Mike Stanley

Career

Stanley was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1963. He attended the University of Florida on an athletic scholarship and played for the Florida Gators baseball team under coaches Jack Rhine and Joe Arnold from 1982 to 1985. Primarily a catcher, he also played first base, third base, and served as designated hitter. The Gators won SEC regular season and tournament championships in both 1982 and 1984 during his tenure. He was later inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame and remains the Gators' career record holder for runs scored and runs batted in.

Stanley hit more than twenty home runs in a season three times. His best season at the plate was 1993 with the Yankees, when he batted .305 with twenty-six home runs and eighty-four runs batted in. He hit .300 in 1994 and a career-high twenty-nine home runs in 1998. Later in his career he became a first baseman and designated hitter. He finished with a .270 batting average, 187 home runs, 702 runs batted in, and a .370 on-base percentage. In five postseason series he batted .356 with a .434 on-base percentage. Stanley was involved in the last Yankees/Red Sox trade until 2014.

While with the Texas Rangers, Stanley caught Nolan Ryan's seventh career no-hitter on May 1, 1991. After retiring as a player, he served as bench coach for the Boston Red Sox during the 2002 season, then resigned to spend more time with his family. He lives in Maitland, Florida, with his wife Erin and their four children. Stanley later worked as an assistant baseball coach at Lake Highland Preparatory School in Orlando, Florida. He attended Yankees Old Timers Day for the first time in 2008.