Stan Javier

Stanley Julián Antonio Javier [hah-ve-ERR] (born January 9, 1964) is a Dominican former professional baseball outfielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1984 to 2001.

A switch-hitter with good production from both sides of the plate, he also had a strong arm with the ability to play all three outfield positions exceptionally well.

Javier is the son of former major league player Julián Javier, and was named after his father's teammate and close friend, Stan Musial.

Javier signed with his father's former franchise, the St. Louis Cardinals, as an amateur free agent at seventeen years old.

After two years in the Appalachian League, in which he batted .264 with eleven home runs and 55 runs batted in, Javier was dealt to the New York Yankees with Bobby Meacham (who was also a minor leaguer at the time) for three minor leaguers who never materialized.

After two more seasons in the Yankees' farm system, Javier made his major league debut as a September call-up in 1984 (he actually made the team out of Spring Training, but did not appear in any games before being optioned down to the double A Nashville Sounds).

He had one hit in seven plate appearances.

After the season, he was packaged with Tim Birtsas, Jay Howell, Eric Plunk and José Rijo to the Oakland Athletics for Rickey Henderson.

Javier spent his first season in the Oakland Athletics' organization with the Huntsville Stars, with whom he won the Southern League baseball championship.

He made his Oakland A's debut in May 1986, prior to that playing with the Tacoma Tigers, the Oakland A's Triple-A Pacific Coast League affiliate.

Javier remained with the club as a fourth outfielder through the 1988 season, in which the A's captured the American League West crown.

Javier batted .500 in his first post season, going two-for-four in both the 1988 American League Championship Series with the Boston Red Sox and World Series with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In 1989, Javier saw quite a bit of playing time in right field when Jose Canseco was kept out of the line-up for the first half of the season by an injured left wrist.

Javier played well enough to keep his team within 1.5 games of the first place California Angels in their star slugger's absence, and they stormed to their second straight division crown upon his return.

Though Javier logged just two plate appearances in his second post season without getting a hit, Oakland's sweep of the San Francisco Giants in the 1989 World Series made Javier and his father just the third father and son combo to each win a World Series (Julián won with the St. Louis Cardinals in & ).

Following the World Series, A's second baseman Tony Phillips signed as a free agent with the Detroit Tigers.

He was replaced by a platoon of Mike Gallego and Lance Blankenship, but the two managed just a .144 batting average, one home run and ten RBIs through the middle of May.

In need of an upgrade at second, the A's traded Javier to the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 13, 1990, for Willie Randolph.

With Kirk Gibson out due to surgery on his torn left hamstring, Javier was immediately inserted into the starting line-up in center field.

Upon Gibson's return, Javier settled into a pinch hitter and fourth outfielder role, and immediately became one of the hottest bats in the Dodgers' line-up.

Over the remainder of the season, Javier batted .316 with seventeen runs batted in.

Most of those RBIs seemed to come in clutch situations, as they did against the Chicago Cubs, Atlanta Braves, Montreal Expos and Philadelphia Phillies.

In Spring training 1991, the Dodgers experimented with Javier at third base, but the idea was abandoned by the time the season started.

His numbers fell off in 1991, as he batted just .205 with one home run and eleven RBIs, but he still had a knack for big hits.

On September 29, his pinch hit single in the ninth inning ignited a come-from-behind victory over the San Francisco Giants.

With their record standing at 31–42 just before the midpoint of the 1992 season, the Dodgers went into rebuilding mode.

On July 2, Javier was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for minor league pitcher Steve Searcy and a player to be named later.

As the Phillies were in Los Angeles facing the Dodgers when the trade was made, Javier merely changed clubhouses, and found himself a uniform.

He went three-for-four with a walk and RBI against his former team the day the trade was made.

Javier saw more regular action with the Phillies than he had ever seen with any team in his career, as he played in all 74 games that remained on the Phillies' 1992 schedule.

After the season, he signed a one-year deal with the California Angels.

Javier got off to a slow start with his new franchise, as he batted just .220 with no home runs and nine RBIs through the All-Star break.

He hit his first home run since May 22, 1992, on September 9 against the Detroit Tigers' Bill Gullickson, and hit two more in the final month of the season.

He also batted .387 in the final month of the season to raise his season average to .291.

During the off season, Javier signed a two-year deal with the Oakland A's to be their starting center fielder.

Despite the fact that the season was cut short by a players strike, Javier hit a career high ten home runs that season.

He performed far better in the second half of the 1993 season.

Batting lead-off, and playing left field against the Chicago White Sox on August 6, Javier enjoyed a career game, going four-for-four with a walk, two RBIs and a run scored.

He followed that up with career highs in RBIs (56), runs (81) and stolen bases (36) in 1995.

The 36 stolen bases included a run of 28 consecutive without being caught.