Author Topic: Eddie Yost dies at 86  (Read 1253 times)

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Offline welch

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Eddie Yost dies at 86
« Topic Start: October 17, 2012, 06:47:43 PM »
Eddie Yost has died at 86. The Nats third-baseman and lead-off hitter from about 1946 through 1958, Yost finished 20 major-league seasons with an on-base percentage of .394. He led the AL in walks about six times, and had such a good eye that umpires let Yost call close pitches. If Yost didn't swing, it was a ball.

Let this sink in: eight times, Yost had more than 100 walks in a season, and an on-base percentage above .400...not counting his part-time last season.

If you check Yost's numbers, his average doesn't look impressive, unless you remember that Yost was a right-handed pull hitter in Griffith Stadium. The left-field mark was about 405 feet until 1956 or so, when Calvin Griffith added some bleachers to shorten left to a mere 350 feet. In hitter-friendly Detroit in 1959, Yost hit 21 homers...too old, "washed up", traded to dump salary and to make a place for Harmon Killebrew, Yost showed power.

He was also "a good glove man", says my Dad.

For details, see the SABR bio at:

http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/27ab6dec

and stats at:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/y/yosted01.shtml

Offline Fan037

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Re: Eddie Yost dies at 86
« Reply #1: October 17, 2012, 09:52:29 PM »
I remember him.  Sad to hear about his death.

Offline welch

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Re: Eddie Yost dies at 86
« Reply #2: October 17, 2012, 10:21:56 PM »
Not many regulars left from those '50s teams. Roy Sievers is one, and some pitchers.

Offline Tyler Durden

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Re: Eddie Yost dies at 86
« Reply #3: October 17, 2012, 10:34:29 PM »
Pretty crazy - in one year, he had a batting average of .231 and an OBP of .412.

Offline JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Eddie Yost dies at 86
« Reply #4: October 18, 2012, 09:39:03 AM »
Derrek Norris may have done that in the minors.

Offline Ray D

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Re: Eddie Yost dies at 86
« Reply #5: October 18, 2012, 09:52:13 AM »
I was quite up set when we traded him to the Tigers, that trade made no sense to me at the time.  But we got Reno Bertoia out of it, and he hit a homerun in his first Senator game, and after that I didn't think much about it.

Rest in Peace, Eddie Yost!

Offline welch

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Re: Eddie Yost dies at 86
« Reply #6: October 18, 2012, 12:22:21 PM »
Derrek Norris may have done that in the minors.

Nope. When Norris hits .210, it's his peak. Yost had one bad year...typically hit .250 with 100 - 125 walks. And Griffith Stadium would scare the cleats off of modern hitters.

Offline CALSGR8

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Re: Eddie Yost dies at 86
« Reply #7: October 18, 2012, 12:56:56 PM »
Add to the other Eddie Yost thread?

Offline JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Eddie Yost dies at 86
« Reply #8: October 18, 2012, 01:00:58 PM »
Quote
Pretty crazy - in one year, he had a batting average of .231 and an OBP of .412.
Quote
Derrek Norris may have done that in the minors.
Quote
Nope. When Norris hits .210, it's his peak. Yost had one bad year...typically hit .250 with 100 - 125 walks. And Griffith Stadium would scare the cleats off of modern hitters.
Norris's 2010 at Potomac - .235 with a .419 OBP.

Not arguing Norris will do that in the majors.  Just noting that he had a year like the one posted.

Offline RL04

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Re: Eddie Yost dies at 86
« Reply #9: October 18, 2012, 01:22:30 PM »
Eddie Yost has died at 86, the Nats third-baseman and lead-off hitter  Mets third base coach.


Fixed.    ;)

Offline spidernat

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Re: Eddie Yost dies at 86
« Reply #10: October 18, 2012, 03:02:38 PM »
Merge Eddie Yost threads?

Offline welch

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Re: Eddie Yost dies at 86
« Reply #11: October 18, 2012, 04:39:18 PM »
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.

Offline Ray D

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Re: Eddie Yost dies at 86
« Reply #12: October 18, 2012, 05:12:49 PM »
RL04, yes, our Eddie came home to coach the Expansion Senators under Mickey Vernon.

