanks when his playing days were over and replacing Dick Howser for the 1981 season. He led the Yanks to the first half title in 1981’s split season (though they slipped to sixth in the second half; he was replaced by Bob Lemon). He, in turn, replaced Lemon in April 1982 (14 games into the season), only to be removed himself in favor of Clyde King four months later. (Two years managing the Cubs in 1986 and 1987 did his numbers no favor, but he still stands with a 206-200 win/loss record as a big league skipper.)

But Stick’s moment was still to come. Just the other day marked the sixteenth anniversary of the death of actor Forrest Tucker. He might roll over in his grave to hear it, but the role for which many in my generation, and those that follow it, will remember him most will be that of Sergeant O’Rourke in the situation comedy F Troop. With inspectors general visiting from Washington, the inept Captain Parmenter supposedly in charge, and the cowardly (though not averse to making a profit) Hekawi Indians as the primary foil, we all knew who the real power behind the throne (or fort) was. It was Mr. Tucker as the wheeling and dealing O’Rourke, with the faithful though ineffectual Corporal Agarn at his side.

And in a strange twist of fate, Fay Vincent would play the role of TV executive in the Bronx, as he won his battle with George Steinbrenner, at least temporarily, in 1990, setting in motion a series of events, as George agreed to his “lifetime” ban. On August 20, 1990, Gene Michael was named vice president and general manager, replacing Harding Peterson. Then on September 13, 1990, Robert E. Nederlander was appointed managing general partner of the Yanks. But those who wondered what the Broadway-savvy Mr. Nederlander would do with a Yankee franchise that had been on the outside of playoff baseball looking in for nine full years would have been well advised to look at the power behind the throne.

Gene may not have been the best ballplayer ever, but he had developed some ideas as to what kind of ballplayer one needed to build a winning team. Suddenly teams looking to ship off their on-the-downside-of-their-careers veteran talent in favor of other teams’ young prospects found they were barking up the wrong tree when shopping in the Bronx. Bernie Williams joined the major league club in 1991 and was given time to develop. The likes of Jimmy Leyritz, Pat Kelly, Sterling Hitchcock, Domingo Jean, Mark Hutton, Russ Davis, Scott Kamieniecki, Jeff Johnson and Gerald Williams got their shots to make, and play on, the big club.

Higher draft picks were hit and miss, as Mariano Rivera and Carl Everett entered the fold, but some real finds came along in the lower rounds in the form of Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada. Hitchcock and Davis would eventually be spent for Jeff Nelson and Tino Martinez, but the biggest trade was the opening of center field for Bernie as Roberto Kelly was shipped off to Cincinnati for spark plug right fielder Paul O’Neill. On October 29, 1991 Buck Showalter replaced Stump Merrill as Yankee manager, and the Yanks were on their way.

Clearly, this man Michael had a lot more talent in building winning teams than he had ever displayed on the diamond. But there was at least one more thing Gene was famous for in his playing days that perhaps doesn’t get the mention it deserves. On June 13, 1970, in a 9-4 Yankee win over Kansas City, Gene successfully pulled off the hidden ball trick on the Royals’ Joe Keough in the sixth, after Joe had singled in the tying run.

You don’t hear much of this play for a very good reason. It is generally as successful a maneuver as the incredibly lame pickoff attempts pitchers are wont to attempt today with runners on the corners, where they fake a throw at third (usually nobody’s even covering the bag), and then wheel and throw to first. It takes a certain kind of individual to fool a professional into thinking that the pitcher has the ball when, indeed, they have it, as they close in on the runner unwarily taking his lead. But incredibly, a mere 44 days later, the Stick was at it again. On July 27, 1970 the Yanks beat the California Angels 5-2, behind Mel Stottlemyre, who was helped to the win by Gene Michael in the ninth. With the score tied, Michael pulled the hidden ball trick on Angels pinch runner Jarvis Tatum. The Yankees went on to score three in the 10th to win.

As I said in the opening, I’m glad Gene will still be with the Yanks. Rooting as I always do that ex-Yanks succeed and enjoy what they’re doing after they take off the Pinstripes, I truly hope he can be happy with that turn of events. George has been very good for this team in the last few years, and his signing of David Wells last year was a real coup. And knowing that Brian Cashman has the input of veteran executives like Mark Newman and Lon Tross (with advice from field general Joe Torre) when evaluating talent helps this Yankee fan sleep at night. But even should the Yankees have to go through some hard times tailoring this team to today’s on and off the field realities, it is a comfort to know that, come what may, we can always pull the “hidden talent evaluator trick,” as long as we have “The Stick” on our side.

YANKEE BASEBALL!!!