Former Dodgers catcher Steve Yeager will receive the Tommy Lasorda I Bleed Dodger Blue Award Sunday, annually given to a member of the Dodgers community who embodies the passion, enthusiasm and love for the team that Lasorda possessed.
Lasorda’s daughter Laura Lasorda will present the award to Yeager during ceremonies preceding the game against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium on the 97th anniversary of the birth of the Hall of Famer, who managed the Dodgers from 1976-96. Lasorda died in 2021 at age 93.
“It’s a tremendous honor to receive an award named after Tommy Lasorda, who did so much for the organization and Major League Baseball and impacted the lives of so many young men in his career,” Yeager said in a statement.
“Many of those guys had long careers playing and many stayed in coaching, like myself. He touched so many lives and made us all better for it.”
Former Los Angeles City Councilwoman Rosalind Wyman was the first recipient of the award in 2022 while longtime minor league manager and coach John Shoemaker received the award in 2023.
Yeager was selected by the Dodgers in the fourth round of the 1967 MLB draft and played for Lasorda in 1967 with the Ogden Dodgers of the Pioneer League and in 1972 with the Albuquerque Dukes of the Pacific Coast League.
Yeager played for the Dodgers from 1972-85 and is third among the franchise’s catchers with 1,219 games played behind Mike Scioscia (1,441) and John Roseboro (1,289).
Yeager shared the MVP award for the 1981 World Series with teammates Ron Cey and Pedro Guerrero for hitting the tie-breaking seventh-inning solo home run in a 2-1 victory in Game 5, giving the Dodgers a three games to two series lead en route to their first World Series championship since 1965.
Yeager concluded his playing career in 1986 with the Seattle Mariners.
Following his playing career, Yeager coached in the Dodgers’ minor league system, was their major league catching instructor from 2012-18 and managed the Long Beach Breakers to the 2001 Western League championship.
Yeager was the technical advisor and portrayed coach Duke Temple in the 1989 film “Major League” and its sequels, “Major League II” and “Major League: Back to the Minors.”
“Steve is a bona fide World Series hero, and for more than 50 years, he has exemplified the best qualities of Tommy in becoming a leader and mentor to generations of Dodgers,” Dodger President & CEO Stan Kasten said in a statement.