Louisville’s Young Not Quite Ready to Settle for Triple-A Rating

Gerald Young’s baseball resume, post-1992, can hardly be classified as glowing.

Cut by the Houston Astros after 4 1/2 years in the major leagues, Young spent about equal parts of 1993 with the Colorado Rockies, the triple-A Indianapolis Indians, the triple-A Calgary Cannons and, well, with no one--he spent a month and a half last summer at his Houston home, unemployed.

And now Young, a 1982 Santa Ana Valley graduate, is with his fourth organization in a year--the triple-A Louisville Redbirds--praying that his name is not used in the same sentence as that nastiest of baseball terms-- journeyman .

“I don’t want to spend my waning years in triple-A,” said Young, who is batting .300 with an American Assn.-leading 29 doubles. “I know I have some good baseball left in me. I’m not ready to be Crash Davis (of the movie ‘Bull Durham’) yet.”

If not for a few too many collisions with outfield walls and the effect of artificial turf on his legs, this 29-year-old outfielder might not be on a Crash course.

Young was once the scourge of National League basepaths, a leadoff hitter who set a team record with 65 stolen bases and hit .257 for the Astros in 1988. He also ranked third in the league in triples (nine) and led the club with 66 walks and 79 runs that season.

But Young ran into unpadded fences twice in 1989, once in the Houston Astrodome and once in Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium, injuring and then re-injuring his right knee. The constant pounding of playing on artificial turf only made things worse.

His knee was not so severely injured that it required surgery, but occasional swelling forced him to have fluid drained from it about three times a year. Young, whose explosive first step allowed him to accelerate to full speed almost immediately, began to lose that which was most responsible for him reaching the major leagues.

His stolen base totals at Houston dropped from 65 in 1988 to 34 in ‘89, six in ‘90, 16 in ’91 and 13 in ’92. Young also spent a considerable amount of time from 1990-92 at triple-A Tucson.

“The running, the stealing, the pounding on the turf over the years took its toll,” Young said by telephone from Louisville. “It’s like someone taking 200 to 300 golf swings. After a while, you get a little sore.”

Had Young’s baseball swings been improving, perhaps the Astros could have overlooked his decreasing speed. But Young’s average slipped to .175 in 1990, .218 in ’91 and .184 in ’92.

Having been reduced to a defensive replacement by the end of the 1992 season, Young finished the year in the minor leagues and signed as a free agent with Colorado, hoping for a fresh start with the expansion team.

It was a false start.

Young batted .340 in spring training and made the major league roster, but when the Rockies acquired power-hitting outfielder Dale Murphy in the first week of the 1993 season, there wasn’t much need for a slap-hitting outfielder.

Young had only one hit in 19 at-bats in two months. The Rockies tried to option him to the minor leagues, but Young, who had a guaranteed major league contract, declined that assignment.

Colorado’s response? It declined to keep Young in the organization.

After his release, Young spent about six weeks at home, waiting for the phone to ring. The Cincinnati Reds finally called and offered him a spot at triple-A Indianapolis, where Young hit .301 with seven stolen bases in 32 games.

“They didn’t tell me when I signed that I was a stop-gap player,” Young said. “They had a couple injuries, but when their guys came back, they released me.”

Young finished the season at Calgary, Seattle’s triple-A team, batting .298 with seven stolen bases in 25 games, but the Mariners decided not to retain the switch-hitter.

“It wasn’t a good 1993, to say the least,” Young said, “but I never lost confidence in my ability to play at the big league level.”

Young brought that determination to the St. Louis Cardinals this season, and when the 6-foot-2, 185-pounder hit .333 in spring training, he thought he had earned a major league roster spot.

But Cardinal Manager Joe Torre elected to keep four outfielders (most teams have five) and 11 pitchers (most have 10), so Young again wound up in triple A, where he seems to be making the best of what at least is a more stable situation than his whirlwind tour in 1993.

Young is batting leadoff for a 47-37 team that is in the thick of the American Assn. race. He has scored 52 runs, knocked in 29 runs and has provided consistent defense in center field.

“He’s played hard, worked hard, and done an outstanding job,” Louisville Manager Joe Pettini said. “One thing I like about him is he has experience. He put up some good big-league numbers. We have a lot of kids in triple-A for the first time, and when they see a guy playing as hard as he has, they get the idea that they better bust their butts, too.”

Pettini does have one complaint when it comes to Young, though. He’d like to see him run more often. Pettini has given Young the green light--he can run any time he wants--but Young treats it more like a yellow light. He has only 10 stolen bases and has been caught stealing nine times.

“He’s a smart player--we have a short right-field fence and he knows guys behind him can hit the ball out of the park, so he doesn’t run as much,” Pettini said. “But I told him that the one thing that will get him noticed (by major league teams) is stolen bases. I don’t know if he’s having problems with his knee or something, but he can still run.”

Young doesn’t have the explosive first step he had in 1988, but once he gets moving, he feels his speed is good.

“I don’t think I’ve lost that much,” Young said. “I still feel pretty fast. My legs weren’t feeling all that great at the beginning of the year, but they’re starting to feel stronger. I think my stolen base totals will rise.”

A few more quick steps could mean a giant leap toward the major leagues for Young.

“I’m still only a step away,” Young said. “There are guys who haven’t been to the big leagues for a long time--a friend of mine, Chuck Jackson, is with the Rangers now and he hadn’t been up since 1988. If he can be that persistent, so can I.”