Pitcher Gary Blaylock, who made 41 major league appearances for the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals, died Saturday. He was 94.

“Gary Nelson Blaylock, Sr., passed away at his residence in Clarkton, Missouri on Saturday, February 7, 2026 at the age of 94 years, 3 months, and 27 days,” according to a local obituary.

Blaylock pitched for the Yankees for a portion of the 1959 season, the only major-league campaign of his playing career. He pitched in 26 games and made five appearances as a pinch runner for the St. Louis Cardinals that season before being placed on waivers and then claimed by the Yankees. He then appeared in 15 more games for the Yankees in 1959, maintaining a 3.51 ERA with 20 strikeouts across 25.2 total innings.

“Gary was all about hard work, and his thinking was that anyone can work hard when they felt like it or when things were going well, but the truly elite worked hard just because it was what was necessary every day,” Clint Hurdle, the former Royals utility player and longtime MLB manager, wrote on Twitter/X. “He shared with me that hard work separated players at every level.

Blaylock joined the Kansas City Royals’ system as a coach in the 1970s. He then became the Royals’ big-league pitching coach in the 1980s, a role he held when the team captured the 1985 World Series championship.

Blaylock remained the Royals’ pitching coach through the 1987 season.

Blaylock was born in Clarkton, Missouri and he was inducted into the Dunklin County Hall of Honor in 2010.