Eddie Yost, the aptly-dubbed Walking Man who was the Senators’ regular third baseman from 1947-58, died last week, three days past his 86th birthday. Obituaries ran in the Washington Post and the New York Times.
Yost hung up his spikes after 1962 as the all-time leader in games played at the hot corner with 2,008, having surpassed by 145 games the old record-holder, Pie Traynor; he now ranks ninth in that regard. He was fourth with 1,614 walks drawn (now 11th). From 1949-55, he played in 829 consecutive games, at that time the fifth-longest streak in MLB history (now ninth).
A Brooklyn native who attended New York University (and eventually earned his degree), Eddie Yost broke into the major leagues in August 16, 1944, two months before turning 18. He notched the first of his 1,863 hits in that game against Eddie Lopat. But his WWII service and then the postwar return of the regulars pushed his first full year to 1947. His rookie line showed just 45 walks, a .314 OBP and no HRs. But within a few years, and throughout the ’50s, he was the archetype of the low-average, high-on-base batter. In all, he posted a .254 BA but a .394 OBP across 18 big-league seasons, 14 of those as a regular. He is one of just eight players whose OBP is at least 1.5 times his BA (min. 3,000 PAs), and had the longest career among that group. He posted eight seasons with 120+ walks; no one else but Bonds (11), Ruth (10) and Williams (8) had more than 4 such years.
Perhaps because the stolen base was in eclipse when he broke in, Yost’s managers had the sense to bat him in the leadoff spot almost exclusively, even though he didn’t fit the traditional profile; he never swiped 10 bags in a season. In his peak years of 1950-54, Yost played every game and averaged 105 Runs and 130 walks. He led the AL in free passes three times and placed second to Ted Williams the other two, while ranking from 2nd to 8th in Runs each year. In those five years, he drew 105 more walks than anyone else, and ranked 3rd in Runs. For the decade 1950-59, Yost drew 1,185 walks, almost 300 more than number two Mickey Mantle, and ranked 7th in Runs. His 151 walks in 1956 remains the season record for the Senators/Twins franchise. His lifetime .394 OBP ranked 13th out of 180 players with at least 3,000 PAs during his career (1944-62).
The over-all walk reached a historic peak in the late ’40s and early ’50s, but Yost was operating on a different plane from his Washington teammates. While Yost drew 90+ walks in eight of ten years from 1949-58, there was only one other 90-walk year by a Senator, and the club was often near the bottom in walks drawn. Likewise, his six years of 90+ runs in that span were two more than all his teammates combined. He ranked first or second in offensive Wins Above Replacement on the Senators for eight straight years, 1949-56.
In a 2010 interview, Yost reflected on a late-career change. As Michael Ferrigno wrote:
“Yost had been with the Senators for 14 years when one day, while relaxing on sun-filled vacation, he opened the newspaper to discover that he had been traded to the Detroit Tigers. ‘They don’t usually do things like that,’ Yost said now with a laugh. ‘But I always liked going to Detroit, I was a pull hitter and it was only 340 feet going down the line. It was a good baseball town and I had one of my best years there — led the league in walks, in runs scored, was a lead-off hitter and my on-base percentage was well over .400.’” (Source)
Indeed, after struggling in his last year with the Senators, Yost rebounded for the 1959 Tigers with perhaps his best campaign, posting career highs of 115 runs, 135 OPS+ and 21 HRs, and his .435 OBP was the best by a Tiger in over two decades. For the power surge, he could thank Briggs Stadium — more precisely, getting away from Griffith Stadium: In all his years in D.C., Yost compiled just 23 HRs at home, but 78 on the road.
His teammate Harvey Kuenn won the ’59 batting title at .353; the perennial “.300 hitter” was named to his 7th straight All-Star team and ranked 8th in the MVP vote. Yost, whose only All-Star nod came in 1952 (he didn’t get to play), batted 75 points below Kuenn in ’59 and got no MVP votes — but 3B Yost outstripped RF Kuenn by .435-.402 in OBP, 21-9 in HRs and 115-99 in Runs. Yost led the Tigers in oWAR even though Kuenn and Al Kaline swept the BA, SLG and OPS titles and Charlie Maxwell hit 31 HRs.
The following year, Yost passed Traynor in games at third base, and again topped the league in OBP and the Tigers in oWAR. But he turned 34 that fall and was exposed in the expansion draft. Taken by the Angels, he played out his career with two part-time seasons, batting just .215 but with a .377 OBP. Fittingly, the first-year Angels led the majors with 681 walks, the highest total in five years (with a little help from the 162-game schedule). Injury cost Yost a good chunk of the early season, but in June he matched his career best by walking in 10 straight games. After a two-game drought, he reeled off 13 straight games with a base on balls, tying teammate Albie Pearson (later that year) and Mickey Mantle (1962) for the longest walking streak from 1958-72.
Except for his cameo swan song with the surprising ’62 Angels, the best record for any team Yost played on was 78-76 by the ’52 Senators. But he got a World Series share as third-base coach for the ’69 Mets, and also helped them to their unexpected ’73 pennant. His final job in uniform was as Boston’s third-base coach from 1977-84.
- From the “Why bother?” files: In 1956, Yost received nine intentional passes while batting leadoff. (Which tells you all you need to know about the perceived hitting ability of one Dorrel Norman Elvert Herzog, later “known as The Rat”, Washington’s number two hitter that year.)
