Greg Myers

Early in his career, just after the movie Bull Durham was released, Greg Myers was given the nickname “Crash” by fellow teammates after Kevin Costner’s “Crash Davis” character in the movie. Little did they know at the time that Myers was going to have an 18-year major-league career that included 13 trips to the disabled list, mostly from plays at the plate when he was catching.

Gregory Richard Myers was born on April 14, 1966, in Riverside, California, to Dennis and Stephanie Myers. His father was a police officer who went on to law school, became a lawyer, and then a judge. His father also played a season as an outfielder in the Dodgers organization in Artesia, New Mexico. He has two older brothers, John and David, and a younger sister, Deanna.

Myers played at every level of youth baseball while growing up. He had a growth spurt during his sophomore year of high school and since he was fully grown, his high-school coach at Riverside Polytechnic High School, Rich Graves, appointed him a catcher.1 Before graduating from high school in 1984, Myers was named All-Conference three times and led his team to a conference championship in 1982. Myers was scouted extensively by Larry Maxie and Wayne Morgan. In the June 1984 Amateur Draft, he was the Blue Jays’ third-round pick.

Myers’ brother David, one year older than Greg, was good at many sports, but really loved basketball. David played basketball at Riverside Polytechnic and was on a really good team. This team had been together for many years with David at one guard position and future NBA Hall of Famer Reggie Miller at the other guard spot. After seeing this basketball talent while growing up, Greg decided to focus on baseball.2

After signing a contract, Myers reported to the Medicine Hat Blue Jays of the Rookie-level Pioneer League, where he played in 38 games, batting .316. His next stop, in 1985, was to the Low-A Florence Blue Jays, where the 19-year-old played in 134 games. In 1986 it was on to the High-A Ventura County Gulls, batting .295 with 20 home runs and 79 RBIs in 124 games. 

The Syracuse Chiefs of the Triple-A International League were the 21-year-old’s team for 1987. In 107 games, Myers hit .246 with 10 home runs and 47 RBIs. He was called up to Toronto and made his major-league debut on September 12, 1987. Myers made seven appearances behind the plate, starting two games, to get his feet wet and began an 18-year major-league career. On Friday, October 2, he started at catcher and in his first major-league at-bat he singled in front of a crowd of 45,167 at Tiger Stadium and scored on a home run by Manny Lee off Doyle Alexander in the second inning.3

After starting the 1988 season in Syracuse, Myers tore his rotator cuff and played in only 34 games.4 He hit .283 with 7 home runs and 21 RBIs in 128 plate appearances.

Myers started the 1989 season at Double-A Knoxville and his contract was purchased by Toronto on July 2. He appeared in 14 games before being optioned to Syracuse on August 2. On July 30 against the Yankees, Myers got his first major-league RBI. Lloyd Moseby tripled in the second inning and scored when Myers grounded out to second. Ernie Whitt was the Blue Jays catcher throughout the late ’70s and all through the ’80s along with Pat Borders in 1988 and 1989. Whitt was traded to the Atlanta Braves after the 1989 season, making room for Myers to get more major-league playing time.

On April 20, 1990, Myers hit his first major-league home run. After Fred McGriff opened the Blue Jays’ sixth with a walk and John Olerud singled, Myers sent a deep drive into the seats in right-center field of Toronto’s SkyDome, giving the Blue Jays a 15-4 lead, while raising his batting average for the season to .286. Myers had to leave the game against the Tigers on May 4, after a collision with Detroit’s Lou Whitaker at home plate. He was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a small separation and bruised shoulder.5 Back in action, Myers went 9-for-14 in three games period from June 9 to 12 against Milwaukee and Minnesota. He finished the season with a .236 batting average with 5 home runs and 22 RBIs in 87 games.

In his second full season with the Blue Jays, 1991, Myers’ bat really started to come around. After a good start, his average dipped as low as .250 on June 12, but after a couple of good weeks, he was batting .291 by June 27 and finished the season with a .262 batting average with 8 home runs and 36 RBIs. The 25-year-old Myers played in 107 games that season, splitting time behind the plate with Borders. Myers was on the postseason roster but did not play in the ALCS against Minnesota.

Myers was a backup to Borders in 1992, appearing in 22 games and batting .230. On July 30, the trade deadline, he was sent to the California Angels with outfielder Rob Ducey for Mark Eichhorn, just hours after Eichhorn picked up the win for the Angels with a hitless inning in relief.6 Myers appeared in eight games with the Angels before suffering a chip fracture in his right hand on August 26 against the Orioles.

