Yam Yaryan

One of the best-hitting catchers in minor-league history, Everett “Yam” Yaryan batted .357 and slugged 41 home runs in 1920 for Wichita, Kansas, in the Western League. Only Perry Werden and Ernie Calbert had previously hit more homers in one minor-league season, and neither was a catcher.1 Yaryan’s banner year was his springboard to the majors, but he was limited to a backup role on the 1921-22 Chicago White Sox.

In the Southern Association from 1924 to 1930, Yaryan batted .346 and played on three pennant winners, with Memphis in 1924 and Birmingham in 1928 and 1929. As a 45-year-old catcher and manager in 1938, he mentored a pitching phenom, Virgil Trucks.

Clarence Everett Yaryan was born on November 5, 1892, in Knowlton, Iowa, a railroad town on the Chicago Great Western Railway. Though it became a ghost town by the late 1900s, it was then home to about 250 residents.2 Known as Everett, Yaryan was of German ancestry, the third of five children born to Leander Elmer Yaryan and Aletha Belle (Stahl) Yaryan. Leander served as postmaster and managed a general store in Knowlton. Everett worked at his father’s store.

About 1910 Yaryan married Anna Flossie Baker, a local schoolteacher; they were teenagers. The young couple had two children, son Ellis Meade (born in 1911) and daughter Velma Louise (born in 1916).

Yaryan grew up playing on local amateur teams. He played on a semipro team in Letcher, South Dakota, from 1914 through 1916,3 before making his minor-league debut at age 24 with Wichita in the Class-A Western League. In his first three seasons with Wichita, 1917-19, he developed as a catcher. He struggled to catch foul popups. “I didn’t drop them,” he said. “I didn’t get close enough for that. With that Kansas wind, I misjudged some 40 feet.”4 In 1919 he led the Western League with 12 home runs,5 but few could have anticipated his breakout season of 1920.

Yaryan batted and threw right-handed. He was stocky, 5-foot-116 and 180 pounds, and as “big and broad as an Army tank.”7 He was slow-footed but compensated for his lack of speed by hitting the ball with power.

On April 29, 1920, Yaryan belted three doubles in Wichita’s 5-2 victory over St. Joseph, Missouri.8 Two days later, he got his first home run of the season and hit for the cycle in Wichita’s 19-4 thrashing of Omaha.9

On June 4, in an 8-5 loss to Joplin, Missouri, Yaryan contributed three hits and demonstrated his defense by throwing out four baserunners trying to steal second base.10 Against St. Joseph on June 12, he slugged his 10th home run of the season, “a mighty swat over the center field fence” in Wichita.11 In the same game, his ninth-inning single went “screaming down between short and third” and drove in the winning run.12

At Oklahoma City on June 27, Yaryan clouted a prodigious home run. “The big boy pasted one … [that] soared and soared and kept soaring.” It flew over the left-field fence and splashed into the North Canadian River.13 “He is the most powerful hitter in the league,” declared the Oklahoma News.14

Yaryan hit five home runs in a span of three days, August 22-24. Through games of September 1, he had 26 home runs and Wichita was one game behind first-place Tulsa. He then went on a torrid streak, hitting 15 home runs in the final 19 games of the season, which gave him 41 for the year. Wichita won 15 of those 19 games yet still finished a half game back of pennant-winning Tulsa.

During that final stretch Yaryan hit for the cycle against Des Moines on September 10; went 5-for-5 with two home runs against St. Joseph in the second game of a doubleheader on September 14; and went 5-for-6 with three home runs against Omaha in the first game of a twin bill on September 19.15

Except for Tulsa and Wichita, every team in the league hit fewer than 41 home runs. Yaryan led the circuit in hits (206), total bases (376), and runs scored (124). His batting average (.357 in 577 at-bats) trailed only that of his teammate, Carl East (.377 in 326 at-bats).16 Was Yaryan helped by playing home games at a hitter-friendly ballpark? Perhaps, but 17 of his 41 home runs were hit on the road.17 His season is even more remarkable considering the demands of the catching position: He caught in 141 of Wichita’s 154 games.18

The Chicago White Sox purchased Yaryan for an undisclosed price “said to be the largest ever paid for a player from a Wichita team.”19 The “Babe Ruth” of the Western League was heading to the majors.20

