Steve Sax
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Stephen Louis Sax (born January 29, 1960 in Sacramento, California) is a former second baseman in Major League Baseball. He was a right-handed batter for the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, and the Oakland Athletics.
Sax was drafted by the Dodgers in 1978 and started his career off to a good start in 1982 by earning the National League Rookie of the Year award, though the decision was a controversial one. Pirates second baseman Johnny Ray had won The Sporting News Rookie of the Year. The Baseball Writers Association of America voted for Sax in a close vote almost entirely because Sax was a media darling in Los Angeles.
Throughout his career, Sax was on the All-Star team five times and had a batting average over .300 in three seasons. He had great success on the basepaths, stealing over 40 bases in six seasons for a career total of 444 stolen bases. He also set the Yankees team record for most Singles in a season (171 in 1989). Though overall, Sax didn't live up to the billing he received as rookie.
Steve is the brother of another former Major League Baseball player, Dave Sax, who also played for the Dodgers.
Sax was also a higher up in the Players Association during his career. He controversially opined that major league players shouldn't speak to or assist anyone who was a replacement player during the 1994 baseball strike and later joined a club when the strike had ended. He also opined that such players should be denied pensions by the union.
Life after baseball
After Steve's playing career ended in 1994, he has been involved in various business ventures, including:
- Briefly ran for a seat in the California State Assembly 4th District as a Republican in 1996. Sax later dropped out of the race, when his divorce became publicized.
- In the mid-1990s, he was a part-owner of a nightclub and restaurant called the Twin Palms, located in Folsom, California.
- Worked as a baseball analyst on television.
- He now works as a financial consultant for RBC Dain Rauscher, LLC, in their Roseville, California office. He has approximately 25 to 30 clients, including several athletes.
- He is also co-writing a book on athletes and finances because he hears about too many athletes who have been easy targets by unscrupulous people in the financial world.
- A black belt, he also owns a martial arts studio in Roseville, California.
Popular Culture
- Steve Sax was one of the baseball players who guest starred on The Simpsons in the episode Homer at the Bat. His legal troubles were parodied in the song as "Steve Sax and his run-ins with the law..." and he was blamed for every unsolved mystery in New York City.
- Steve Sax guest starred on an episode of the early 1980s cult television series Square Pegs.
External link
- [Baseball-Reference.com] - career statistics and analysis
- [April 2005 Sacramento Bee article on Steve Sax and his current activities]
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