"He came, he saw, he did quite well. Now veteran catcher Don Slaught has solidified himself as a Yankee starter while providing stability at the catching position.
His six-plus years in the bigs have been plagued by injuries, but when the Yankees got him in a trade with the Rangers before the start of the 1988 season, he came to play. His performance prompted the release of Rick Cerone and the benching of Joel Skinner. Sluggo responded by turning an incredible start into one of his finest years as a pro, recording the second highest numbers of his career in average, doubles, homers and RBI. A groin injury hampered what might have been an even brighter season, but Slaught made his point.
'I wanted to show these people that I could play, and to prove to them that they made a good trade,' Slaught says.
Skinner will again be fighting for the starting catching job, and the Yankees added veteran Jamie Quirk for insurance. But with a strong year at the plate and improved defense behind it, Sluggo has served notice that he's the man to beat for the job in 1989."
-The New York Yankees Official 1989 Yearbook
"Slaught had one of the best seasons of his career offensively in 1988, batting at or above .300 for most of the year. He recorded the second highest figures of his career in batting average (.283), doubles (25), home runs (9) and RBIs (43).
He began the season hitting safely in his first 12 games, April 9-22. Slaught tied the longest hitting streak of his career, having hit safely in 12 straight in 1983, going 19-for-45 (.422) in that span with eight runs, four doubles, three homers and 14 RBIs.
Slaught started that streak (and the season) by going 2-for-3 on April 9 against Milwaukee and followed that with a 4-for-4 performance (including two doubles) in his next contest, April 10 against Milwaukee, his first of two four-hit games in 1988 and fifth of his career. He went 2-for-4 in his next game, April 11 at Toronto, and had a string of seven hits in seven consecutive at-bats, starting with his final at-bat on April 9 through his first two at-bats on April 11. Don hit home runs in consecutive games in Milwaukee, on April 15 (a solo shot off Chuck Crim) and April 16 (a solo blast off Chris Bosio). He hit his third home run in that hitting streak on April 22 against Toronto, a solo homer off Tom Henke.
He hit a solo round-tripper on April 26 off Charlie Liebrandt in Yankee Stadium in the 8th inning to break a 4-4 tie and help lead the Yankees to a 5-4 victory. His RBI on May 3 at Chicago (in his 21st game covering 67 at-bats) was his 16th of the year, matching his entire RBI total for the 1987 season, which covered 95 games and 237 at-bats.
Don left the May 14 game against California with a pulled left groin muscle and was placed on the 15-day disabled list on May 15 due to that injury. At the time he was batting .378 (37-for-98) with five home runs and 26 RBIs in 30 games (hitting safely in 22) and in the American League ranked second in batting, ninth in RBIs, fourth in doubles (12), third in on-base percentage (.446), third in slugging percentage (.653) and third in extra-base hits (17). On May 31 Don was transferred to the 21-day DL and was activated from that list on June 20, missing 32 games while on the DL.
He went 2-for-4 in his first game back, June 22 at Detroit, and hit safely in 24 of his first 32 games after being activated, batting .289 (33-for-114). On August 11 at Yankee Stadium, he committed a throwing error in the 11th inning on a steal of second base by Jesse Barfield, allowing Barfield to score what proved to be the winning run in a 6-5 Toronto win. Slaught had his batting average over .300 as late as August 31 (his 77th game) when he was hitting .302.
On September 5 against Cleveland he hit his first triple since September 13, 1987, and on September 10 had his second four-hit game of the year (and sixth of his career) against Detroit, going 4-for-5 with two doubles, his second double driving in the tying and winning runs in a six-run inning. He followed with a 0-for-26 streak covering six games before a single on September 21 against Baltimore. Later in that contest, Slaught hit a dramatic game-winning solo home run in the bottom of the 12th inning off Mark Thurmond to give the Yankees a 3-2 win. It was his ninth home run of the season, and the last seven homers of those nine were hit in New York.
Slaught started that September 21 game as the designated hitter, his only start as a DH in 1988 and his first DH start since September 3, 1987. Beginning with that game, he finished the year with a six-game hitting streak, going 10-for-22 (.455) with two hits in four of the six games to raise his average from .271 to his final .283 mark. Don left the September 28 game at Baltimore with a sprained left ankle and knee after tagging Ken Gerhart out at home plate in the 8th inning and did not play the rest of the season.
[During the season] he batted .333 (2-for-6) as a pinch hitter, with both of his hits being doubles. Don caught 12 of 72 runners attempting to steal (17%), with no passed balls, and had a .979 fielding percentage, committing 11 errors in 531 total chances. The Yankees were 45-42 in games he started at catcher.
He signed a two-year contract in November 1988. The contract runs through the 1990 season.
Slaught was acquired from the Texas Rangers in November 1987 in exchange for a player to be named later. Pitcher Brad Arnsberg was sent to Texas later that month to complete the trade. In his third and final season with the Rangers in '87, Slaught batted .224 in 95 games with 15 doubles, two triples, eight home runs and 16 runs batted in.