The most home runs by a major-league catcher in 1920 was six, by Walt Tragesser of the Philadelphia Phillies. It seems likely that several major-league teams would have given Yaryan a half-time or greater role as their catcher, but he was acquired by a team that had little need for him. The White Sox, although rebuilding after the Black Sox Scandal, were set at catcher. Ray Schalk had caught 87% of the team’s games from 1913 to 1920, and would continue to be the Sox’ front-line catcher through 1925.  The future Hall of Famer had established himself as “one of the greatest of defensive catchers.”21

Yaryan served as Schalk’s backup in 1921 and 1922 and received little playing time; he “spent most of his time in the bullpen warming up pitchers.”22 In fact the White Sox brought in two rookie catchers in spring 1921, Yaryan and George Lees, who had hit .333 in Nashville in 1920.  Lees was expected to be the backup to Schalk, but Yaryan beat him out for that position.23 Yaryan claimed that Eddie Collins, the great White Sox second baseman, gave him his nickname, “Yam,” which stuck with him throughout his life. “Eddie said he didn’t want to call me Everett and he couldn’t remember my last name,” said Yaryan.24

Yaryan made his major-league debut at Comiskey Park on April 23, 1921, pinch hitting for pitcher Red Faber to lead off the eighth inning with the Sox trailing the Tigers, 2-1.  Yam grounded out to third.  He got his first hit on May 8, when he replaced Schalk in the sixth inning of a lost cause.  Yam singled to right in the eighth inning off the Indians’ George Uhle in a game the Sox lost, 17-3.  In Chicago’s 30th game of the season, Schalk was injured when he got hit on the right thumb by a wild pitch,25 leading to Yaryan’s first major-league start on May 24 against the Senators.  Catching and batting eighth, Yam doubled and scored in the second inning.  With the score knotted at 3-3 in the third inning, Yam doubled again, driving in two runs in a game that Chicago would win, 6-5.  Yam started 12 consecutive games, batting .311 with four doubles, a triple, six runs scored and six RBIs. But when Schalk recovered Yam returned to his reserve role.

In 102 at-bats for the White Sox in 1921, Yaryan hit .304 with eight doubles, two triples, and no home runs. His slugging percentage (.422) was higher than Schalk’s (.329). But defensively, Schalk’s fielding and caught-stealing rates (.985 and .492, respectively) were higher than Yaryan’s (.933 and .326).

In 1922 Yaryan received even less playing time. For two weeks in June, he was optioned to Kansas City and Toledo in the American Association.26 With the White Sox, he batted .197 in 71 at-bats with two home runs. The first was a solo shot off New York’s Bullet Joe Bush on July 16. The second, off Cleveland’s George Winn on September 7, was a dramatic, 10th-inning walk-off blast. Yaryan had entered the game in the top of the 10th after Schalk’s finger was split open by a foul ball.27  With Schalk injured, Yaryan again got a few starts until his own finger was split open by a foul ball.28  He made his final appearance on September 24 against Washington.  Pinch hitting in the ninth, Yam singled to left, driving in a run, and was replaced by a pinch runner. 

In the offseason Yaryan was purchased by the Seattle Indians of the Pacific Coast League.29 His brief major-league career was over.

On April 18, 1923, in Seattle’s home opener against the Los Angeles Angels, Yaryan stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning of a scoreless tie and “cracked the first ball pitched for a sizzling home run into the left field bleachers.”30 At Portland on May 2, he was a “batting sensation … with two homers, a double and two singles in five times up.”31 And on July 20, he hit for the cycle at Sacramento.32 Thirty years later, Bill Conlin, sports editor of the Sacramento Union, opined that a Yaryan home run was the longest ball ever hit at the Sacramento ballpark.33

After the 1923 PCL season ended on October 14, Yaryan did not go home to his wife and children in Iowa. He was arrested in Seattle in December and taken to Iowa, where he was charged with wife desertion and passing bad checks.34 He and his wife divorced. She remarried in 1927; he did so in 1929, to Iva Lou Jaudon.

