The son of long-time Cardinal second baseman Julian Javier, Stan Javier was named after his dad’s storied St. Louis teammate, Stan Musial. Originally signed by the Cardinals in 1981, when he was just 17-years-old, he and Bobby Meacham were traded to New York the following year. The younger Javier was an outfielder who played well enough at each level of the organization’s farm system to advance quickly up the ladder. Invited to the Yankees 1984 spring training camp, Manager Yogi Berra announced Javier would be on the team’s Opening Day roster, but would remain in the Bronx only until Oscar Gamble recovered from an injury.

He appeared in seven games for New York during that first month of the 1984 season, mostly as a late-inning outfield replacement. He only managed seven plate appearances but he got his first big league hit off of Cleveland’s George Frazier and scored his first big league run. He was sent back down to the minors at the end of April and then the following December, he was included in the five-player package the Yankees used to get Ricky Henderson from Oakland. Javier went on to put together a very decent 17-year big league career. He played for seven big league teams collected 1,358 hits and finished with a .269 lifetime batting average and a .345 on base percentage.

Javier shares his January 9th birthday with this other former Yankee prospect who enjoyed a long and successful big league career as a non-Yankee and this former 20-game-winning Yankee pitcher.