This photo finds Steve Yeager
in the midst of his second season of catching in LA. After being called up in
’72 to be part of the milieu behind the plate in the wake of Tom Haller’s
departure he stayed up all of ’73 to play behind Joe Ferguson and his 25
homers. It had taken Steve a while for his bat to catch up to his catching
prowess and he would never be a super hitter. But he hit pretty solidly in his
two seasons in LA and that would help get him into the line-up on a regular
basis going forward. But ’73 had some rough spots. On June 20th Ferguson broke his thumb in a game against Atlanta, providing an
opening for Steve, who was hitting .280 at the time in limited at bats. But in
the 15 games he started during Joe’s absence he hit only .108. He would then
sit for about a month before he returned to add over 50 points to his average
down the stretch. For now he looks pretty content on a sunny day at
Candlestick.
Steve Yeager grew up in
Dayton, Ohio, where in high school he was a star in the big three sports and
was a fourth round pick by the Dodgers in ’67. He had to finish a state
tournament that summer so started his A season late but barely played because
he wasn’t hitting too well. That was the theme in each of the next two seasons
as lousy averages kept him on the bench a lot but his ability to call games and
his toughness behind the plate kept him on the roster. That was illustrated
when he played on a broken leg during ’69 and then also missed a bunch of time
on the DL. In ’70 he moved up to Double A, hit much better, and got some
starting time. Then in ’71 he maintained his hold on that starting spot at the
same level, upping his numbers considerably. After a slightly better start in
Triple A in ’72 he got called up to LA that August in the wake of Dick Dietz
breaking his hand.
In ’72 the Dodgers catching
situation was a bit of a hodgepodge as Chris Cannizzaro, Duke Sims, and Dick
Dietz all spent time at the position. But by the end of the year Dietz got his
injury, Sims followed Tom Haller to Detroit,
and Cannizzaro just didn’t have enough stick so Yeager came up, got himself in
a slump, and later pulled his average up to respectable. In ’74 he began the
season with a hot bat as Ferguson got hit with a
sophomore jinx and by the end of July Steve still had a .300 average and now
the starting gig behind the plate since Ferguson
could also man the outfield. Steve’s average would fade but not his defensive
work as LA went 64-28 during his starts that year. And he bounced at an
appropriate time in the post-season as he hit .364 in the loss to Oakland. In ’75 he fractured
his knee to start the season but then had his busiest year as Ferguson too was one of many Dodgers to see
DL time and though Steve’s average shrunk to .228 he upped his RBI total to 54.
In ’76 he went down again after he was speared in the throat by shards off Bill
Russell’s broken bat while in the on deck circle. That year Ferguson was traded to St. Louis and the
following one Steve had his best offensive year with a .256/16/55 season in 359
at bats as he played ahead of veterans Johnny Oates and Jerry Grote. That was
also the year LA returned to the Series and Steve was again a main offensive
threat, hitting .316 with five RBI’s in six games. In ’78 a year-long slump and
missed time to some cracked ribs had LA bring back Ferguson mid-season as Steve bottomed out
with a .193 average in just 228 at bats. In ’79 he put up better power numbers
with 13 homers and 41 RBI’s but his average only got to .216 in a big slump
year for the Dodgers.
By 1980 Yeager had a nagging
elbow injury that would limit his time in the field and with his average pretty
much entrenched in Mendoza territory his playing time withered a bit more. That
year he split time with Joe Ferguson and rookie Mike Scioscia. In ’81 Scioscia
took over as the main guy and Steve barely played, racking up only 86 at bats
in the strike year. But in the extended post-season he hit well and in the
Series against the Yankees’ lefty-dominated rotation, he played in every game.
It turned out to be an excellent fit as he hit .286 with two homers and four
RBI’s to share the MVP award. In ’82 he continued in his back-up role and
though he missed a month to a broken wrist, he upped his average to .245, his
highest in five years. In ’83 he moved to the number one spot as Scioscia
missed nearly the whole season to injury and though his average slid to .203
Steve hit 15 homers with 41 RBI’s. The next two seasons he returned to reserve
work, in ’84 suffering knee damage in a plate collision. By ’85 he and Bill
Russell were the only two left of the young guys who revived the franchise in
the mid-Seventies. After that season he was sent to Seattle for Ed Vande Berg. He then finished
his playing career in an ’86 with the Mariners in the same role. Steve wrapped things up with
a .228 average with 102 homers and 410 RBI’s. In the post-season he hit .252
with five homers and 14 RBI’s in 38 games. In the field he twice led the NL in
picking off runners and also led once each in putouts and assists.
Yeager did some community
work with the Dodgers after his playing career ended, but his main professional
work was elsewhere in the LA area: as an adviser, trainer, and actor in the
Major Leagues movies. He did consulting work on other sports movies as well. He
also hooked up with a company called Collectibles International, for which he
was a spokesperson. The company purported to be a seller of franchises by which
to make money in sports collectibles, but it turned out to be a sham shop. By
’99 Steve was back with the Dodgers full-time as a coach in their system. He
coached there as well from 2004-’07. From 2000-’01 he managed the independent
Long Beach Breakers and then in ’08 managed the city’s new independent
franchise. Beginning in 2010 he became a spring training and roving minor
league catching coach for the Dodgers and this year he has had that role in LA.
These two star bullets are
worth investigating. The game was only Steve’s sixth MLB one and it occurred at
Riverfront. That is a ton of chances for a game, seemingly, but this one ran 19
innings and Steve was behind the plate for all of them. That’s pretty amazing.
All the putouts were strikeouts: Tommy John K’d 13 guys in his nine innings;
Jim Brewer six in his three; Pete Richert one in two; and Ron Perranoski two in
three innings. LA gave up only eight hits and two runs and still lost the game.
He also got two assists for gunning down Tony Perez (fifth inning) and Joe
Morgan (ninth) when they attempted to steal second. He missed nailing Bobby Tolan
on another steal later and dropped a pop fly foul by Darrell Chaney, who flied
out in that at bat. I guess that makes 24 chances though I’d count the assists
also. Steve was related to fighter pilot and “The Right Stuff” profilee Chuck
Yeager, who famously broke the sound barrier for the first time. He was on
Family Feud, danced on Solid Gold, and posed for Playgirl. Sounds like he
belonged in LA.
The link here was a big free
agent signee for LA but nobody likes to remember that:
1. Yeager and Dave Goltz ’80
to ’82 Dodgers;
2. Goltz and Ed Bane ’73 and
’75 to ’76 Twins.
As a kid, Yeager was the "easy out" in the 8th spot in the batting order and that drove me crazy as a Dodger fan then. I could never figure out how he couldn't translate all that hitting success in the postseason to the regular season.
ReplyDeleteI remember Steve as being on the Mandrell Sisters Show after his 1981 WS.
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