The Seattle Indians sold Yaryan to the Memphis Chickasaws of the Southern Association.35 At Memphis on April 13, 1924, he collected three hits in an exhibition game against the Detroit Tigers. In the third inning, he drilled a pitch from Earl Whitehill to deep center field; Ty Cobb ran back to the fence, but the ball went over his head and caromed off the barrier for a two-base hit.36 At Little Rock on July 3, Yaryan slugged two doubles and a home run in a 10-0 triumph.37

Yaryan hit only four home runs in 312 at-bats for Memphis, but his batting average was a robust .337. The Chickasaws won the pennant and played in the postseason Dixie Series against the Fort Worth Panthers, champions of the Texas League. The Panthers prevailed in eight games, winning four games to three with one tie. Yaryan batted .333 (9-for-27) in the series.38

Yaryan began the 1925 season with Memphis and was sold in July to the Birmingham Barons.39 On August 6, 1925, he drove in all four runs in Birmingham’s 4-0 victory over Memphis.40 “There is never anything flukey about one of Yam’s hits,” said sportswriter Zipp Newman of the Birmingham News.41 His hitting was timely, his “crashing blows” coming “when most needed.”42 The fans saw him as a ferocious hitter and tough-as-nails catcher, but he was a mild-mannered and easy-going fellow.

At Nashville’s Sulphur Dell on June 1, 1926, in the second game of a doubleheader, Yaryan went 4-for-4 with two home runs over the short right-field fence. And he doubled off the fence in center field, the deepest part of the ballpark. It was only the second time that fence had been reached in the ballpark’s history.43 Anyone else would have had a triple or home run, said the Nashville Tennessean, but fast fielding by the center fielder and Yaryan’s “lead-footed pace” kept him to a double.44

In a four-game series at New Orleans in July, Yaryan went 11-for-17 (.647) with three home runs.45 His 1926 season average was .369. He led the league with 20 home runs and might have had more had he played in a smaller home ballpark. Birmingham’s Rickwood Field was 405 feet to the left-field fence and 470 to center,46 and outfielders played deep “to gather in his 350 and 400-foot smashes.”47

In 1926 Yaryan was voted by fans as the most popular Birmingham Baron.48 He hit .336 with 108 RBIs in 1927, followed by a career high .389 in 1928.49 “As a hitting backstop Yaryan hasn’t had an equal in this league,” said Newman.50 But he did not get promoted to the majors. In his mid-30s, he was no longer considered a major-league prospect.

Yaryan’s hard hitting continued with the 1929-30 Barons, but his playing time was curtailed by injuries. For the two seasons combined he had just 377 at-bats, but hit a steady .337.  He was sold in January 1931 to the Fort Worth Panthers.51 On June 16, 1931, the 38-year-old catcher slugged two home runs off Dizzy Dean, the 21-year-old ace of the Houston Buffaloes.52 He homered the next day too, off Houston’s Tex Carleton.53 The Panthers nonetheless released him on June 21.54 Twenty-two years later, Dean recalled those home runs and remarked, “Funny thing about that, Fort Worth turned him loose after that, because he couldn’t hit, I guess.”55

Yaryan played briefly for the 1931 Chattanooga Lookouts in the Southern Association and finished the season with Baton Rouge in the Class-D Cotton States League. The next year, with New Haven, Connecticut, in the Class-A Eastern League, he batted .366 with 18 home runs in 265 at-bats. The league disbanded in July, and he finished the year with York, Pennsylvania, in the Class-B New York-Pennsylvania League. He then stepped away from minor-league baseball. Residing in Birmingham, he worked as an appliance salesman, and he played for and managed local semipro teams.

In July 1936, at age 43, Yaryan returned to the low minors in Class D as the playing manager of the Andalusia (Alabama) Reds in the Alabama-Florida League.56 He batted .408 in 76 at-bats and guided his team to the league championship. The Reds earned the title by defeating Troy, Alabama, in a postseason series.57 On September 8, 1936, in the second game of the series, Yaryan contributed two doubles and a home run and drove in six runs in an 8-7 victory.58 The aging slugger was showing no sign of slowing down.

