by Paul Semendinger
(Continuing a series…)
As I go through the 1977 Topps set for this series, I am pulling out the cards of the players who played for the Yankees. That is, of course, the basis of this series.
To date, if one were to check my work, I don’t think I missed any Yankees players thus far.
I’m doing this all by memory, or maybe it’s more accurate to say, primarily by memory. I think I pretty much know which players were Yankees or not. This era of players in right in my wheelhouse. Once I fell in love with baseball and the Yankees, I started studying it from every angle.
When I am in doubt, I check the player’s career (usually on baseball-reference.com). I am correct about 99% of the time. I can’t think of a player, yet, that I have been wrong with. One will come, but it hasn’t happened yet.
All that said, how I remembered that Roy Staiger was a Yankee, I don’t know. But I did. I don’t remember anything about him. At all.
***
On December 9, 1977, Roy Staiger was traded from the Mets to the Yankees. For the briefest of moments, in 1979, Staiger played for the Yankees. He appeared in four games for the Yankees that year.
In that trade, the Mets got infielder Sergio Ferrer. Ferrer batted .175 over two seasons for the Mets.
Since Ferrer appeared in 69 games for the Mets, I guess that means the Mets did much better than the Yankees in the deal. (After all 69 games trumps the four that Staiger played in.)
As a Yankee, Roy Staiger batted .273. He had eleven at bats and got three hits, one of which was a double. In those four games, Staiger played third base. All four of the games were on the road (one in Cleveland, three in Toronto) as September was windowing down. Roy Staiger never appeared in a game wearing Yankees pinstripes. That’s a shame. My goodness to get that close and never get to play in Yankee Stadium. That must have been frustrating.
In 1980, Roy Staiger was back in the minor leagues. After being traded from the Mets, the Yankees assigned Staiger to the Tacoma in 1978 and then to Columbus in 1979 and 1980.
In 1980, Roy hit .234 for Columbus to close out his professional career.
(Sergio Ferrer hung around in the Mets minor league system until 1981 before playing for numerous years in the Mexican League.)
