After his playing career in Asia, Gainey started giving baseball lessons at the Maplezone Sports Institute in Garnet Valley, Pennsylvania.
After being drafted in the second round of the 1979 MLB draft, Gainey was assigned to the Astros Gulf Coast League team. The team featured future Astros star Bill Doran, and Gainey appeared in ten games, and batted .230 in his first year of professional baseball. Gainey would spent the next two seasons bouncing back from rookie league to Single A levels. In 1982, he made it to Double-A, playing for the Columbus Astros, where he played outfield alongside Glenn Davis (who'd later be converted to first base) and Eric Bullock.
Over the course of two seasons at the AA level, Gainey had a respectable batting average, but his strength was his speed, as he stole over 60 bases over the course of those two seasons. By 1985, He'd finally made it to the majors, making his debut on April 24th. However, Gainey seemed overwhelmed by the level of pitching in the majors. With only thirteen games behind him, and a .167 batting average, Gainey was demoted to Triple-A Tucson. Gainey found his grove, and batted a career best .336, but only had ten stolen bases. Gainey spent the next two seasons bouncing from Triple-A to the majors, but continued to struggled at the plate. And during this time, he was passed up by other outfield prospects in the Astros system, Gerald Young and Louie Meadows. Midway through the 1988 season, the Astros finally gave up on Gainey, and he drew his release.

Return to Ty Gainey Autograph Profile