Akron East graduate Gene Michael going into APS Athletics HOF after career with Yankees

Former New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner didn't always listen to the advice he received from his baseball staff.

Steinbrenner was known to spend money, trade away prospects for established stars and regularly hire and fire managers and front office executives.

Akron native Gene Michael was one of the men Steinbrenner hired and fired, but the famous Yankees owner did follow the advice of the 1956 East High School graduate when he kept "the core four."

Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada came up through the Yankees minor league system when Michael served as the Yankees general manager from 1991-1995. Jeter, Rivera, Pettitte and Posada started on World Series winning teams in 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009.

Michael quit before the Yankees won those five World Series championships but was considered "the architect" of the dynasty.

Before that, Michael was a slick-fielding shortstop nicknamed "Stick" because of his slender frame and a sharp-shooting basketball player.

Michael, who starred in both sports at East High School and Kent State University, will be added posthumously to the Akron Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame on Saturday night at House Three Thirty.

Michael died of a heart attack at his home in Oldsmar, Fla. on Sept. 7, 2017, at the age of 79. His wife, Joette, still lives in Florida, and the couple raised sons Mark and Matthew and daughters Sandra and Haley.

“Gene Michael was not only largely responsible for the success of the Yankees organization, but also for my development as a player,” Jeter said in a statement to the Associated Press after Michael's death.

Gene Michael helps New York Yankees win five World Series titles

Michael continued to work for the Yankees in multiple roles until his death, including serving as vice president of major league scouting for the Yankees from 1996-2002 as a vice-president and a senior advisor from 2003-2017.

“He was able to project so well what players would become, and he did it through sitting and watching with his eyes," former Yankees player and manager Joe Girardi told the AP after Michael's death. “He just had a great feel for the game.”

Brian Cashman, the Yankees general manager since 1998, told the AP that Michael "was both a friend and mentor" and that he "relied upon his advice and guidance."

Michael gave Buck Showalter his first major league managing job with the Yankees in 1992. Showalter, who later managed the Arizona Diamondbacks, Texas Rangers, Baltimore Orioles and New York Mets, told the AP that Michael was "blatantly honest" and the "best baseball guy that I ever saw."

Showalter also said Michael "never missed on an infielder."

"Jeter had made like 40-some errors, but he tells me this guy is going to be an All-Star shortstop. He said he’s got a little footwork issue," Showalter recalled in an AP interview. "How do you project those things and stand by them?"

Coaches in Akron respect what Gene Michael brought to baseball

Retired high school baseball coach John Sarver and his wife, Janis, nominated Michael for the APS Athletics Hall of Fame. Sarver and Firestone baseball coach Jeff Sloan never met Michael, but respect and appreciate his contributions to baseball.

"I saw Gene Michael play up at Cleveland Municipal Stadium and saw him on TV a number of times," said Sarver, who recently retired after a being a head coach for 43 seasons with stints at Ellet, Hoban, Buchtel and Kenmore.

"I also saw him as a manager when he was managing the Cubs and then later when he managed the Yankees. He had his most success as a player as a terrific infielder. He was like a Gold Glove infielder, but he was a [.229 career] hitter.

"He was such a good baseball man that he went into the managerial side of things and then was a front office executive. His biggest success was when Steinbrenner made him the GM of the Yankees. Steinbrenner used to trade away rookies or young kids in the organization for star players. He tried to get the veterans he couldn't sign as free agents. He would trade away young talent."

Michael was able to get Steinbrenner to keep a group of young players in the 1990s in addition to acquiring veteran players such as Paul O’Neill, Jimmy Key, Wade Boggs and David Cone.

"They had Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte in the minors playing together, and Gene Michael was the one who said, 'We are not going to trade these guys because they are going to be stars,'" said Sarver, a 1973 Ellet graduate who played football and baseball.

Steinbrenner was hesitant, but eventually agreed with Michael, and the Yankees won big.

"They were the dominant team in the late 1990s," Sarver said. "Those four young players among others took them to World Series after World Series and they won five World Series up until the late 2000s. They knew that Jeter was really good, but they didn't know that he was going to become the star that he became. Mariano Rivera was the same way. He was a setup man [for John Wetteland]. He was an eighth-inning guy when he first came up and then won the closer role and became a 100 percent first ballot Hall of Famer."

Rivera was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019, and Jeter was enshrined in 2020 after receiving nearly 100 percent of the vote from the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

"Gene Michael always supported me when I was a young up-and-coming player and, despite some struggles along the way, always believed that I would become a significant part of the Yankees organization," four-time World Series champion Bernie Williams said in a statement to the AP in 2017. "I never forgot that."

Sloan, a 1973 Buchtel graduate who played soccer and baseball, said he saw Michael play professionally and knew about him being an East graduate.

"As a player, it is tremendous to see somebody come out of Akron and be able to play at that level, especially with the Yankees," said Sloan, who has coached several sports at Firestone, Kenmore, Buchtel and Central-Hower.

"As a general manager, I know Gene Michael was well respected and helped build their championship teams in the 1990s and 2000s. ... Derek Jeter is one of my favorite players as far as his ability and to know that Gene Michael is a part of his career is amazing. I like the way Jeter played the game. I absolutely detest the Yankees, but I respect their homegrown players and he was the homegrown player."

Gene Michael transitions from player to successful general manager

Michael was 6-foot-2 and about 180 pounds during a major league playing career that spanned from 1966-1975 with stints with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers. He hit 15 home runs in 10 big league seasons, seven with the Yankees from 1968-74. He was known for pulling off the hidden ball trick, which he was said to have done five times.

“A baseball man to his core, Stick was vital to the [Yankees] renaissance in the ’90s, balancing his incredible scouting intuition with analytical thinking that is prevalent throughout the game today," MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement after Michael's death.

Michael broke into coaching with the Yankees in 1976 and then was the club's general manager in 1980-1981 and manager in 1981-1982. He managed the Chicago Cubs in 1986-1987 before heading back to New York.

“Stick was a pillar of this organization for decades,” Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said in a statement to the AP in 2017. “He knew the game of baseball like few others did, and was always willing and excited to talk about it with anyone in earshot. His contributions to the Yankees over the years have been immeasurable.”

Akron Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame ticket information

Doors to the APS Athletics HOF banquet are scheduled to open at 5 p.m. Saturday at House Three Thirty, 532 W. Market Street in Akron. There will be a cash bar. Dinner is set for 6 p.m.

Tickets can be purchased online at akronschools.com/district/departments/athletics/tickets.

The APS Athletics HOF's Class of 2023 will be composed of Michael, Tim Flossie, Mark Gangloff, Charles Gladman, Gus Johnson, Mike Meneer, Katie Miller Como, Nate Thurmond, Jeff Walker and John Wooldridge.

LeBron James will be inducted as a special contributor.

Michael Beaven can be reached by email at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com and is on Twitter at @MBeavenABJ.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Former Yankees GM Gene Michael entering APS Athletics Hall of Fame