1992 Profile: Matt Nokes

"Gives the Yankees power at the catching position. Nokes tied Detroit's Mickey Tettleton for the homer lead among major-league catchers with 24. His total was the highest by a Yankee catcher since Elston Howard's 28 in 1963 and the most by a left-handed-hitting Yankee catcher since Yogi Berra's 30 in 1956.
Nokes threw out only 31 of 129 would-be base stealers, a meager 24 percent. He needs to work on calling a game.
Born in San Diego, Nokes was the Giants' 20th-round pick in 1981. He gained the American League's attention in 1987 by becoming the first Tiger rookie to hit 30 homers [32] since Rudy York in 1937. The Yankees acquired Nokes from Detroit for Clay Parker and Lance McCullers on June 4, 1990."

-Tony DeMarco and Tom Pedulla, The Complete Handbook of Baseball, 1992 Edition

"Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? After parts of seven seasons in the big leagues, Matt Nokes has become a strong defensive catcher and the Yankees, who have struggled with the catching position for years, have found their answer in their own back yard. 'Our coaches have worked to completely revamp Matt Nokes and this young man has worked hard to become a better player,' says Yankee GM Gene Michael. 'He has turned his whole career around.'
His mechanics were overhauled during the Florida Instructional League, fine-tuned during spring training, and by the end of the '91 season, the third-year Yankee was one of the top-ranked defensive catchers in the league.
Oh yeah, he also led the team with 24 homers. But then Nokes could always hit. And through determination and hard work, Matt Nokes has shown he can learn new tricks."

