eric young, double dipper

this is the third installment in a series highlighting those players that have worn dodger blue, left, and then returned to wear the uniform once again. brett butler and omar daal are the players previously feted.

eric young got a looksie at second base for the dodgers in 1992.

juan samuel, the dodgers' primary second baseman in 1991 was gone, and the team was using lenny harris with a little bit of mike sharperson to fill the position. in his 49 games for the dodgers in 1992, young hit .258 with an ops of .588. he also made 9 errors in 208 chances for a fielding percentage of .957. not surprisingly, the dodgers left him exposed to the expansion draft prior to the 1993 season, and young was the 11th player taken by the colorado rockies.

young had his best years in the thin air, including a fantastic 1996 season when he hit .324 and scored 113 runs while leading the league with 53 stolen bases.  in all, young spent 5 years in colorado before being re-acquired by the dodgers in exchange for pedro astacio late in the 1997 season.  while the stats were tainted by the conditions in colorado, the dodgers missed out on young's .295 average, .790 ops and 180 stolen bases while he was away, not to mention his .438 average and 1.188 ops performance in the 1995 nlds.

back with the dodgers, young became the man at second for the 1998 and 1999 seasons, although he played in only 117 and 119 games in those seasons. he hit over .280, scored over 70 runs, and stole 42 and 51 bases respectively. his fielding had improved as well, as he posted fielding percentages around .980 in his second stint in la. however, after the 1999 season young was leaving la again, this time headed to chicago along with another dodger double dipper, ismael valdes. young himself also doubled dipped with the texas rangers later in his career, sandwiching his two tours there around a stop in san diego with the padres.

it's interesting to note that two picks after the rockies took eric young in the 1993 expansion draft they selected jody reed from the red sox and traded him to the dodgers for rudy seanez. it's frustrating to think of what might have been if the dodgers had kept young and so would have never traded for reed who then wouldn't have turned down their contract offer causing fred claire to trade pedro for delino.  very frustrating.

here's to you ey, double dipper!