Gerald Young (baseball)

Gerald Anthony Young (born October 22, 1964 in Tela, Honduras) is a former professional baseball outfielder. He played all or part of eight seasons in Major League Baseball, primarily as a center fielder. He is the first person born in Honduras to play Major League Baseball.

A 1982 graduate of Santa Ana Valley High School,^[1] Young was drafted in the 5th round of the 1982 MLB amateur draft by the New York Mets. He was, along with Rafael Palmeiro and Dwight Gooden, part of a draft class that set a major league record for a single team when 14 of those players reached the major leagues.^[2]

Young was traded by the Mets to the Houston Astros on September 1, 1984, for third baseman Ray Knight, and made his major league debut with them on July 8, 1987. He showed promise by hitting .321 and stealing 26 bases for the Astros, finishing 5th in National League Rookie of the Year voting despite playing less than half a season with the major league club. Young's best season in the major leagues came the following year, 1988, when he finished 2nd in the NL with 65 steals. 1989 was a disappointment for Young offensively, although he did manage to finish 8th in the league in steals (34) and accomplish a rare defensive feat by recording 412 putouts with only one error and adding 15 outfield assists.

Young would spend the next three seasons splitting time between the Astros, their Triple A affiliate the Tucson Toros, and the disabled list (with an assortment of injuries). Although he was successful at the minor league level, always hitting over .300, his batting statistics for the Astros never replicated his earlier success.

At the end of the 1992 season, Young became a free agent, and he signed with, and became an inaugural member of the expansion Colorado Rockies team that began play in Major League Baseball in 1993. Young appeared in his final game on August 11, 1994, playing for the St. Louis Cardinals. He was released that October by the Cardinals. Gerald is married to Veronica Young.

See also

• List of Major League Baseball leaders in career stolen bases

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube
• Sporting News Archives