Bobby Meacham
(Redirected from Bob Meacham)
Robert Andrew Meacham
- Bats Both, Throws Right
- Height 6' 1", Weight 180 lb.
- School San Diego State University
- High School Mater Dei High School
- Debut June 30, 1983
- Final Game July 10, 1988
- Born August 25, 1960 in Los Angeles, CA USA
Biographical Information[edit]
Shortstop Bobby Meacham's big-league playing career may be best remembered for a 1984 incident when he suffered the impetuous wrath of New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. In the fourth game of the season, Meacham entered in the 8th inning of a tie game as a defensive replacement. He committed a two-out error that allowed the winning run to score. Following the game, Steinbrenner ordered Meacham demoted all the way to Double A.
Meacham had joined the Yankees as the result of another tamper tantrum by Steinbrenner: following the 1981 season, the Yanks had acquired P Bob Sykes from the St. Louis Cardinals in return for minor league OF Willie McGee. It turned out that Sykes was injured and never pitched for New York, while McGee quickly became a star in St. Louis. An irate Steinbrenner demanded that the trade be voided retroactively. Although the Cardinals claimed they had not known about Sykes' condition at the time of the trade, they agreed to a lop-sided deal to even the scales, sending two solid prospects, Meacham and OF Stan Javier, to the Yankees in return for three minor leaguers who never amounted to anything. Meacham had been a first-round pick by the Cards in the 1981 amateur draft, 8th overall, and went on to play six major league seasons for the Yankees. In his busiest year, 1985, he played 156 games as the regular shortstop. He was a solid defensive player, the above anecdote notwithstanding, but hit only .218 with a .266 slugging percentage. He was mainly a back-up over the next three seasons, although he did hit .271 with 5 of his career 8 homers in 77 games in 1987. His career OPS+ was only 73.
After his playing days were through, Meacham spent several years as a minor league coach and manager. He coached hitters for the Eugene Emeralds in 1991, and managed them in 1992. He was a hitting coach for the Colorado Springs Sky Sox in 1993. Meacham managed the Carolina Mudcats in 1994 and the Calgary Cannons in 1995. He next served as the minor league baserunning coach in 1996 and roving infield instructor for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1997 to 2001. He then managed the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes from 2002 to 2004. Meacham joined the Colorado Rockies in 2005 as a minor league infield instructor.
Meacham spent 2006 with the Florida Marlins as the team's third base coach and was hired by the San Diego Padres as first base coach for 2007. He was named third base coach for the New York Yankees for the 2008 season, re-joining Joe Girardi with whom he had worked in Florida, but stayed there only one season. He returned to minor league coaching in 2009 as the Williamsport Crosscutters hitting coach. In 2010, he joined the Houston Astros' coaching staff as first base coach under new manager Brad Mills, but was fired along with Mills and hitting coach Mike Barnett on August 18, 2012 with the team threatening to set a franchise record for losses for the second straight year.
In 2013, Meacham joined the Toronto Blue Jays organization as manager of their High Class A affiliate the Dunedin Blue Jays of the Florida State League. He was a manager in the Jays' organization for seven seasons, until 2019, also doing so at the AA and AAA level. In 2020, he returned to coach at the major league level as an assistant coach with the Philadelphia Phillies under newly appointed manager Girardi. He left after the 2022 season.
Meacham returned to the Rockies chain as bench coach of the Albuquerque Isotopes in 2023.
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