Former Brewers player Young, involved in memorable lineup snafu, dies at age 63

The Baltimore Orioles tweeted Monday that former outfielder Mike Young had died at age 63.

Young played from 1982 to 1989 in Major League Baseball, mostly with Baltimore, though he also happened to be involved in a memorable lineup snafu during his ultra-brief tenure with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Young, traded by the Philadelphia Phillies in August 1988 to Milwaukee for Alex Madrid, played a mere eight games for the Brewers. One of those came Aug. 28, 1988, when then-manager Tom Trebelhorn mistakenly wrote "Yount" a second time on the lineup card instead of "Young." Chaos ensued.

Playing against Detroit at County Stadium, Trebelhorn meant to put Mike Young as designated hitter and Robin Yount in his usual spot in center but instead turned in a lineup card with Yount batting both third and fifth in the order.

Yount lined out to second base to end the Brewers’ first inning, and when Young lined out to short for the second out in the second, Tigers manager Sparky Anderson approached umpire Mike Reilly and protested that Young had essentially pinch hit for Yount, who therefore should have to leave the game. It led into a 16-minute delay before the umpires agreed, and they even walked out to center field to coax Yount out of the game.

Trebelhorn protested and got ejected by crew chief Dale Ford. The rule book at the time specifically outlined that teams should not be "trapped" by a mistake that was obviously inadvertent and could have been corrected before the game started.

The league office admitted the next day that Yount should have been allowed to stay in the game and the Brewers merely should have lost the DH.

Yount rarely showed emotion during a game but he did that day after being told he was out of the game. He stood on the top step of the Brewers dugout and screamed across to the visiting dugout at Anderson, who raised his hands as if to say, “Don’t blame me!”

Trebelhorn contended that because the mistake wasn't caught before the game, both Yount and Young should have been allowed to stay. The Brewers got the last laugh because Jim Adduci, who was inserted in Yount’s place, contributed a single, double, sacrifice fly, two RBI and two runs scored as the Brewers rallied from a 5-0 and 9-4 deficit for a 12-10 win over the American League East leaders.

"I can't think of too many ways I'll ever replace Robin," Adduci said. "But, what the heck."

Tom Flaherty of the Milwaukee Journal playfully wrote that Trebelhorn, a former substutute teacher in Oregon before he became manager, got an "F" in spelling that day.

"Crazy day," Trebelhorn said after. "My error. Silly. I can spell better than that. Now I truly have my most embarrassing moment in baseball. I have it, and I won't forget it."

It was Young's first start for the Brewers. Milwaukee finished with a season-high 18 hits and had a six-run sixth but had to re-take the lead in the seventh on Paul Molitor's two-run homer.

Young, who didn't have a hit in the game but walked twice, only made 18 plate appearances for the Brewers and was released after the season. He had a productive run with the Orioles, though, earning Rookie of the Year votes in 1985 and posting 28 homers and 81 RBIs in 1985 for his best season. In 1987, he homered twice in extra innings for the Orioles against the Angels, making him the last player to accomplish that feat until 2013.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Former Brewer Young, involved in memorable lineup snafu, dies at 63