Al Ferrara

Alfred John Ferrara Jr. (December 22, 1939 – November 15, 2024), nicknamed "the Bull", was an American Major League Baseball outfielder who played from 1963 to 1971.

Early life Alfred Ferrara Jr. was born on December 22, 1939, in Brooklyn, New York, to Al Ferrara Sr. and his wife Adele. Al Sr. was a New York City fireman for 20 years who later was an air conditioning technician for Chase Bank before working the gate at Jackie Gleason's Inverrary Country Club in Florida in his retirement. Adele Ferrara, a homemaker, died when Al Jr. was 17, leaving her mother, Assunta Paulucci, in charge of Al and his twin siblings Frank and Theodora, who were 12 at the time.

As a youth he was also an accomplished piano player. "I never wanted to play the piano, I wanted to play baseball," Ferrara said. "But a first-generation Italian woman like my grandmother didn't know anything about baseball, so I had to play the piano, starting at age eight. I learned the classics. Mr. Morvillo insisted that I read music and play the pieces as they were written by Beethoven and Bach. I got pretty good and I learned to use piano to do what I wanted to do. I had a deal with my grandmother that after playing for an hour she would give me a quarter to go to the Bat Away at Coney Island. In those days you could hit about 25 balls for a quarter. After a while I got a reputation as a pretty good hitter and men would come around when I was hitting and put more quarters in the machine so I could hit for maybe a half-hour. Finally, I got my grandmother to agree that if I were to become Mr. Morvillo's number one student I could give up piano and play baseball. He would have showcase recitals at Carnegie Hall, and the number one student would play last. When I was 16, I went on last as the number one student, kissed my grandmother, and never touched the piano again." He was voted Dodger of the Year. "I was young, fun and wacky, and I had L.A. in my hands," he said. Ferrara appeared on episodes of Gilligan’s Island and Batman through connections with fans in show business and through former teammate Lee Walls, who had become a talent agent. "That all came from being a player. I wasn't willing to put in the effort to pursue a real acting career."

In 1971, after playing 17 games with the Padres, he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds, appearing in 32 games almost exclusively as a pinch-hitter. His final major league game was on September 1, 1971.