Mike Vail

Michael Lewis Vail (born November 10, 1951) is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder.

In 1974, his fourth season in professional baseball split evenly between the class A Modesto Reds and the double A Arkansas Travelers, Vail batted .334 with fifteen home runs and 76 RBIs.

His first season in the Mets' organization, Vail batted .342 with seven home runs and 79 RBIs for the Tidewater Tides to earn the 1975 International League "Player of the Year" award.

[4] From there, he proceeded to tie a modern Major League rookie record 23 game hitting streak.

The streak ended on September 16, when he was unable to collect a hit in an eighteen inning marathon with the Montreal Expos in which he had seven at bats.

[7] Two months after this deal was completed, and just as Spring training was set to get underway, Vail dislocated his left foot playing basketball.

[15] In his American League debut, Vail went 2-for-2, including a game winning, walk-off hit in the ninth.

Herman Franks resigned as manager with seven games left in the season, naming several players whose attitudes he blamed for driving him out.

Vail was batting .305 with four home runs and 32 RBIs when Gomez was fired, and replaced with Joey Amalfitano (who served as interim manager for the last seven games of the 1979 season).

With both Ken Griffey and George Foster having been dealt during the off-season, Vail saw much more playing time in the outfield in 1982 (he was only on the field for 11 innings all of 1981).

[21] He made his first start as a Red 499 days after signing his first contract with the team on April 9, and went 1-for-3 with a double and a walk.

Vail was roommates with "Macho Man" Randy Savage when both were teenage farmhands with the St. Louis Cardinals.