1974 Profile: Steve Kline

"He was the single biggest disaster in the Yankees' disappointing season. Counted on as a 20-game winner, Kline came up with elbow trouble and was only 4-7. He tried to come back in early August, but got racked in the first inning in Fenway Park and was through for the season. He rested his elbow from August to spring training, hoping to come back.
The year before Steve was 16-9, 2.40, and was coming into his own as a first-rate pitcher. Like Mel Stottlemyre, he has a superb hard sinker.
Born in Wenatchee, Washington, Steve attended Washington State, the University of Miami and Cal Tech."

-Peter Gammons, The Complete Handbook of Baseball, 1974 Edition

"Just how much Steve Kline means to the Yankees was convincingly demonstrated last season when arm problems sidelined the big right-hander for most of the season, cutting his victory total from 16 in 1972 to four. And that, according to followers of the Yankees, was the major factor in the Yankees' late-season woes in 1973 - Steve Kline's absence.
But this year Steve is back ... a newlywed ... his arm rested without having thrown a ball all winter, and ready to go in 1974.
'It's like starting all over again,' says Steve, 'like a rookie. But I went through it once, and I can do it again. At least I don't have to learn the hitters all over.'
Steve is a product of the state of Washington and at age 26, just reaching his peak years. His 2.40 earned run average in 1972 was the eighth best in the league and no one is more anxious than Steve himself to pick up his career right at that point and forget 1973.
No one is more anxious, that is, unless it's the Yankees themselves."

-The New York Yankees Official 1974 Yearbook

"Steve had an unfortunate season in 1973. He came off a banner year in '72 and seemed on the brink of stardom going into the '73 campaign.
Injuries, however, beset him for virtually the entire season: he suffered a strained muscle in his shoulder in his fourth start of the year on April 22. Steve returned to the regular rotation on May 1 and seemed to be pitching well until he came up with some stiffness in his elbow which forced him to leave the game of May 16. He pitched sporadically after that and was finally placed on the disabled list on June 25. Steve was reinstated on July 28 and pitched 5.1 scoreless innings of relief in Milwaukee. In his next start on August 2 in Boston, he was forced to leave the game in the first inning when his elbow acted up again. He was again placed on the disabled list, and didn't return to the active roster for the remainder of the season. The diagnosis over the winter was that complete rest would cure Steve's arm problems; he did not throw at all over the winter.
The club's most eligible bachelor since coming to the Yankees in 1970, the handsome right-hander finally tied the knot this past off-season, marrying a hometown sweetheart. One of many players to take full advantage of Baseball's Scholarship Program, Steve has been pursuing a math degree for the past eight off-seasons."

-1974 New York Yankees Press/TV/Radio Guide