-The New York Yankees Official 1992 Yearbook

"1991 was a solid season for the left-handed hitting catcher. He hit .268 with a team-leading 24 homers and 77 RBIs.
Nokes started out hot in April, hitting .319 for the month with two homers and nine RBIs. He was 8-for-19 over the first six games and 7-for-28 over the final nine games, starting 12 of 17 games.
His first home run came on April 13 in his 14th at-bat at Kansas City off Bret Saberhagen. On April 26 at Chicago, Nokes had a game-winning 11th inning RBI single.
Nokes hit .276 with five homers and 11 RBIs in May, starting 19 of 27 games behind the plate. He hit all five of his May homers in 56 at-bats.
He was behind the plate on May 1 at Oakland when Rickey Henderson stole his record-breaking 939th base in Oakland, but did catch Rickey stealing twice in that game. From May 11-14, Matt hit home runs in three straight games for the third time in his career (the other two times were in 1987). He hit .293 through the first two months of the season.
Matt continued his even pace in June, hitting .270 with four home runs and 12 RBIs. On June 12 at Minnesota he made his first start against a left-handed pitcher. He went 8-for-23 over the final seven games of June, raising his average to a month-ending .284 mark.
On July 6, Matt went 2-for-4 with two homers and a career-best six RBIs. At the break he was hitting .286 with 13 homers and 43 RBIs. July was his best month power-wise, as he hit .273 with seven home runs and 23 RBIs, including three two-homer games. He ended the month by hitting in five straight games (7-for-19).
Matt had a two-home run game on August 1 against Minnesota and at the end of the day was hitting .284 with 20 home runs and 58 RBIs for the season. He would hit just .155 with four homers and 19 RBIs over the final 55 games. He hit .247 with four homers and 10 RBIs in August and .248 with two homers and 12 RBIs in September/October. Over the second half of the season, Matt hit .251 with 11 homers and 34 RBIs.
He had the second of two season-best six-game hitting streaks from August 15-23. On September 23 at Milwaukee, he hit a grand slam off Mark Lee, the fourth of his career and first by a Yankee since June 24, 1989 (Mel Hall).
Nokes led the club with 24 homers in 1991 and tied with Detroit's Mickey Tettleton for most among major league catchers. The total was the second highest of his career (32 in 1987). The home run total was the most by a Yankee catcher since Elston Howard hit 28 in 1963 and the most by a left-handed hitting Yankee catcher since Yogi Berra hit a club record (for catchers) of 30 in 1956. Nokes led New York with five two-homer games, all from July 6 on, after having a career total of five two-homer games entering '91.
Against right-handed pitchers, he hit .270 with team highs in home runs (17) and RBIs (54). He hit a team-best (tied with Hall) 13 homers at home, hit .273 with 11 homers and 34 RBIs on the road, and hit .321 on turf. He was 1-for-8 with three RBIs with the bases loaded.
Nokes caught 130 games (112 starts), the most by a Yankee receiver since Rick Cerone in 1980 (147). He ranked second among American League catchers in games caught (Tony Pena, 140), total chances (744) and putouts (690), and seventh in the AL in fielding (.992). Nokes threw out 31 of 129 (24%) potential base stealers. The pitching staff ERA was 4.47 (1001.2 IP, 498 ER) when he caught.
He signed a three-year contract in January 1992. The contract runs through the 1994 season.
In 1990 Nokes was acquired on June 4 from Detroit in exchange for pitchers Clay Parker and Lance McCullers. At the time of the trade he was hitting .270 with five doubles, one triple, three home runs and eight RBIs over 44 games. He was 0-for-4 against left-handers. Of his 44 games, 15 were starts as a catcher and he threw out four of 14 baserunners. For the Yankees, Nokes hit .238 with eight homers and 32 RBIs in 92 games and overall in 1990 hit .248 with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs in 136 games. He hit six home runs in his first 95 at-bats as a Yankee after getting three in 111 at-bats for the Tigers.
Matt joined the club on June 5 in Boston and made a start at DH that evening, going 1-for-3. He got hot quickly, hitting .333 (12-for-36) with four home runs and 13 RBIs over the final 13 games of June to finish the month with a .267 average with four home runs and 16 RBIs in 22 games.
His first home run as a Yankee came at the Stadium on June 17 against Toronto off Todd Stottlemyre. His second came on June 21 at Toronto, a three-run pinch-hit blast off Duane Ward, followed on June 23 by another off Stottlemyre and a second pinch-hit shot on June 26 at home off Milwaukee's Chuck Crim.
