RL04, yes, our Eddie came home to coach the Expansion Senators under Mickey Vernon. Gil Hodges kept him on as 3B coach, and took him to the Mets, along with Joe Pignatano ("Piggie") and maybe somebody else. Washington loved Eddie Yost, but Yost grew up in Queens, got married, and lived in Elmhurst, I think. Shea was perfect.
Yost was among the coaches playing golf with Gil Hodges when Hodges died of a heart attack. Kept coaching 3B for Yogi, and was let go by a Mets manager named Frazier. I had forgotten the Mets had somebody between Yogi and Joe Torre...that's how impressive Frazier was.
SABR has a nifty paragraph describing how Yost went to NYU, and, I think, played on the basketball team as well as the baseball team. Said something like, "I studied on the subway".
Something to remember when comparing Derek Norries to Yost: Eddie played on a home field where the third base distance was about the same as "deep" CF in Norris's minor league parks. Right: 405 feet down the line, and about 415 or 425 to deep CF, which doesn't sound that bad unless you remember that CF in old Griffith Stadium had a 30 or 40 foot wall. I've seen a drawing of Griffith that puts a 'X' on the spot where Ted Williams or Lou Gherig hit one over that wall.