He was batting .268 through 19 games in April including a six-game hitting streak from April 23-29, his longest of the season, hitting .400 (6-for-15) in that streak with a double and a home run. Don was thrown out at the plate twice on April 26 against Boston, on an attempted squeeze in the 10th inning and on an attempted sacrifice fly in the 12th. He hit just .185 in May to lower his average to .223, including a season low of .205 on May 6. Don had his only game-winning RBI of the year on May 13 against the Yankees at New York.
Don abandoned the face guard on his helmet on July 24 for the first time in 1987. He sprained his left knee running the bases during batting practice on August 2 and did not make a plate appearance after that until August 9. On September 15 against the Oakland A's in Arlington he hit two solo home runs off Curt Young, the first two-home run game of his career and the first ever by a Ranger catcher. Don batted .286 in September to raise his average from .212 at the beginning of the month to .226 at the end of the month.
He tied a Texas Ranger club record with four passed balls on May 6; for the season he had 20 passed balls (of which 17 occurred when Charlie Hough was pitching) and was part of the Texas Rangers catching staff that set a single-season major league record of 73 passed balls, mainly due to Hough. Slaught threw out 16 of 80 runners attempting to steal (20%) and had a fielding percentage of .985 (seven errors in 475 total chances).
Slaught began his professional career by batting .261 with Ft. Myers in 1980. He started the 1981 season at Jacksonville before earning a promotion to Omaha in July. He was lost for the season with a broken leg on August 15. He started the 1982 season in Omaha and was disabled from April 21 until May 15 with a strained left knee. Don joined Kansas City on July 6 after John Wathan broke his ankle, and started the next 11 games and 28 of the next 31 before Wathan returned. He recorded singles in his first two major league at-bats off Boston's John Tudor. He was sidelined for the season on September 21 after tearing a tendon in his left thumb in a home plate collision with California's Ricky Adams.
In 1983 Don split the Royals' catching chores with Wathan. He was disabled from May 15-30 after he split the skin under the middle finger of his right hand, and also missed nine games from June 28-July 12 with a deep right thigh bruise. Don hit .342 in 22 games in September, including a career high 12-game hitting streak. He was Kansas City's regular catcher in 1984 and led the club with 27 doubles. He hit .346 in a two-month stretch from June 18-August 18, and in the ALCS against Detroit led Kansas City regulars with a .364 (4-for-11) average.
Don was acquired by Texas from Kansas City in January of 1985 in a four-team trade with the Mets and Milwaukee. His .280 batting average was third best among all AL catchers who appeared in 100 games. He appeared in just one game from July 6 through August 25 because of a pulled hamstring muscle; upon his return he batted .322 in his last 34 games.
Despite being plagued by injuries much of 1986, he set a Ranger club record for homers by a catcher with 13 (the previous club mark was 10 by Jim Sundberg in 1980 and 1982). His 13 homers were also a career high, as were his 46 RBIs. Don had a .996 fielding percentage in 91 games, the third best percentage of any AL catcher who appeared in 90 games.
He had a .368 average in his first 18 games with six homers and 18 RBIs and drove in a career-high five runs on May 15 at Detroit. Don sustained a broken nose and left cheekbone when he was hit by Boston's Oil Can Boyd in the fourth inning on May 17 at Fenway Park. At that point, he was hitting .293 with seven homers and 23 RBIs in 30 games.
Don did not experience any vision problems. He underwent reconstructive surgery to fix the fractures on May 26 at Arlington Memorial Hospital. After nearly a month of therapy, he was assigned to Oklahoma City on medical rehabilitation on July 1; he played in three games for the 89ers, going 4-for-12 with a RBI. After missing a total of 44 games, Don was reactivated by Texas on July 4th and caught that night.
Upon his return he wore a plexiglass facemask while batting and continued to wear the mask through games of August 26 before discarding it. He hit .252 with six homers and 23 RBIs in 65 games after his return to the lineup, including a .280 mark in his first 25 games back.
Slaught was selected by Kansas City in the seventh round of the June 1980 free agent draft after an outstanding four-year career at UCLA. He was UCLA's captain and an All-PAC 10 selection in both his junior and senior years. He was selected to the second team All-America squad by the Sporting News in 1980 and was an Academic All-American in 1979. Don graduated from UCLA in 1983 with a B.S. degree in economics. His teammates at UCLA included Dave Schmidt, Matt Young, Tim Leary and Mike Gallego.
He lettered three times in baseball and twice as a quarterback in football at Rolling Hills High School in Palos Verdes, CA, where he graduated in 1976. Don's hobbies are golf and tennis and his favorite spectator sport is football. His favorite team growing up was the Los Angeles Dodgers, his favorite player was Johnny Bench and his favorite ballpark is Royals Stadium."
-1989 New York Yankees Information Guide
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