In a phone interview, Myers said he was afraid to throw the ball to second with 100 percent effort after the rotator cuff tear in 1988, which is why the Blue Jays traded him in 1992. “Angels’ coach Ken Macha told me that I have to start throwing hard to second to remain in the game,” said Myers. “I threw hard and it felt good, so I continued to throw hard and never had any problems with it.”7

The 27-year-old Myers handled most of the catching duties for the Angels in 1993, appearing in 108 games. Myers hit .255 for the season, with 7 homers and 40 RBIs. On September 17 against the Texas Rangers, he became Nolan Ryan’s final career strikeout victim. During the offseason, he was flown to the Hard Rock Café in Houston to celebrate the future Hall of Famer’s career, along with Ryan’s first strikeout victim, Pat Jarvis. “My claim to fame,” Myers said.8

On April 23, 18 games into the 1994 season with the Angels, Myers was involved in a collision at the plate with the Red Sox’ Mike Greenwell. Myers suffered a torn cartilage in his left knee that kept him out of action until June 21. Mo Vaughn hit a fly ball to center fielder Chad Curtis. Greenwell tagged up from third, Curtis threw the ball home and the ball and Greenwell arrived at the plate at the same time. Greenwell lowered his shoulder and caught Myers in the face. Myers was knocked unconscious and when he came to, he noticed his knee injury. “I remember my neck snapping back and ringing in my head,” Myers said, “but when I came to, that’s when I felt my knee. It wasn’t moving.”9 It was a tough day for the Angels, especially for the catchers. Mick Billmeyer, the Angels bullpen catcher, was warming up pitcher John Dopson. Billmeyer was expecting a slider, but instead, a fastball caught him on the left arm and shattered a bone.10 For Myers, after missing two months with his knee injury, the season came to an end when the players went on strike on August 12. Myers said, “I’ve already had my two months off, I’d like to keep playing. I don’t want to miss any more than I have to.”11

Injuries plagued Myers in 1995. He started the season on the disabled list with a fractured right big toe, was back on the disabled list with a strained left quadriceps from June 5 to 21, and again on September 30 with a strained left rib cage. Even through the injuries that catchers are susceptible to, Myers managed to hit .260 with 9 home runs and 38 RBIs in 85 games.

Myers was granted free agency on November 3 and signed with the Minnesota Twins on December 8.

After hitting just .220 on April 22, 1996, Myers turned it on. He went 2-for-3 the next day and then on April 24 went 5-for-6 with five RBIs. They were the first five-hit game and the first five-RBI game of his career. He kept his hot bat going throughout the season. In a nine-game hit streak from June 4 to 15, Myers went 13-for-37 (.351), including his first career two-home-run game on June 10 against the Seattle Mariners. He finished the season with career highs up to then in batting average (.286), at-bats (329), runs scored (37), hits (94), triples (3), and RBIs (47) in 97 games.

The 31-year-old Myers played in 62 games for the Twins in 1997, batting .267, before being traded to the Atlanta Braves for Steve Hacker on September 5. Added to the roster after the deadline, he was ineligible for postseason play. On October 27 Myers became a free agent and signed with the San Diego Padres on November 25.

Myers got off to a hot start with the Padres in 1998, batting .298 with 5 doubles and 7 RBIs in 16 games in April. He missed 44 games while on the disabled list from June 4 to July 24, with a chipped bone in his left hand as a result of making a tag at the plate. In 69 games for the season, Myers hit .246 with 4 home runs and 20 RBIs. Season highlights included his second five-RBI game, on April 3, against St. Louis and his bases-loaded pinch-hit single off the Phillies’Mark Leiter in the bottom of the ninth on May 16 that gave the Padres a 3-2 win. He also made his postseason debut. In Game Five of the NLCS, Myers hit a two-run homer off Atlanta’s Kerry Ligtenberg in the bottom of the ninth, but the Padres came up short, with the Braves prevailing, 7-6. He was 0-for-4 in two World Series games against the New York Yankees.

Myers played 50 games for the Padres to begin the 1999 campaign, hitting .289 with 3 home runs. He was on the disabled list from June 29 to July 26 with a strained right hamstring. When he came off the DL, he was reacquired by the Braves for minor-league pitcher Doug Dent after Atlanta catcher Javy Lopez went down with an injury. Myers played in 34 games the rest of the way and hit .222 with 2 home runs. In the postseason, he went 2-for-8 in six games against the Mets and Yankees. In his second World Series appearance, he was 2-for-6 against the Yankees, with an RBI in Game Two’s 7-2 loss. On November 1 Myers was granted free agency and he signed with the Baltimore Orioles on December 17.

Myers aggravated his left hamstring circling the bases on a home run in the final exhibition game of 2000 spring training and wound up on the disabled list to start the regular season. After his return, with Charles Johnson and Brook Fordyceahead of him, Myers split time between DH and catcher and hit .224 in 43 games and 134 plate appearances for the year. 

