1971 Profile: Gene Michael

"The 'thinking man's ball player' is clever, loose and aggressive. Leave it to Gene to pull the hidden ball trick when the team was behind in a game last year with the Angels. The club had been losing ground, had lost six in a row when Michael won the game for them. They rebounded with a seven-game winning streak and made a run right back at the Orioles. Sometimes it takes very little to turn a club around and head it upward. (The Yankees' season was 93 and 69, 24 games over .500. For a team that was one game under that mark the year before, that's a big improvement.)
Michael's fluid motion comes from basketball. The former Kent State player was a star who was pursued by the New York Knicks. The regular shortstop for the last two years didn't have a season to match 1969 when he hit .272, which was third highest on the club, but Gene is an extremely valuable defensive player who stabilizes the infield. He plays second and third equally well. What position he will play is uncertain, but one thing is sure - switch-hitting Gene will see a lot of service."

-The New York Yankees Official 1971 Yearbook

"Stick, the slick-fielding shortstop, also served the Yankees well at second and third base late last season. He was platooned with the left-handed-hitting Frank Baker at the shortstop post for the last two months of the season.
Gene came up with the hidden ball trick twice last season- he has now accomplished it four times since coming to the Yankees. The victims were Tom Matchick in 1968, Zolio Versalles in 1969 and Joe Keough and Jarvis Tatum last year. The last one, on July 27, was significant as the Yanks were in the midst of a four-game losing streak and were tied up 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth at Anaheim. The Angels were threatening as they had a man on first and Tatum on second with none out when Michael pulled the hidden ball trick to help get the Yankees out of the inning; the Yanks went on to win 5-2 in ten innings and proceeded to their longest winning streak of the year at six games which brought them back up to second place.
Michael has also pitched during his career: at Kinston in 1963, where was 1-3, and also with the Yankees in 1968, when he allowed five unearned runs in three innings, giving up five hits and striking out three.
He is a graduate of Kent State where he was a basketball star and was pursued by the New York Knickerbockers. Gene has spent the last two off-seasons working for the Yankees' Speakers Bureau."

-1971 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide