Lest we forget: Eddie Yost (updated)

October 17, 2012

I remember him primarily as one of Gil Hodges’ coaches for the 1969 NY Mets. It’s sometimes hard to believe that these old men (Yost was just 41 when he joined the Mets) were young once and had pretty solid careers as players.

Prior to becoming a coach, Yost enjoyed an 18-year career as a player (Washington senators, Detroit Tigers, LA Angels)  in which he worked out 100 or more walks eight times (he averaged 124 walks per 162 games) and led the American league in walks five times, earning the nickname “The Walking Man.” He also had a little bit of pop in his bat — the slightly built (5’10”, 170 pound) third baseman hit 10 or more homers seven times with a career high of 21 for the Tigers in 1959.

Yost passed away yesterday at the age of 86. Kind of surprised that neither the NY Times nor the Washington Post have anything on their websites as of this writing.

UPDATE: Here are the obits from the Times (by Bruce Weber, author of As They See ‘Em) and the Washington Post (thanks to Bookshelf reader Jeff Brown for the link).

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