Fury Gene Tenace (; born Fiore Gino Tenacci; October 10, 1946), better known as Gene Tenace, is an American former professional baseball player and coach. He played as a catcher and first baseman in Major League Baseball from through , most notably as a member of the Oakland Athletics dynasty that won three consecutive World Series championships between 1972 and 1974. Tenace was drafted by the Kansas City Athletics from Valley High School in Lucasville, Ohio and played for the Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Pirates. He batted and threw right-handed. Tenace was one of the top catchers of his era and won the 1972 World Series Most Valuable Player Award. Gene Tenace was one of the greatest hitting catchers of all time despite his low career batting average of .241, with his career 140 WRC+ being tied with Mike Piazza for the highest all-time among catchers; he made up for his low average with a very high on-base percentage of .388 while playing in a weak offensive era, which is tied with Joe Mauer for the third highest all-time among qualifying catchers, and with a .429 slugging percentage that was considerably above the average in the era he played. With his 46.8 Baseball Reference Wins Above Replacement (WAR), he is 13th all-time among catchers, and his 7-year peak WAR is tied with Roy Campanella for 12th all-time among catchers. Also of note is that his career rWAR is fifth highest among all sub .250 hitters. After his playing days ended, Tenace coached for several organizations, most notably for the Toronto Blue Jays. Playing career Oakland Athletics (1969–76) Tenace was selected in baseball's first entry draft, being taken in the 20th round of the 1965 Major League Baseball draft by the then Kansas City Athletics. Tenace made his major league debut for Oakland on May 29, 1969 against the Detroit Tigers at Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum where he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in an 8–4 Oakland loss. He hit the first home run of his career on June 6, 1969 at Tiger Stadium against Earl Wilson of the Detroit Tigers. He finished the season with a .158 batting average, a home run and two runs batted in, appearing in just 38 games as a third-string catcher. He continued to play the next two years as the third-string catcher before serving as Dave Duncan's backup