{"id":523250,"date":"2026-03-14T13:57:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T13:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/523250\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T13:57:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T13:57:24","slug":"the-71-year-old-pitcher-the-giants-just-cant-quit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/523250\/","title":{"rendered":"The 71-year-old pitcher the Giants just can\u2019t quit"},"content":{"rendered":"

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. \u2013 John Yandle visited a buddy in the Giants\u2019 clubhouse, and coaches asked if he could throw some batting practice.<\/p>\n

Sure, why not? Yandle had pitched at Stanford and reached Triple-A with the Padres, so he knew a little about throwing baseballs across the plate.<\/p>\n

He came out the next day. And the next. And the next. The opportunity to throw to major-leaguers was a dream assignment.<\/p>\n

That was 1985, and he\u2019s been throwing ever since.<\/p>\n

The left-handed Yandle is 71. This is his 42nd year tossing BP. Pretty much any Giants hitter you could think of over that span, he threw to. Managers and coaching staffs have come and gone. Same with owners and general managers. And more than 1,000 players. Yandle has stuck around, and nobody in the organization has been in uniform longer.<\/p>\n

He has thrown hundreds of thousands of pitches, bringing new meaning to the term rubber arm. He had rotator cuff surgery in 2012, and that was the last time his arm was sore \u2014 \u201cnot a lot of muscles in this skinny little body to get sore,\u201d said Yandle, who carries 155 pounds on his 6-foot frame.<\/p>\n

His nickname would be The Freak if it didn\u2019t belong to Tim Lincecum.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here to do what they want me to do,\u201d Yandle said this week during a break from BP sessions. \u201cI love being around the game doing what I do. I don\u2019t want to force myself and feel like they need to throw me. If I can help, I will. I made it throughout my whole career without ever saying I can\u2019t throw to somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first BP came with Jim Davenport as manager. Yandle made 20 bucks a day. Then Roger Craig took over. Then Dusty Baker and Felipe Alou and Bruce Bochy and Gabe Kapler and Bob Melvin. Now Tony Vitello, who said Yandle will be utilized \u201ca ton.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason he\u2019s able to do this is he\u2019s got his routine, and he takes care of himself,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just that. He brings value in other areas, too. He\u2019s been around the game a long time. He loves the Giants. There\u2019s a unique sense of loyalty to the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early each morning, on the main field at Scottsdale Stadium, sometimes when no one else is around, Yandle runs eight laps, which is two miles, and he does it religiously as part of an extensive workout program that allows him to throw as much BP as requested.<\/p>\n

Naturally, Yandle formed close relationships with many people over the years, none more prominent than Barry Bonds, and pitched so often to the home-run king that people thought he was Bonds\u2019 personal BP pitcher.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the greatest times in my life with Barry trusting me like he did,\u201d Yandle said. \u201cI first met Barry when he saw me in the cage at Candlestick and liked that I was throwing hard. He didn\u2019t know I could do that and asked if I could throw to him. That happened to be a day I was entertaining Bank of America out at a parking lot tailgate. I made a deal with him. \u2018I\u2019ll throw as long as you want, but afterward, you\u2019ve got to say hi to these people.\u2019 So I threw to him, and he was good to his word. Barry couldn\u2019t have been nicer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AnYandle runs two miles per day at Scottsdale Stadium during spring training. | Source: John Shea\/The Standard<\/p>\n

During the season, Yandle is often seen pregame on the mound and in the indoor cage during games, and he\u2019ll show up on the road when the Giants face a lefty starter that day. For Bonds, it didn\u2019t matter if the starting pitcher threw lefty or righty. He liked Yandle throwing to him regardless.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Barry wanted me to throw extra the next day and said, \u2018Can you come tomorrow?\u2019 \u2026 of course I\u2019d come,\u201d Yandle said.<\/p>\n

In the cage, Bonds told Yandle to throw as hard as he could, 100% all out. On the field, Yandle was supposed to throw about 75% to everybody. Except at the 2007 All-Star Game that the Giants hosted. When Bonds took BP on the field with a group of fellow All-Stars, he had Yandle ramp up the velocity. It was fine for Bonds, who put on a typical monster show. But other All-Stars wanted to swing at marshmallows.<\/p>\n

