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Steve Yeager

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Full Name: Stephen Wayne Yeager Primary Position: C
Height/Weight: 6' 0"/190 First Game: August 2, 1972
Birthdate: November 24, 1948 Final Game: August 29, 1986
Birthplace: Huntington, West Virginia MLB Experience: 15 years
Bat/Throw: Right/Right
Rate this Player
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(21 votes)

Contents

  • 1 Biography
  • 2 Minor League Career
  • 3 Major League Career
  • 4 Minor league coaching career
  • 5 Outside baseball
  • 6 Statistics
    • 6.1 Batting Stats
    • 6.2 Fielding Stats
  • 7 Transactions
  • 8 Trivia
  • 9 Video Gallery
  • 10 Picture Gallery
  • 11 See Also
  • 12 Categories

[edit] Biography

Stephen Wayne Yeager (born November 24, 1948, in Huntington, West Virginia) is a former MLB catcher.

Yeager spent 14 of the 15 seasons of his Major League Baseball career, from 1972 through 1985, with the Los Angeles Dodgers. His last year, 1986, he played for the Seattle Mariners.

Yeager once hit two grand slams in one high school baseball contest.

[edit] Minor League Career

Yeager was drafted by Los Angeles on 6 June, 1967, in the 4th round of the amateur draft.

After one game with Ogden, Utah (in the Rookie League-Pioneer Division), Yeager was sent to Dubuque (Iowa - Single-A league-Midwest Division) for 14 games.

The following season, 1968, he played 59 games in Daytona Beach (Florida - Single-A Florida Southern League).

In 1969 he played 22 games in Bakersfield (California - Single-A - California League), throwing out 26 runners, and 1 game in Albuquerque (New Mexico - Double-A - Texas League).

He spent the next two-and-2/3rds seasons in Albuquerque. 1970 and 1971 in "AA" - Texas League, for 162 games, where he batted .276, with 77 RBIs in 490 at bats. For 1971 he threw out 84 runners (second in the Texas League), and was named to the All Star team as a member of the Texas League, or Dixie Association - Western Division, catching for the Albuquerque Dukes (67-75), along with teammates Lee Lacy (2B) and Paul Johnston (OF).

The following season, 1972, he played 82 games in Albuquerque (Triple-A - Pacific Coast League), with 45 RBIs in 257 at bats, while hitting .280.

[edit] Major League Career

In the beginning of August 1972, he got "the call" to the majors, and made his major league debut on the 2nd. In his first-third of a season he would make 106 plate appearances in 35 games, bat .274, and drive in 15 runs on 29 hits, while scoring 18 total runs.

He contributed to four national league pennants with the Dodgers, helping take them to the 1974, 1977, 1978, and 1981. In the final one, Yeager shared the World Series Most Valuable Player award with Dodger teammates Pedro Guerrero and Ron Cey.

Lou Brock called Yeager "the best-throwing catcher in the game." His specialty was defense and his command of the game on the field. He was very good at managing the game from his position, and was even more highly regarded for his abilities with young pitchers. In 1974 he led National League catchers in putouts with 806.

This compensated for subpar offense, as illustrated by arguably his best offensive year occurring in 1974 when he batted .266 in fewer than 100 games. He did, however, bat .321 with the bases loaded during his career. Four of his last five hits against Ken Forsch were home runs; he did not hit more than two home runs against any other pitcher in his career.[1]

In 1976 he was injured when a piece of Bill Russell's bat shattered and hit him (the on-deck batter) in the neck, piercing his esophagus. He had nine pieces of wood taken out of his neck in 98 minutes of surgery. Yeager is famous for later inventing the catcher's throat protector flap that hangs from the catcher's mask, which he began wearing after the life-threatening incident.

In 1982 Yeager injured his knee, and he broke his wrist a year later. In November 1985 he signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who the next month traded him to the Seattle Mariners for Ed Vande Berg. He retired after the 1986 season.


[edit] Minor league coaching career

In 1999, Yeager was the hitting coach for the Dodgers’ Single-A San Bernardino Stampede, which won the California League championship. In 2000-01 he managed the Long Beach Breakers. He was hitting coach for the Jacksonville Suns in 2004, and in 2005-06 he was the hitting instructor/coach for the Dodgers AAA farm club, the Las Vegas 51s.

In 2007, he serves as the hitting coach for the Inland Empire 66ers.

[edit] Outside baseball

  • Yeager is a nephew of pilot Chuck Yeager.
  • Known for his flashy lifestyle as a player, when he got married on the steps of LA's City Hall, then Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley was best man at his wedding.
  • Yeager was famous for having posed nude for Playgirl magazine in their October 1982 issue.
  • Yeager served as technical advisor and also had a small role, as Coach Duke Temple, in Major League, Major League II, and Major League: Back to the Minors.
  • In September 1979, he and his family appeared on Family Feud with Richard Dawson. They played for a total of 6 days.
  • After his playing career, Yeager converted to Judaism.