On July 7 at Minnesota, he started in right field, his first start there since May 26, 1987. At the break he was hitting .278 with five home runs and 18 RBIs over 29 games. In the first six games after the break, he hit .438 (7-for-16) with a homer and three RBIs, reaching a season high batting average of .305 (6 HR, 21 RBI) on July 18. Overall he hit .250 in July with two homers and five RBIs in 25 games.
Matt had an almost identical August (.250, 3 HR, 5 RBI). On August 29 in Baltimore, he hit the first of back-to-back home runs with Kevin Maas, his eighth and final homer of the season. Nokes ended the month strong, hitting .389 (7-for-18) with two home runs. His slowest month production was September/October as he hit .173 with five RBIs.
His overall 1990 batting average of .248 was his lowest for a season since becoming a regular in 1987. His 136 games played for Detroit and New York were the most he has ever played in a major league season.
Nokes hit .308 in day games and .317 on turf. He hit .239 with all eight of his homers and 30 of his RBIs against right-handed pitching, .200 (2-for-10) with two of his RBIs against lefties. He started 63 games (C-37, DH-25, RF-1).
In the 37 games he caught, the staff had an ERA of 4.96 (314 IP, 173 ER) and he allowed seven passed balls. He caught 10 of 41 (24%) potential base stealers.
Nokes was selected by the San Francisco Giants out of high school in the 20th round of the June 1981 free agent draft. On October 7, 1985, he was traded with pitchers Dave LaPoint and Eric King to the Detroit Tigers for pitcher Juan Berenguer, catcher Bob Melvin and a player to be named later (pitcher Scott Medvin in December 1985).
Recalled from Nashville in September 1986, Matt made his debut on September 24 against Toronto. He had a three-game hitting streak from September 25-28 (6-for-10, .600). He hit his first American League home run on October 5 at Baltimore off Ken Dixon.
In 1987, Matt batted .319 with 20 home runs and 51 RBIs in the first half and was named to the American League All-Star team. He struggled early in the second half (18-for-102, .176) but rebounded strongly in a 19-game stretch from August 26-September 18 (28-for-67, .418). His two-out eighth-inning RBI single off Cleveland's Tom Candiotti was the only Tiger hit in a 2-1 Detroit victory on September 2.
He belted two grand slams: on April 30 off Mike Cook at California and on September 26 off John Cerutti at Toronto. He clubbed two home runs in a game three times: against Texas on May 25, at Boston on June 7 and at Toronto on September 26, a game in which he collected six RBIs.
Nokes became the first Tiger rookie to hit 30 home runs since Rudy York, also a catcher, hit 35 in 1937. He was voted Tiger Rookie of the Year by the Detroit sportswriters.
He was third on the squad with 16 home runs in 1988. He appeared in 122 games, making 103 starts behind the plate. He improved his percentage of throwing out would-be base stealers dramatically, catching 31 of 81 (38%) after nabbing 18 of 71 (20%) in 1987.
Nokes hit two home runs and collected five RBIs in an 11-6 Detroit victory at Boston on April 7. He was 4-for-8 with three homers, four runs and five RBIs in back-to-back wins against Seattle on April 30 and May 1; Nokes single-handedly beat the Mariners, 3-2, on May 1, driving in all three runs and hitting two homers off Mike Moore.
He enjoyed an eight-game hitting streak from June 8-19 (13-for-30, .433) and on June 19 had four hits against Toronto. On August 4 against Boston, he was 3-for-3 with a double, a home run and two RBIs in an 11-6 Tiger victory. Matt batted .320 (32-for-100) from August 18-October 2, raising his batting average from .227 to a season-ending .251.
His 1989 season was interrupted on June 16 when he tore the medial collateral ligament in his left knee in 9th inning home plate collision with California's Chilli Davis. At the time of the injury Matt was among the team leaders with seven homers and 29 RBIs. He returned to action on August 5 after missing 41 games.
Matt had five home runs and 16 RBIs in April. He homered and had four RBIs against Seattle on April 25, and on May 29 stroked his third career grand slam off Eric King at Chicago. He did not homer again until September 22 against Boston. He had two four-hit games, both against Boston, on June 14 at Fenway Park and on September 23 in Detroit.
He injured his right shoulder on August 30 and was limited to designated hitter duty for the rest of the season. He batted .286 in 33 games as a DH. In 51 appearances as a catcher, he threw out 19 of 57 (33%) baserunners.
Matt played baseball and basketball for Patrick Henry High School in San Diego. As a senior, he batted a school-record .429 and was both captain and team MVP. As a junior, he led both the baseball and basketball teams to city titles. Matt also played both Little League and Babe Ruth ball."