Myers started the 2001 season on a hot streak, going 10-for-26 (.385) in April. In May he was 10-for-34 and finished the month with a .333 batting average. He went 0-for-14 in five games in June and the Orioles released him on June 14. Myers signed with the Oakland Athletics on June 23 and was sent to Triple-A Sacramento. After just two games he was recalled on June 26, and remained with Oakland for the rest of the season. He finished the season with a .224 batting average with 11 home runs and 31 RBIs. It was a career high in home runs. Once again, he made it to the postseason and appeared in three games against the Yankees, with one hit in seven plate appearances. On November 5 he was granted free agency but re-signed with Oakland 10 days later.

Myers had another hot start in the 2002 season, hitting .417 at the end of April, after appearing in 10 games. He cooled down after that and ended up batting .222 for the season in 65 games. He once again appeared in the postseason, against the Twins, and was 0-for-1 in two games. On October 29 he was granted free agency from Oakland and signed for a second stint with the Blue Jays on December 16.

The 37-year-old had a standout year with the Blue Jays in 2003. He played in a career-high 121 games and set career highs in hits (101), home runs (15), RBIs (52), and walks (37). He batted .307 for the season, also a career high. He led the American League with a .486 OBP when leading off an inning. At the All-Star break he was hitting .343 with 10 home runs and 36 RBIs in 74 games.

Myers was back with the Blue Jays for the 2004 season, but after only eight games, he severely sprained his left ankle and was out for the season. The injury occurred in a game at Minnesota. As he rounded third on the FieldTurf, he rolled his ankle. “I turned it inside outside – I just remember feeling the grinding of the bone, it felt like I slammed it,” he said. “That’s a sick feeling. I’ve never felt that before, just the bone grinding and that’s what I felt when I went down (and) I go, ‘Oh my God, what was that?’”12 Myers was going to retire after the 2004 season but did not want to go out like that. He was granted free agency by the Blue Jays on October 29 and re-signed with them on November 19. In a 2022 telephone interview, he said that this is an injury that he can still feel.13

The 39-year-old was valuable in the 2005 spring-training camp, helping all the young players. When camp broke, he was on the major-league roster, but in six games had only one base hit in 12 at-bats with one RBI. On April 26 he was optioned to Triple-A Syracuse, but instead of reporting to Triple A, he decided to test the free-agent market and retire if he couldn’t get a deal.14 No deal was forthcoming, so Myers retired.

“They don’t come any better than Crash,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said at the time. “He’s had a wonderful career. Hopefully, if he still wants he can catch on with someone else. If not, he’s done it right.”15

After his playing days were over, Myers tried coaching at his old high school for a couple of years, but recurring pain from his ankle injury prevented him from continuing.

Myers married the former Angela Comstock in 1998. They have five children: Megan, Amanda, Randy, Summar, and Amy. After his baseball career was over, he has supported Angela as owner of a gas station and in the boutique clothing business.

Sources

The author used Retrosheet.org and Baseball-Reference.com for stats and game information, and had a phone conversation with Greg Myers.

Notes

1 Telephone interview with Greg Myers March 23, 2022.

2 Myers interview.

3 The Baseball Cube, https://www.thebaseballcube.com/content/box/DET198710020~r/pbp/.

4 Susan Slusser, “Silence Is a Strength of Catcher / A’s Myers Quietly Makes His Mark,” April 30, 2002; https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Silence-is-a-strength-of-catcher-A-s-Myers-2844319.php.

5 Tom Cage, “Sparky Says There Was No Players-Only Meeting,” Detroit Free Press, May 6, 1990: 189.

6 “Baseball Daily Report: Eichhorn Traded for Two Blue Jays,” Los Angeles Times, July 31, 1992: 509.

7 Myers interview.

8 Slusser.

9 Bob Nightengale, “Angels Suffer Through a Catchers-22,” Los Angeles Times, April 24, 1994: C1, C10.

10 Nightengale.

11 Dave Cunningham, “Though Hapless, Most Angels Would Rather Continue Playing,” Temecula Californian, August 12, 1994: 18.

12 Jeremy Sandler, “Myers’ Enthusiasm Mired Only by the Thought of Turf,” National Post (Toronto), February 25, 2005: 33.

13 Myers interview.

14 “Toronto Blue Jays Catcher Greg Myers to Become Free Agent,” Alberni Valley (British Columbia) Times, April 27, 2005: 7.

15 Shi Davidi (Canadian Press), “Blue Jays Call Up Huckaby; Myers Becomes Free Agent,” Brantford (Ontario) Expositor, April 27, 2005: 16.