Yeager was promoted to Double-A before the end of the 1969 season, playing in one game for the AlbuquerqueDodgers of the Texas League.[6] He spent the next two-and-2/3 seasons with the Double-A franchise.[6] In 162 games played over the 1970 and 1971 seasons, he hit .276, with 77 RBIs in 490 at bats.[6] He threw out 84 runners, second in the league that year, and was named to the Texas League All-Star team as a catcher in 1971.[6]
In spring training in 1972 he won the Dodgers writers' Dearie Mulvey Memorial Trophy as the best rookie.[5] With the Dukes becoming the new Pacific Coast LeagueTriple-A affiliate for the Dodgers in 1972, Yeager was promoted while remaining in Albuquerque for another season.[6] “You won't beat that arm of his,” Tommy Lasorda said that season.[5] With the Triple-A Dukes, he played 82 games, batting .280 with 45 RBIs and a slugging percentage of .502, in 257 at bats.[6][5]
Major league career
Los Angeles Dodgers (1972-85)
Yeager made his Major League debut with the Dodgers on August 2, 1972, and went on to play 15 seasons in the major leagues.[6] He started 34 games that season and batted .274/.374/.406.[6] In the winter before the 1973 season he was named to the Dominican League All Star team.[5] He backed up Joe Ferguson in 1973, and split time with Ferguson for the pennant-winning 1974 club as he hit .266 with 12 home runs.[6] Thereafter, Yeager was the starting catcher for the Dodgers and became an integral part of the Dodgers' success in the 1970s and early 1980s.
In 1976, he led NL catchers in assists, with 77.[6] In 1977, he came in second in voting for the Gold Glove Award.[5] He led NL catchers in baserunners caught stealing percentage in both 1978 (46.7%) and 1982 (43.1%).[6]
Lou Brock called Yeager "the best-throwing catcher in the game."[5] His specialty was defense and his command of the game on the field. In one nationally televised game, he made a putout to second base – and the radar gun in place to record pitches caught his throw to second (from a crouch) at 98 mph. 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 had 806 putouts, the most in the National League.[6] This compensated for his overall subpar offense, as illustrated by arguably his best offensive year occurring in 1974 when he batted .266 in fewer than 100 games.[6] Despite this reputation, Yeager was still somewhat of a clutch hitter as he had an average of .321 when hitting with the bases loaded during his career, as well as hitting 4 home runs in 21 World Series games.[6] He also had success hitting off pitcher Ken Forsch. While never hitting more than two home runs off any other pitcher, he managed to hit 5 against Forsch in his career.
With the Dodgers, whenever knuckleballerCharlie Hough pitched, Yeager would use a special enlarged catcher's mitt and would hold it in a cupped style, palm facing upward, instead of the normal upright "target" position.
Throat protector
In 1976, Yeager was injured when teammate Bill Russell's bat shattered as he hit a ground ball and a large, jagged piece from the heavy end of the bat slammed into the throat of Yeager, who was in the on-deck circle.[5] The wood hit him in the neck and pierced his esophagus, necessitating surgery.[5] After the incident, at Yeager's urging Dodger trainer Bill Buhler invented and patented a device that hangs from the catcher's mask to protect the throat.[5] It was soon worn by most catchers throughout the Majors and other leagues.
Steve Yeager signing autographs before the 2008 NLCS Game 3
Coaching career
Steve Yeager coached the Dodgers catchers from 2012–2018.[9]
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. He managed the Long Beach Breakers in the independent (now-defunct) Western Baseball League in 2001.[6] The team won the league championship in their inaugural season that year, beating the Chico Heat 3 games to 2. He was the Jacksonville Suns hitting coach in 2004, when the team won the championship, and in 2005-06 he was the hitting instructor/coach for the Dodgers AAA farm club, the Las Vegas 51s. He later joined the A Dodgers affiliate Inland Empire 66'ers and became the hitting coach in 2007.
Yeager was instrumental in the conversion of Russell Martin from third base to behind the plate.
In 2008, Yeager sued two filmmaking companies for nonpayment of $50,000 allegedly promised to him to serve as a technical advisor on the film Playing with the Enemy: A Baseball Prodigy, a World at War and a Field of Broken Dreams. Yeager allegedly had been hired to teach the film's lead actor to play baseball like a convincing professional ballplayer.[13]
