Gene Michael is being remembered Thursday as a great baseball man. And he very well should be, as the general manager and later special assistant to George Steinbrenner who helped build the Yankees dynasty of the late 1990s.
I’ll remember “Stick,” who died Thursday of a heart attack at age 79, as a man always willing to share his knowledge of the game. Also as a man I could make laugh just by walking into the room.
“Hey, fatso! What’s up, fatty?” is how he would greet me and my 160-pound frame every time he saw me, mostly in spring training and at random times during the year.