Major League Baseball

Hank's Yanks GM Hernandez has died

Published Jan. 27, 2012 5:44 a.m. ET

foxsports

Herman Hernandez, the general manager of a youth baseball team sponsored by New York Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner, has died.

The death of the co-founder of Hank's Jr. Yanks was announced in a statement from Steinbrenner and Hank's Yanks manager Ray Negron. Negron and Hank's Jr. Yanks official Sandy Kyrkostas confirmed Hernandez died Thursday morning of an apparent heart attack. Kyrkostas said Hernandez was 54.

Two former players, pitcher Leonel Vinas and infielder Matt Duran, are currently in Yankees' minor league system. Outfielder Williams Jerez was taken by Boston in second round of the 2011 amateur draft.

Steinbrenner said: ''Whenever someone passes away people say how wonderful of a person they were and how empty the world will be without them, but it's usually just to make for a pretty speech. In Herman's case its true. The greatest kind of person you can be is one who lives for others and Herman was exactly that type of person.''