-1992 New York Yankees Information Guide

Led Pioneer League in passed balls (19), 1981.
Led California League catchers in double plays (9), 1983.
Led Texas League catchers in double plays (6), 1985.
Led American Association catchers in errors (13), 1986.
Named catcher on The Sporting News American League All-Star team, 1987.
Named catcher on The Sporting News American League Silver Slugger team, 1987.

-1992 New York Yankees Information Guide

MATT NOKES FINDS A NEW LEASE ON HIS BASEBALL LIFE
"It's seconds before game time. Yankee catcher Matt Nokes trots to home plate. His catcher's helmet tightly grips his head. His mask rests casually on top of his helmet. The pitcher tosses in his warm-up. Then the ump yells, 'Play ball!'
Nokes pulls his mask over his face. If you could peer into the mask, you'd probably see Nokes grinning ear to ear. Matt Nokes is having fun playing baseball again, and Yankee fans are happy beneficiaries of Nokes' good time.
It wasn't too long ago when baseball was more drudgery than fun for the Yankee catcher. In 1989, while with the Detroit Tigers, and in 1990, when he first joined the Yankees, Nokes was struggling badly in the field. He was so concerned about his fielding lapses that his hitting was suffering. Simply put, his game was falling apart.
But in 1991 things turned around so much that the Yankees' acquisition of the hard-hitting backstop now looks like a pretty good deal.
Nokes' 24 home runs in 1991 have put him in rarified company. His two dozen homers were the most by a Yankee catcher since Elston Howard hit 28 round-trippers in 1963. To find a Yankee left-handed hitting catcher to beat Nokes' 1991 mark, you have to go back to 1956; that's when Yogi Berra hit a club record for catchers by smacking 30. In addition, Nokes' 24 round-trippers tied him with the Tigers' Mickey Tettleton for the most homers by a major league catcher last season. Nokes also hit two home runs in a single game on five different occasions last season and drove in 77 runs. He hit with authority, and his .268 batting average was the catcher's highest in the major leagues since his rookie season in 1987.
What was the key to this offensive prowess? Defense. Nokes admitted that defense was also responsible for bringing a smile back to his face.
According to the catcher, once things started to click for him defensively, everything seemed to fall into place. 'When things started going well for me defensively, it took the pressure off. When the pressure was off, my hitting came back. Basically, I explain last season by saying everything came together for me,' the 28-year-old catcher pointed out.
As 1991 progressed and Nokes made defensive improvements, his batting eye was focusing so well that he was hitting home runs in droves, and he once again became a feared clutch hitter. With his bat streaking and his glovework making steady strides, Nokes was able to enjoy the game again and now says with a big smile, 'It's really fun! I'm having a good time, and that's how it should be.'
Nokes came to the Yankees on June 4, 1990. The Yankees sent pitchers Clay Parker and Lance McCullers to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for the backstop, who was voted Tiger Rookie of the Year by Detroit sportswriters in 1987.
Now the Yankees' number-one catcher, Nokes speaks modestly about all the work he has put in to making himself a better defensive player. But Yankee skipper Buck Showalter isn't shy about praising his catcher's determination to do a better job on the field. 'He (Nokes) is as responsible as anybody for the great strides he's made. Look at his work habits. He's never really satisfied. He always wanted to take his ability to a higher level,' the manager explained. 'He's a quality hitter and a quality catcher. And he's only 28 years old. He hasn't reached his prime yet.' Showalter said he's expecting even greater things from Nokes in 1992.
When it comes to defense, Nokes displays an attitude of keen determination- something his manager cherishes. Nokes now talks as excitedly about defense as he does about hitting streaks and home runs. 'There's no one thing a good defensive catcher has to do. He has to be able to do it all,' Nokes said with an air of confidence.
'Take a ball in the dirt. That takes intensity,' Nokes said with a riveting look on his face. 'It's all intensity. Every catcher in the major leagues knows how to block a ball in the dirt. It's your intensity- how much you want to stop that ball from going through. It's about not letting yourself get lazy back there. It's working on your mechanics. Lazy mechanics means the ball gets by you.'
Nokes exudes confidence. And it's that confidence that the Yankee catcher feels is making a big difference for him. Nokes says he now approaches every aspect of his game with confidence, and he believes his newfound sense of self-assurance from last season is rubbing off on the Yankees pitching staff, who were once wary about his defensive skills. 'I feel the pitchers do have confidence in me now, and having confidence in the players out in the field is important for a pitcher. A pitcher has to feel confident about everyone out there- not just the catcher,' says Nokes. 'But when a pitcher has confidence in his catcher, that's one less thing for the pitcher to worry about, and he can concentrate fully on what he has to do.'