In 1937, the Andalusia team, by then known as the Bulldogs, again won the pennant under Yaryan’s direction. The experienced backstop caught 92 of his team’s 126 games, hitting .309 in 349 at-bats and leading the circuit with 17 home runs.59 The Bulldogs captured the flag by defeating Union Springs, Alabama, four games to two in a playoff. Yaryan had pulled an “ace” out of his sleeve: Virgil Trucks, a new recruit from Birmingham, pitched a pair of three-hit shutouts in the series.60

With Yaryan back at the helm in 1938, it was the “Virgil Trucks Show” in Andalusia. The 21-year-old right-hander with the blazing fastball achieved a 25-6 record and 1.25 ERA in 273 innings. He struck out 418 batters and hurled two no-hitters,61 and he won two more games in the postseason.62 Yaryan, who hit .288 in 375 at-bats, was Trucks’ catcher and received credit for his development.63 Trucks went on to win 177 games in a distinguished major-league career.

Yaryan and his wife Iva welcomed Clarence Everett Yaryan Jr., born in October 1938. This son became a student and later an employee of the Talladega Institute for the Deaf and Blind.64

Yaryan continued his baseball career for two more seasons. He was the playing manager of the 1939 Gadsden (Alabama) Pilots, but after resigning in June, he played in four games for the Anniston (Alabama) Rams and finished the season as a playing coach of the Easton (Maryland) Yankees.65 The next year, as the 47-year-old playing manager of the Brewton (Alabama) Millers, he hit .302 in 199 at-bats.

Yaryan’s career minor-league batting average was .315.66 In 1943 he was inducted into the Birmingham Barons Hall of Fame.67 Two years later he was named to the First Team All-time Wichita Western League Ball Club.68

Iva Yaryan died in 1948 after a long illness.69 The next year Grace Marie (Hand) Boone became Yaryan’s third wife. He was a salesman for Sears in Birmingham in the 1940s and 1950s. The family was fortunately not at their Birmingham home when it was destroyed by a tornado in 1956.70 In 1959 he scouted for the Baltimore Orioles.71

Yaryan loved fishing. In November 1964, he became gravely ill while on a fishing trip with a pal, Whitey Glazner, a former major-leaguer.72 Yaryan was admitted to Birmingham’s West End Baptist Hospital and died there on November 16, 1964, at the age of 72. His death certificate lists the cause of death as cerebral hemorrhage. He was interred at the Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham.

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and Rick Zucker and fact-checked by Dan Schoenholz.

Photo credit: Yam Yaryan, Wichita Beacon, July 16, 1920.

Sources

Ancestry.com, Baseball-reference.com, and Retrosheet.org, accessed September 2023.

Notes

1 Bob McConnell, ed., Going for the Fences: The Minor League Home Run Record Book, Second Edition, Phoenix, Arizona: SABR (2014): 46. For Minneapolis in the Western League, Perry Werden hit 43 home runs in 1894 and 45 in 1895. In 1917 Ernie Calbert hit 43 home runs for Muskogee, Oklahoma, in the Western Association.

2 “History of Knowlton, Ringgold County, Iowa,” at iagenweb.com, accessed September 2023. See also https://who13.com/news/knowlton-now-a-ghost-town-remembered-southwest-iowa/, accessed October 2023.

3 Mount Ayr (Iowa) Record-News, May 7, 1915: 4; “Letcher Defeats Artesian,” Sioux Falls (South Dakota) Argus-Leader, August 18, 1916: 3.

4 Alf Van Hoose, “Ex-slugger Yam Yaryan, Moans Lack of Bunting These Days,” Birmingham News, July 18, 1948: 5C.

5 “Willhoit Lands at Top in Work with Big Stick,” Wichita Eagle, September 22, 1919: 2.

6 Yaryan’s World War I draft registration gives his height as 5’11,” which differs from the 5’10” indicated at Baseball-reference.com (or 5’10½” in the accompanying B-R Bullpen) in October 2023.

7 Bob Pigue, “Broyles Just Keeps on Bowling Along,” Memphis Press-Scimitar, November 18, 1964: 36.

8 “Witches Slug Out Another Win over Saints,” Wichita Eagle, April 30, 1920: 7.

9 “East Pitches Well and Hits Three Homers,” Wichita Eagle, May 2, 1920: 7.

10 “Someone Threw a Horseshoe at Miners before the Series” and “Izzyisms,” Wichita Beacon, June 5, 1920: 7.

