"The problem for Mike Gallego began the first day he walked into Yankee Stadium as a Yankee last season. He limped. He had injured his heel during spring training but had hoped he could still start at shortstop on Opening Day.
Right up to pre-game warmups, when the heel still hurt, Gallego knew it was no use. He told Manager Buck Showalter he couldn't make it. Opening Day for Gallego was May 17. He had a lot of catching up to do.
Once he got into the lineup, the 32-year-old infielder showed the kind of spark that had enticed the Yankees into a three-year free-agent contract. He reached base in 28 of his first 37 starts and went through one stretch when he batted .286 (18-for-56). Then he was felled again.
Hit in the hand by hard-throwing Minnesota right-hander Willie Banks, Gallego paid a second visit to the disabled list. In seven seasons in Oakland, he had been on the disabled list only once.
That's what was particularly frustrating for Gallego. 'I've always been known as a player who can deal with a lot of pain,' he says.
In his last year in Oakland, Gallego played in 159 games. All of which has made him more determined to prove this year that the Yankees made the right decision in signing him."
-The New York Yankees Official 1993 Yearbook
"1992 was a year plagued by injury for the veteran middle infielder. Gallego possessed a blistering bat in spring training, hitting .422 before landing on the disabled list on March 28. He bruised his right heel on March 27 against the Mets. He missed the first 35 games of the season.
On May 13, Gallego went to Florida on injury rebab for three games before being activated on May 17. He made his Yankee debut that day against Oakland.
He hit the first of his three 1992 home runs on May 25 against Milwaukee off Chris Bosio. It was his first ever Yankee Stadium home run. Mike went 3-for-5 that day boosting his batting average to what would be a season high of .303. He played 13 games in May, hitting .250 and starting 11 games at shortstop.
From May 31-July 7, Mike appeared in 27 of the club's 36 games, starting 24 games at second base. He hit his second home run on June 18 at Boston (off Danny Darwin) and his third on June 22 at Baltimore (off Mike Mussina). He hit .276 through June 20.
Over the next 11 games he hit just .182 (6-for-33). On July 7 in the 5th inning, he was hit by a pitch from Willie Banks, fracturing the ulnar bone above his right wrist. Mike was on the DL from July 8-September 17, missing 64 games.
He was activated on September 18, playing in 14 of the club's final 16 games. He hit .262 in September/October, but .389 (7-for-18) on the final road trip.
Mike had been on the disabled list once in the previous seven seasons. In 1992 he missed 99 games due to injuries.
He started 50 games, 37 at second and 13 at shortstop. He made just two errors in 200 chances at second base, four in 71 chances at shortstop. Gallego did not make an error over his final 22 games.
He reached base safely in 37 of 50 (74%) of his starts. The Yankees were 13-7 when he scored a run. He hit .281 on the road, .272 on grass surfaces. He hit .259 against right-handed pitchers, .234 against lefties.
Gallego's game total (53) was his lowest since 1986 but his batting average was his highest since 1986. He had 11 multi-hit games. He hit .313 (5-for-16) with six RBIs with runners in scoring position and less than two outs; he drove home three of four runners from third base with less than two out.
He was signed by the Yankees to a three-year contract in January 1992. The contract runs through the 1994 season.
In 1988, his first full major league season, Gallego appeared in all four American League Championship Series games against Boston. He caught the final out in Game 4 to complete the A's sweep. He played in one of the World Series games without an at-bat.
Expected to split time at second base with Tony Phillips in 1989, Gallego was thrust into a starting role at shortstop when Walt Weiss went down with an injury in mid-May. He started 59 of the 65 games that Weiss missed. He hit .277 in the final two months of the season.
Mike started four of the five games of the ALCS against Toronto (two at second, two at short), hitting .273 with an RBI. He contributed a key suicide squeeze bunt in the pennant-clinching Game 5. In the World Series, he made two defensive appearances and pinch-hit once, but did not start.
Mike put together a fine season in 1990 both in the field and as a clutch hitter. For the year he played 83 games at second base, 38 at shortstop and 27 at third, playing in 140 games, a career-best at the time.
He started on Opening Day for the first time, at second base. He was Oakland's regular second baseman until the Athletics signed Willie Randolph on May 12. Gallego still found plenty of playing time, filling at second base, shortstop and third base.