He was even manager.  (That lasted one game.)


Offline welch

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Re: Eddie Yost dies at 86
« Reply #13: October 18, 2012, 09:22:17 PM »
He was even manager.  (That lasted one game.)



...and, I think he should have been hired full-time to manage a ball club.

On those grim teams around 1955 - 1958, Yost was one of the solid players we could be proud of. Yost, Pete Runnels, Mickey Vernon, and Roy Sievers...plus Jim Lemon toward the end.

Offline Ray D

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Re: Eddie Yost dies at 86
« Reply #14: October 19, 2012, 09:40:52 AM »
...and, I think he should have been hired full-time to manage a ball club.

On those grim teams around 1955 - 1958, Yost was one of the solid players we could be proud of. Yost, Pete Runnels, Mickey Vernon, and Roy Sievers...plus Jim Lemon toward the end.

Well I started following in 1957, and I know that Runnels and Vernon were long gone by then.  I remember that nearly every team we played seem to have at least one great player where my dad would say "he used to be a Senator".   Runnels and Vernon for sure, but also Jackie Jensen, Early Wynn, Bob Porterfield, Jim Busby.  (And others that don't readily come to mind.)


Offline welch

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Re: Eddie Yost dies at 86
« Reply #15: October 19, 2012, 03:53:10 PM »
Well I started following in 1957, and I know that Runnels and Vernon were long gone by then.  I remember that nearly every team we played seem to have at least one great player where my dad would say "he used to be a Senator".   Runnels and Vernon for sure, but also Jackie Jensen, Early Wynn, Bob Porterfield, Jim Busby.  (And others that don't readily come to mind.)



Runnels was traded just after '57. I remember that trade all too well: Nats got Norm Zauchin from the Bosox. Zauchin hit 15 homers as the Nats 1B in 1958 (I had a full set of '59 baseball cards). Runnels hit .300 about five straight seasons in Boston.

Vernon was traded a year earlier, and hit about .310 at age 38 for Boston. The Nats got a bunch of players I don't remember except for Tex Clevenger.

Jensen was before my time, but my Dad always grumbled about that trade. Jensen was a basic 30 home run / .300 hitting LF, and I think the AL all-star voting usually had Jensen, Ted Willliams, Mickey Mantle, and Al Kaline in the OF. Sometimes Kaline started, sometimes Jensen. Ugh!

Busby was an elegant CF in Griffith Stadium, a park with the biggest CF in baseball...except maybe for old Yankee Stadium.

Calvin Griffith must have been dumping salary. No other explanation if you look at the Vernon, Runnels, and Yost trades. If would be interesting if someone wrote a book on the Calvin Griffith years in Washington, but nobody writes about teams that break the record for consecutive losses.

Offline Ray D

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Re: Eddie Yost dies at 86
« Reply #16: October 19, 2012, 04:00:58 PM »
Runnels was traded just after '57.

Yeah I looked it up and you're right. Could have sworn it was before '57 because I remember the '57 Senators and my recollection is that he was with Boston by then, but I suppose my recollection failed me.   

But anyway, it seems that we got Albie Pearson in that trade. Not to say that that made up for it, but he was rookie of the year in '58.


Offline welch

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Re: Eddie Yost dies at 86
« Reply #17: October 19, 2012, 08:06:53 PM »
Yeah I looked it up and you're right. Could have sworn it was before '57 because I remember the '57 Senators and my recollection is that he was with Boston by then, but I suppose my recollection failed me.   

But anyway, it seems that we got Albie Pearson in that trade. Not to say that that made up for it, but he was rookie of the year in '58.



Yes...I looked it up and saw little Albie, but Zauchin was supposed to be the big guy in that trade...power-hitting first-baseman to make us forget Mickey Vernon, two time AL batting champ. Ugh!

Offline RL04

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Re: Eddie Yost dies at 86
« Reply #18: November 01, 2012, 01:37:33 PM »
Yost grew up in Queens, got married, and lived in Elmhurst.


Cool.  Did not know that.