Ex-Yankees GM Gene Michael, architect of 'Core Four' dynasty, dies at 79

Gene "Stick" Michael, a longtime member of the New York Yankees organization who built their late-1990s dynasty as a general manager, died Thursday at age 79.

According to the Yankees, Michael died of a heart attack.

"Stick was a pillar of this organization for decades," Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner said in a statement. "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. He loved baseball and this organization, and he will be profoundly missed.

"I extend my deepest sympathies to his wife, Joette, and his entire family."

Michael spent 45 years with the Yankees organization in a variety of roles, including time as a player, manager, coach, and executive. He'd served as the club's senior vice president and special adviser since 2006.

He's most famous for his tenure as the club's GM from 1990-95, during which he rebuilt the franchise from the ground up while George Steinbrenner was serving a multi-year suspension.

Under Michael's watch, the Yankees drafted or signed the "Core Four" of Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, and Jorge Posada. The group eventually led the Yankees to four championships - including three in a row from 1998-2000 - during the latter half of the 1990s, plus another in 2009. He pulled off several shrewd trades to aid the budding dynasty, including sending Roberto Kelly to Cincinnati for Paul O'Neill before the 1993 season and acquiring David Cone from Toronto at the 1995 trade deadline. Free agents Wade Boggs and Jimmy Key also arrived in New York during his tenure.

Michael was replaced as Yankees GM by Bob Watson in November 1995, just before the young club he built won their first World Series. But he remained in the organization despite losing his GM job, and became director of major-league scouting during the championship run.

"(Gene was the) best baseball evaluator I ever saw," Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter - who managed the Yankees while Michael was GM - told Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. "He never missed on an infielder."

Michael served as a Yankees coach for several seasons in the late 1970s, and was on the staff for their second of back-to-back World Series titles in 1978. In 2009, Reggie Jackson told the New York Post that Michael's scouting reports helped him hit a record three homers in Game 6 of the 1977 series.

"Stick" later managed the Yankees during two separate stints in 1981 and '82 - Steinbrenner fired Michael in the middle of their pennant-winning 1981 season, then re-hired him as the second of three skippers in 1982 - and was briefly the team's GM in 1980. Michael also managed the Chicago Cubs for parts of two years from 1986-87.

As a player, Michael - a light-hitting infielder - spent seven of his 10 big-league seasons with the Yankees from 1968-74; he also played for the Pirates, Dodgers, and Tigers.