ARCHIE YELLE

Archie Joseph Yelle was born in Saginaw on June 11, 1892 – one of 11 children. Yelle was a three-sport standout at Saginaw High School  before going on to a 27-year baseball career as a baseball catcher. His career started at the age of 18 in 1910 with Boyne City and ended up  in 1936 with the Colusa Prune Pickers. In between he spent three years (1917-19) as a parttime catcher with the Detroit Tigers. In 1919  Yelle barnstormed throughout California with a team that included Ty Cobb. He was released by the Tigers after playing a total of 87 Major League games. Yelle then played for the San Francisco Seals in the Pacific Coast League from 1920-1926. In 1922 Yelle helped lead the Seals to a league championship with a record of 127–72. Yelle split catching duties with another former major league player, Sam Agnew. In 1922 Yelle batted .254 in 108 games. In 1925 the Seals were 128–71, winning another Pacific Coast League title. That year Yelle hit .267 and was chosen by The Sporting News as the catcher for the PCL All-Star team. Overall, Yelle played professionally for 20 years, from 1911 until 1930. In that span he caught 1,504 games for 19 different teams, batted 4,563 times, scored 408 runs, recorded 1,129 hits for a .247 batting average. Additionally, he had 159 career doubles, 27 triples, 9 home runs, and a .965 fielding average. He became a police officer and ultimately a police chief in Woodland, California (1935-65), and then a prison guard for the sheriff’s department. He died on May 2, 1983, at the age of 90 and is buried in Monument Hill Park in Woodland, CA.