11 “Home Runs Are Big Feature of Wiches’ [sic] Win,” Wichita Eagle, June 13, 1920: 8.

12 “Izzies Poke Ball and Win Saturday in Ninth Stanza,” Wichita Beacon, June 14, 1920: 5.

13 “One More Game to Play at Sooner Capital and Then for Crack at League Leaders,” Wichita Beacon, June 28, 1920: 7. A seven-mile stretch of the North Canadian River at Oklahoma City was renamed the Oklahoma River in 2004.

14 “Says Wampus,” Oklahoma News (Oklahoma City), July 8, 1920: 7.

15 “Yaryan Smacks Out 33rd Homer as Witches Win Easily,” Wichita Eagle, September 11, 1920: 7; “Yaryan Real Rival of Ruth Got Two Homers in One Game,” Wichita Beacon, September 15, 1920: 7; “Glorious Finish Given to Season,” Wichita Beacon, September 20, 1920: 7.

16 Francis C. Richter, ed., The Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide for 1921 (Philadelphia: A.J. Reach Co., 1921): 258-260.

17 Determined by the author from box scores.

18 Richter, The Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide for 1921: 262.

19 “It’s Going Over,” Wichita Eagle, September 15, 1920: 9.

20 One newspaper reported that the local fans don’t call Yaryan the Babe Ruth of the league, but “refer to their swatter as ‘Muscles’ and ‘Strength’ and ‘Yamyam.’ “’Babe Ruth’ of West called ‘Muscles,’” Iowa City Press, September 10, 1920: 9.

21 Peter Morris, Catcher: How the Man behind the Plate Became an American Folk Hero (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2009): 268.

22 “Millers Break Old Record in Straight Play,” Oklahoma City Times, June 13, 1922: 10.

23 Dean Snyder, “Kid Gleason Fills Every Hole in the White Sox,” Iowa City Press-Citizen, March 25, 1921: 9.

24 Sec Taylor, “Sittin’ In with the Athletes,” Des Moines Register, August 23, 1944: 13. It should be noted that Yaryan was referred to as Yamyam in Wichita in 1920, and was referred to as “Yam Yaryan” in an Iowa newspaper in March 1921. “Rookie Directory – White Sox,” Iowa City Press-Citizen, March 25, 1921: 9.

25 “Sox Notes,” Chicago Tribune, May 24, 1921: 21.

26 “Yaryan to Blues,” Wichita Eagle, June 13, 1922: 8; “White Hose Turn Yaryan Loose,” Lima (Ohio) Republican-Gazette, June 22, 1922: 7.

27 Irving Vaughan, “Yaryan’s Homer in Tenth Gives Sox 9-8 Battle,” Chicago Tribune, September 8, 1922: 13.

28 “Baseball Sidelights,” Bloomington (Illinois) Pantagraph, September 14, 1922: 10.

29 Leo H. Lassen, “Billy Evans Tells of New Seattle Catcher,” Seattle Star, December 4, 1922: 12.

30 “Yaryan’s Mighty Clout Wins Opening Game!” Seattle Union Record, April 19, 1923: 10.

31 “Beavers Win Second Game in Terrible Exhibition 19 to 13,” Seattle Union Record, May 3, 1923: 10.

32 “Eviction of Mollwitz after Row with Byron Ends Senators’ Streak,” Sacramento Bee, July 21, 1923: 22.

33 Bill Conlin, “It Says Here,” Sacramento Union, June 18, 1953: 6.

34 “Yaryan Jailed on Desertion, Check Charges,” Los Angeles Express, December 12, 1923: 33.

35 “Rohwer and Welsh Will Again Wear Indian Uniforms,” Seattle Union Record, December 15, 1923: Sports, 1.

36 Gerald L. Dearing, “Chick Errors in Game with Tigers Cost Kelly Contest,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, April 14, 1924: 14.

37 “Wherein Chicks Do Traveling,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, July 4, 1924: 11.

38 “Cy Anderson Leading Hitter in Dixie Series,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, October 3, 1924: 19.

39 “Chicks Buy Catcher Hartline, Yam Yaryan Goes to Barons,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, July 4, 1925: 10.