[edit] Statistics

[edit] Batting Stats

Year Team G AB R H HR RBI AVG OBP SLG 2B 3B BB SO HBP SH SB IBB GDP
1972 LA N 35 106 18 29 4 15 .274 .374 .406 0 1 16 26 1 1 0 2 3
1973 LA N 54 134 18 34 2 10 .254 .340 .336 5 0 15 33 3 1 1 1 4
1974 LA N 94 316 41 84 12 41 .266 .334 .437 16 1 32 77 2 1 2 5 7
1975 LA N 135 452 34 103 12 54 .228 .298 .347 16 1 40 75 8 9 2 7 15
1976 LA N 117 359 42 77 11 35 .214 .286 .354 11 3 30 84 7 1 3 3 5
1977 LA N 125 387 53 99 16 55 .256 .334 .444 21 2 43 84 4 1 1 11 7
1978 LA N 94 228 19 44 4 23 .193 .301 .276 7 0 36 41 0 0 0 11 3
1979 LA N 105 310 33 67 13 41 .216 .282 .384 9 2 29 68 0 5 1 8 12
1980 LA N 96 227 20 48 2 20 .211 .274 .273 8 0 20 54 0 0 2 6 7
1981 LA N 42 86 5 18 3 7 .209 .261 .337 2 0 6 14 0 0 0 0 2
1982 LA N 82 196 13 48 2 18 .245 .294 .321 5 2 13 28 1 4 0 3 3
1983 LA N 113 335 31 68 15 41 .203 .256 .379 8 3 23 57 1 6 1 4 15
1984 LA N 74 197 16 45 4 29 .228 .295 .310 4 0 20 38 0 1 1 1 2
1985 LA N 53 121 4 25 0 9 .207 .246 .256 4 1 7 24 0 1 0 2 3
1986 SEA A 50 130 10 27 2 12 .208 .273 .269 2 0 12 23 0 2 0 0 5
Total NL 1219 3454 347 789 100 398 .228 .299 .358 116 16 330 703 27 31 14 64 88
Total AL 50 130 10 27 2 12 .208 .273 .269 2 0 12 23 0 2 0 0 5
Total 1269 3584 357 816 102 410 .228 .298 .355 118 16 342 726 27 33 14 64 93

[edit] Fielding Stats

Year Team POS G GS INN PO A ERR DP TP PB SB CS PkO AVG
1972 LA N C 35 34 306 220 19 4 2 0 2 20 8 2 .984
1973 LA N C 51 40 361.1 230 24 5 2 0 5 20 8 1 .981
1974 LA N C 93 92 808.2 552 58 5 4 0 10 40 24 6 .992
1975 LA N C 135 130 1179.2 806 62 7 4 0 11 51 21 3 .992
1976 LA N C 115 108 948 522 77 9 9 0 6 53 36 4 .985
1977 LA N C 123 119 1014.1 690 89 18 12 0 6 56 36 10 .977
1978 LA N C 91 72 627.2 373 55 5 3 0 2 40 35 8 .988
1979 LA N C 103 88 803 513 56 9 7 0 9 55 38 3 .984
1980 LA N C 95 66 613.1 382 36 7 5 0 4 55 18 5 .984
1981 LA N C 39 23 230.1 142 13 1 1 0 2 15 9 0 .994
1982 LA N C 76 55 523.1 338 42 4 8 0 1 37 28 1 .990
1983 LA N C 112 96 867.1 579 63 10 10 0 6 63 49 1 .985
1984 LA N C 65 53 470.2 317 30 2 1 0 5 45 18 0 .994
1985 LA N C 48 31 302 212 28 2 2 0 2 21 22 0 .992
1986 SEA A C 49 44 369 234 22 0 5 0 7 24 14 0 1.000
Total C 1230 1051 9424.2 6110 674 88 75 0 78 595 364 44 .987

[edit] Transactions

  • Selected by Los Angeles Dodgers in the 4th round of the free-agent draft (June 6, 1967).
  • Granted free agency (November 12, 1985).
  • Signed by Los Angeles Dodgers (November 26, 1985).
  • Traded by Los Angeles Dodgers to Seattle Mariners in exchange for Ed Vande Berg (December 11, 1985).
  • Granted free agency (November 12, 1986).

[edit] Trivia

[edit] Video Gallery

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This page was last modified 16:10, 8 November 2007. Content is available under the GFDL.

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