Gary Tuck

Gary Robert Tuck (born September 6, 1954) is an American professional baseball player and coach. He has coached in Minor League Baseball and in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees, Florida Marlins, and Boston Red Sox.

Early life

A graduate of Indiana University,^[1] Tuck has 23 years of professional coaching experience. He started his baseball career as a catcher for the Montreal Expos organization and played for them during three minor league seasons. Following his playing retirement, he served as an assistant coach at the University of Notre Dame in 1980, and Arizona State University in 1981.

Minor League career

After winning an NCAA championship with Arizona State, Tuck was hired to coach for the nearby Tucson Toros, a Minor League affiliate of the Houston Astros. Tuck spent eight years in the Astros organization. In 1986 he managed the Double-A Columbus Astros to a league championship,^[2] winning Southern League Manager of the Year honors.

By 1989, Tuck was a coach on the New York Yankees Triple-A team, the Columbus Clippers.^[3] In 1991 he was the manager of the Cleveland Indians Single-A team, a job he held before switching to a Scout for the Indians from 1992-1995.

He would rejoin the Yankees again in 1996 as the manager of the Single-A Oneonta Yankees, where he spent the next two seasons.^[4]

Major League Career

New York Yankees (1990, 1997-1999, 2003-2004)

With the Yankees, Tuck served as the bullpen coach under managers Bucky Dent and Stump Merrill. Following the season, Merrill was named permanent manager, and Tuck was not retained.

Tuck worked with Jorge Posada as a young player, and prepped him to eventually take over for starting catcher Joe Girardi. Posada's workload increased from 60 games in 1997 to 111 and 112 the next two seasons.^[5] He eventually took over the starting role in 2000.

Tuck won World Series rings as the team catching instructor in 1998 and 1999.^[6] He was not retained following the 1999 season.

Tuck returned to the Yankees prior to the 2003 season and spent the next two years as catching instructor. The team defeated the Red Sox in the 2003 American League Championship Series, and lost to them in the 2004 American League Championship Series.^[7]

He spent the 2005 season out of baseball.

Florida Marlins (2006)

In 2006, Joe Girardi was hired as the Marlins manager, and he hired Tuck as his bench coach. He was known for writing the lineup card in calligraphy . Girardi was fired following the season despite winning Manager of the Year.

Boston Red Sox (2007-2012)

In November 2006, the Boston Red Sox hired Tuck as their new bullpen coach.^[1] He joined pitching coach John Farrell and hitting coach Dave Magadan as new members of the Red Sox coaching staff for the 2007 season. He earned another World Series ring as a member of Boston's 2007 championship team. Tuck also served as an organization-wide catching instructor during spring training.^[1] The Red Sox won the 2007 World Series with Tuck on the coaching staff. He spent six years with the Boston Red Sox. However, in his final season, he was noted for clashing with manager Bobby Valentine.^[8]

On January 29, 2013, he notified the Red Sox that he intended to retire effective immediately.^[9] He spent the 2013 season out of baseball.

Return to New York (2014-present)

Tuck rejoined the Yankees as their bullpen coach during the 2013-14 offseason.^[10] The team moved from the ninth best bullpen in 2013, to eighth best under Tuck.^[11][12] Despite the bullpen's success, the Yankees missed the postseason for their second consecutive year.

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• The Boston Globe
• Boston Red Sox news
• MLB.com
• Retrosheet