Arizona\u2019s Orlando Hudson followed Bonds in the cage, but before he got in, he told Yandle to ease up. Hudson lined the first pitch to the opposite field and said, \u201cThat\u2019s more my style.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the most phenomenal batting practices I ever witnessed came when I happened by the indoor cage with Bonds swinging in street clothes. We made eye contact, and he basically gave me the OK to step in and watch. He absolutely crushed balls and was letting everyone around him know it, talking aloud between pitches, prompting Yandle at one point to say, \u201cYou just lack confidence. That\u2019s your problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh, I forget to mention this was 2019, and Bonds was 54 years old.<\/p>\n

Today<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

3 days ago<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Friday, Mar. 6<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

The hitting coaches generally decide the hitting groups and who throws to them. The Giants have several BP pitchers and now have another lefty thrower in house, bench coach Jayce Tingler. Plus plenty of machines including those that replicate every major-league pitcher\u2019s repertoire, from velocity to release point to pitch shapes to spin rates.<\/p>\n

But even with advanced technology, there\u2019s nothing like a ball coming out of a human hand, especially if the human can throw any pitch to any quadrant. The velocity might not be what it once was for Yandle, but BP pitchers usually throw from about 45 feet, and he has plenty of zip and command to keep hitters happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe still brings it,\u201d Matt Chapman said. \u201cHe throws good batting practice. When we\u2019re facing a lefty, he can be in the cage and throw mixed BP. It definitely helps out. A good guy to have around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yandle, who has three World Series rings and one league championship ring, first started throwing BP at Candlestick Park, where the strong winds affected his pitches and made them cut (not on purpose), which led to his nickname: \u201cCutter John.\u201d Not a good tag for a BP pitcher who\u2019s mostly supposed to throw the ball straight so hitters can crush it, not swing through it. So he used a different grip and an overhand motion as if he were throwing a football, which straightened out his pitches and led to constant contact.<\/p>\n

\"ThreeBarry Bonds relied on Yandle, left, to throw batting practice to him throughout his Giants tenure. | Source: Courtesy of John Yandle<\/p>\n

Still, he never lost the nickname.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat stuck for 42 years,\u201d he said. \u201cCandlestick would have been a great place for me to pitch if I was trying to get people out.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Yandle did at Stanford, where he pitched well enough to get drafted in the 11th round by the Padres in 1977. He was in Triple-A by 1980, sporting a 3.52 ERA in 31 outings including four starts. But the Padres\u2019 new GM, Jack McKeon, acquired several young new pitchers including a lefty named Dave Dravecky, and wanted to demote Yandle to Double-A.<\/p>\n

So Yandle sought a fresh start with the Angels and pitched in Double-A, lowering his ERA and increasing his innings. When he was informed by Hall of Famer Warren Spahn, then an Angels minor-league instructor, that he wasn\u2019t getting an invite to big-league camp the following year, he stepped away.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy friends in college were doing well with their jobs, and I was making $3,500 a month for six months out of the year,\u201d Yandle said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy because once you\u2019re out, you can\u2019t go back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh, but he did go back. After spending three years in Oregon, where he was raised, he returned to the Bay Area, became a licensed broker, and started a successful commercial real estate career. His visit to the Candlestick clubhouse during the 1985 season to see Ricky Adams, a former minor-league teammate, led to his other career as BP pitcher.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then, there were no designated right-handed or left-handed BP pitchers. They didn\u2019t get as analytical as they are today,\u201d Yandle said. \u201cAlso they didn\u2019t have a lot of coaches who could still throw.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AYandle, pictured here in 2007, threw batting practice at Oracle Park before the All-Star Game. | Source: Marcio Jose Sanchez\/Associated Press<\/p>\n

Friday, I told Will Clark, a Giants special assistant who\u2019s in town as a guest instructor, that he doesn\u2019t have the longest tenure in camp because he arrived a year after Yandle. Clark shared a story about one of the first times he faced Yandle at Candlestick \u2013 he squared to bunt and got drilled.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, John? Can\u2019t blame that on the wind. Not at 3 o\u2019clock in the afternoon. It wasn\u2019t blowing then,\u201d said Clark, who kids with Yandle but also praises him: \u201cHe quickly became one of the guys that people wanted to face during batting practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

These days, Yandle makes more than 20 bucks a day from the Giants but donates what he makes after expenses to charity. He doesn\u2019t work as often in his day job and pitches in various senior tournaments and father-son tournaments.<\/p>\n

That is, when he\u2019s not pitching for the Giants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want more ways to catch up on the latest in Bay Area sports? Sign up for the Section…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[16732,363,2329,99],"class_list":["post-523250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-barry-bonds","tag-mlb","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}