His error on May 19 at Milwaukee was his first after 57 consecutive games at third without an error. Only Bobby Wine has played more games at third (67) without an error. Gallego also had a streak of 70 consecutive games on artificial turf without an error before making two on June 2 at Kansas City. He played in 71 games down the stretch filling in for the injured Randolph, then for Weiss. He made the first outfield appearance of his career on September 24 at Kansas City, handling one chance flawlessly.
He led the club with 17 sacrifice hits, the best Oakland total since Dwayne Murphy had an A's record 22 in 1980.
Gallego had his best season as a pro in 1991, putting up offensive numbers to match his spectacular defensive play. He had career highs in games (159), at-bats (482), runs (67), hits (119), doubles (15), triples (4), homers (12), RBI (49) and walks (67). Entering the 1991 season, he had totaled only 11 home runs in 1,162 career at-bats; his walk total for the season was 32 more than his previous best.
A consistent hitter, Gallego hit .248 before the break, .246 after. May was his top month of the season when he hit .286 with two home runs and 13 RBIs. He had a career-high 10-game hitting streak from May 21-31. He capped the streak with his first career grand slam, at Chicago off Ramon Garcia.
Mike received the first intentional walk of his career on June 9 against Boston. He had the first four-hit game of his career on July 16 against Cleveland.
He lived up to his reputation of having good hands- he started 126 games at second base in '91, making just seven errors in 619 total chances, good for a .989 fielding percentage (3rd in the league behind Steve Sax and Lou Whitaker). Mike also started 26 games at shortstop but did not make an appearance at third base for the first time in his career.
Mike hit .444 (4-for-9) with the bases loaded with a home run and 12 RBI. He hit .270 at home with six homers and 20 RBI. He hit .311 against left-handed pitching with five homers and 13 RBI.
Mike was the A's second-round selection in the June 1981 free-agent draft. He hit .272 in 62 games for Modesto of the California League. In 1982, he played 54 games for West Haven and 44 games for Tacoma.
After two games with Tacoma in 1983 Mike was sent to Albany of the Eastern League. In 90 games at Albany, he hit .223. He spent the entire 1984 season with Tacoma and hit .243 while playing in 101 games.
Mike made the Oakland Opening Day roster in 1985 with a fine spring training but was optioned to Modesto on April 24. He played just six games before returning to the A's for the remainder of the season on May 3. He picked up his first major league hit, a single off Detroit's Bill Scherrer, on August 22 in Oakland. He hit his first major league home run on September 22 at Chicago off Joel Davis.
He was a valuable player for the Tacoma Tigers during the 1986 season. In 132 games he hit .275 with 122 hits and 46 RBI. Mike was called up to Oakland on September 2 shortly after Tony Phillips was injured. In 20 games with the A's, he hit .270 (10-for-37) with four RBI. He committed only one error in 76 chances.
Mike opened 1987 on the disabled list with a pulled groin suffered in spring training. After 10 games at Tacoma on a rehab assignment, he returned to Oakland on April 20. He belted his second career home run on May 13 off Ted Higuera of Milwaukee.
A collision with Stan Javier at Texas on June 12 caused Mike to miss six more weeks of the season. When healthy he was the A's utility infielder filling in at second, short and third. His third career homer came on August 6 at Minnesota off Frank Viola. For the season, Mike hit .300 (18-for-60) off left-handed pitchers.
Mike graduated from St. Paul High School (Santa Fe Springs, CA) in 1978. He attended UCLA for three years before being drafted by the A's, majoring in sociology. His UCLA teammates included Matt Young, Tim Leary and Don Slaught.
In Oakland, Mike has been involved with both the Children's Cancer Society and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation."
-1993 New York Yankees Information Guide
Led Pacific Coast League in being hit by pitches (8), 1986.
Tied for American League in sacrifice hits (17), 1990.
-1993 New York Yankees Information Guide
Michael Anthony Gallego "Mike" "Gags" (IF) #2
Born October 31, 1960, in Whittier, California, resides in Yorba Linda, California. Height: 5-8, Weight: 175. Bats right, throws right.
Married, Caryn (12/12/81), and father of Nicholas (4), Joseph (4) and Allison (2).
Major league service: 7 years, 40 days. Opening Day age: 32.
-1993 New York Yankees Information Guide
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