Teen Killed In Crash Is Yankee Minor League Manager's Son
By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune
and JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune
Published: August 11, 2008
Updated: 04:49 pm
TAMPA - The 17-year-old son of a New York Yankees minor league manager died this morning after a traffic crash on Fletcher Avenue.
Cody Allen Miley of Tampa died after his 2004 Mustang crashed at 1301 W. Fletcher Ave., Hillsborough County deputies say.
Tim Naehring, a former longtime minor league director for the Cincinnati Reds, said Miley is the son of Dave Miley, manager of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, a minor league team in Pennsylvania.
Naehring, who worked with Dave Miley during Miley's tenure with the Reds, sent text messages to Dave Miley today offering his condolences.
"I'm just sick to my stomach," Naehring told the Tribune. "I had a chance to spend five days with Dave two weeks ago, and he talks about his kids all the time. Obviously, in the baseball world, you're not around your family as much as you'd like. It's a huge sacrifice. My thoughts and prayers go out to him and the whole Miley family. It's just a horrible, horrible thing."
Someone called deputies about 9:40 a.m. to say vehicle taillights were visible in a wooded area off Fletcher, a sheriff's office news release states. Deputies found the Mustang, which had struck a large tree.
Miley, who was wearing a seatbelt, was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He would have turned 18 on Aug. 19.
It was not known why the vehicle left the road.
Miley attended Chamberlain High School but came short of graduating this school year by a credit and a half, Principal Jeff Boldt said.
Boldt said Miley later earned the necessary credits at Middleton High School to graduate.
At Chamberlain, Miley was a member of the art club.
Jackie Stewart, an art teacher at the school, said Miley loved her class and signed up for it every year.
"Cody was a very quiet young man and always had a huge smile on his face," she said. "That's the one thing I always said about him – he had a big, big smile."
Miley's friend Kevin Spunde, 18, said he thought his friend was joking when the friend told him Miley had died.
"He was an all-around nice kid, and I'm really going to miss him," Spunde said. "He was really nice, and it was hard to get him angry with you about anything."
Wilson Deboise, 19, said he played briefly with Miley on Chamberlain's baseball team.
"He was the kind of guy that if you have anything you need advice on, you could go up to him and ask his advice," Deboise said. "He'd smile and tell you the truth, whatever was on his mind. He'd give you a dollar if you needed a dollar. He'd give you a shirt if you needed a shirt."
Dave Miley, 46, is in his third season managing the Yankees' top minor-league affiliate. He was named International League Manager of the Year last season after leading Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to an 84-59 record.
Before that, he spent 26 seasons in the Cincinnati Reds organization as a player, coach and manager. He managed the Reds to a 125-164 record from 2003-05.
A Tampa native, Dave Miley was the Reds' second-round pick in the 1980 draft out of Chamberlain High School. He now lives in Covington, Ky.
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