One of those credited with Nokes' defensive turnaround is former Yankee catching coach Marc Hill. Nokes is quick to thank Hill for his assistance, noting that even though he is no longer with the club, 'his lessons won't be forgotten.' Hill concentrated with Nokes on all aspects of defense, including calling a game and throwing runners out. Under Hill's watchful eye, Nokes reworked some of his mechanics, and the dramatic improvement in Nokes' defensive game gave a big boost to the native Californian's self-esteem and helped develop him into one of the American League's better receivers.
Early in his backstop career, Nokes learned that a catcher has to know a pitcher's strengths and what's working for a hurler on a particular day. 'You also have to know a hitter's strengths and weaknesses. I've been around this league for a while now and I know these players,' he pointed out. But the job behind the plate comes to subtleties, nuances and compromises- all perceived and played out in a matter of seconds. 'If you know a pitcher has a good curve and the batter's weakness is a curve, that's fine. But if the pitcher can't get the curve over that day, he can't throw it that day. So you have to make some decisions accordingly,' he added.
Nokes doesn't take it personally if a pitcher shakes him off because 'I think a pitcher has to be comfortable with what he's throwing. It's not going to work if he's not consistent with it.'
Not one for long speeches, Nokes doesn't engage in protracted commentaries when he goes out to speak to the pitcher on the mound. 'Sometimes you just have to break the rhythm a little because it's a bad rhythm,' he added. At times Nokes goes out to the hill and makes a remark that has nothing to do with the game at all, just to break the pace.
By the time the game starts, Nokes believes the talking stages are over: after all, the catchers and pitchers have lengthy meetings before each game to go over strategy on every single hitter on the opposing club and to make any revisions in the signs.
When a reliever comes into the game, Nokes doesn't feel the need to get chummy on the mound because the reliever knows all the signs and knows the situation. Yankee reliever John Habyan said he enjoys working with Nokes: 'We've always worked well together. We seem to think alike. We're on the same wavelength. He knows the hitters and I rarely have to shake him off.' Comfortable with Nokes behind the plate, Habyan cited the backstop's good instincts about the hitters as well as his solid knowledge about the strengths of each of the pitchers on the staff.
Bullpen ace Lee Guetterman agreed with Habyan. 'He (Nokes) does a lot of things for you out there. He's very reassuring. He lets you know you're not alone out there. He's there to help you out, to make the plays on his end.'
Nokes always put a premium on being considered a good defensive catcher. Even though he has played a few games in the outfield, he never seriously considered changing his position because catching is his first love. 'That's where I wanted to play my whole life,' the enthusiastic backstop maintained. But Nokes didn't spend much time as a youngster studying other catchers. 'I didn't watch that much baseball when I was a kid. I was always out there playing it,' he explained.
Originally signed by the San Francisco Giants organization in 1981, Nokes was a stellar player for Patrick Henry High School in San Diego. As a high school senior, he batted .429 and was both the captain and MVP of the team. He landed a big-league contract with the Giants right out of high school. Traded to the Tigers organization in 1986, Nokes played his first full major league season in 1987, hitting a career-high 32 home runs.
Nokes considers himself a power hitter but knows home runs can come in bunches and then 'you might not hit one for a while.' But he is not too concerned if the ball doesn't sail over the fence for a time; he knows the long ball will return. In batting practice, Nokes hits some shots into the stands and then concentrates on hitting some hard liners to the outfield. The goal is to hit the ball hard SOMEWHERE. Here again, confidence comes into play, helping Nokes maintain his reputation as an outstanding hitter.
'I love to hit in those situations. I want to be up in the tough situations. All my life I wanted to be the guy that comes up with two out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth. Actually, I'm comfortable in those situations,' the Yankee catcher said with an impish grin.
Nokes had a big thrill on Opening Day this season when Yankee legend Joe DiMaggio threw out the first ball of the season. After the Yankee Clipper threw the ball to Nokes, the present-day Yankee backstop ran out and shook the hand of the Yankee legend. He takes great pride in a photo he has of the momentous occasion.
With a look of satisfaction, Nokes says, 'If you want to play major league baseball, New York is the place to play- there's no doubt about it.' He recalled that when he was first traded to the Yankees, he didn't know what to expect, but after being in New York only a few days he really began to enjoy his stay with the club. And now playing baseball in the Big Apple is 'a true joy, lots of fun.' And isn't that why folks come to New York City in the first place- to have a good time?"

-Bob Grayson, 1992 New York Yankees Scorebook and Souvenir Program