40 Zipp Newman, “Yaryan Responsible for Four Baron Runs,” Birmingham News, August 7, 1925: 17.

41 Zipp Newman, “Dusting ‘Em Off,” Birmingham News, September 15, 1926: 18.

42 Zipp Newman, “Big Rally in Eighth Beats Lookouts 10-5,” Birmingham News, May 23, 1926: 22.

43 “Vols Harpoon Barons in Twin Bill, 2-1, 4-3,” Birmingham News, June 2, 1926: 16.

44 “Vols Take Twin-Bill off Barons and Take 3rd Place,” Nashville Tennessean, June 2, 1926: 10.

45 Box scores in the Birmingham News, July 2, 1926: 20; July 3: 8; July 4: 13; July 5: 1.

46 “Rickwood Field,” Encyclopedia of Alabama, encyclopediaofalabama.org, accessed October 2023.

47 Zipp Newman, “Dusting ‘Em Off,” Birmingham News, July 28, 1950: 29.

48 “Yaryan Voted Most Popular Baronial Player,” Birmingham News, September 15, 1926: 18.

49 SABR, Minor League Baseball Stars, Revised Edition (Manhattan, Kansas: Ag Press, 1984): 98, 99.

50 Zipp Newman, “Dusting ‘Em Off,” Birmingham News, July 21, 1931: 9.

51 “Yam Yaryan Leaves Barons; Is Sold to Fort Worth Club,” Birmingham News, January 31, 1931: 7.

52 Flem R. Hall, “Cats Plan to Knock Buffs out of Second Place,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 17, 1931: 17.

53 Flem R. Hall, “Panthers Drop Series’ Final to Houston,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 18, 1931: 14.

54 “Catcher Is Bought as Cats Release One,” Austin (Texas) Statesman, June 22, 1931: 2.

55 “Dean Recalls Beating Cats in Twin Bill,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 1, 1953: 13.

56 “‘Yam’ Yaryan New Manager Baseball Club,” Andalusia (Alabama) Star, July 30, 1936: 1.

57 “Andalusia Takes Alabama-Florida League Pennant,” Birmingham News, September 14, 1936: 11.

58 “Andalusians Beat Troy to Even Series,” Troy (Alabama) Messenger, September 9, 1936: 4.

59 “Tommy West Finishes on Top in Alabama-Florida with .358,” The Sporting News, October 28, 1937: 6.

60 Union Springs (Alabama) Herald, September 9, 1937: 8.

61 Trucks pitched no-hitters on May 18 and June 4, 1938. “Unusual Ball Game Seen Here Wed’n’day,” Andalusia Star, May 19, 1938: 1; “Trucks Tosses Andalusia to Victory over Brownies 6 to 0,” Dothan (Alabama) Eagle, June 5, 1938: 8.

62 “Andalusia Trims Dothan and Play-off Series Evened,” Dothan Eagle, August 30, 1938: 5; “Trucks Whiffs 13 in Andalusia Win over Troy, 12 to 5,” Birmingham News, September 3, 1938: 8.

63 Jack House, “Yaryan to Boss Gadsden Pilots,” Birmingham News, December 18, 1938: 22.

64 1950 US census; “Deaths and Funerals,” Birmingham Post-Herald, February 27, 1991: E2.

65 Phillip Tutor, “Yaryan’s Glorious Four Games with the Anniston Rams,” at annistonrams.com, accessed September 2023.

66 SABR, Minor League Baseball Stars, Revised Edition, 98, 99.

67 Frank McGowan, “Birmingham Votes 20 Players into Barons’ Own Hall of Fame,” The Sporting News, May 13, 1943: 3.

68 Pete Lightner, “Wichita Turned Out Stars in 27 Years in Leagues,” Wichita Eagle, July 29, 1945: 15.

69 “Mrs. Yam Yaryan Succumbs to Illness,” Birmingham News, August 31, 1948: 14.

70 “Yam Yaryan Home Wiped Out by Sunday’s Storm,” Birmingham Post-Herald, April 18, 1956: 11.

71 “Lions East-West Baseball Game Set Today,” Jasper (Alabama) Mountain Eagle, May 6, 1960: 3-A.

72 “Yaryan Is on Critical List,” Birmingham Post-Herald, November 16, 1964: 9.