Steven Bernard Buechele (born September 26, 1961) is an American former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the Baseball scorekeep ...

, coach, and current front office executive for the Texas Rangers. Buechele played from to for the Texas Rangers,

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...

, and

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...

. He joined the Rangers in after he was named the

Tom Grieve Thomas Alan Grieve (born March 4, 1948) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball from 1970 to 1979 for the Washington Senators / Texas Rangers, New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals. He was nickna ...

Minor League Player of the Year. He was traded from the Rangers to the Pirates in following the emergence of

Dean Palmer Dean William Palmer (born December 27, 1968) is an American former third baseman in Major League Baseball who had a 14-year career from 1989 to 2003. He played for the Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers, all of the American Lea ...

. He returned to the Rangers for an eighth season in .

Playing career

Buechele was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in 1979 but did not sign. He was drafted again in 1982 by the Texas Rangers and spent several years in the minor leagues before breaking into the majors in 1985 with the Rangers. He had a career year in when he had a

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of .267 along with 18

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

s and 66 RBI while only committing three

errors An error (from the Latin , meaning 'to wander'Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “error (n.), Etymology,” September 2023, .) is an inaccurate or incorrect action, thought, or judgement. In statistics, "error" refers to the difference between t ...

for an MLB-record .991

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a baseball positions, defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putout ...

at third base. Although he did not fare as well in 31 games with the Pirates, hitting just .246, he still finished the year with career highs in hits, home runs, slugging percentage, RBI, and runs scored. He also made his only postseason appearances, hitting .304 for Pittsburgh in the 1991

National League Championship Series The National League Championship Series (NLCS) is a best-of-seven playoff and one of two League Championship Series comprising the penultimate round of Major League Baseball's (MLB) postseason. It is contested by the winners of the two Natio ...

against the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Eas ...

. Buechele's career stats include 137

s, 547 RBI, and a .971

. Throughout his career, Buechele was known for hitting solo home runs. Buechele ranks 12th in Rangers' club history for total games with 889 games played and 16th for at-bats (2723). Additionally, the 25 times he was hit by a pitch is the 13th highest in Rangers' franchise history and his 73 grounded into double plays is the 14th highest. In Rangers' fielding stats, he is 21st (2476) in total chances, 7th (1675) in assists, 15th (66) in errors, and 33rd (165) in double plays. He was a candidate for the Texas Rangers Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005 and 2006.

Post-playing career

Buechele continues to be a part of the professional baseball world, including serving as one of the hosts and coaches for the Texas Rangers 2006 Media Spring Training. In August 2008, Buechele began to serve as a studio commentator for the Ranger's pre and post-game shows on Fox Sports Southwest. He was the first base coach for the Texas Rangers from 2015 to 2018. On November 14, 2018, it was announced that Buechele would be moving from his role as the first base coach, to be a special assistant in the baseball operations department of the Texas Rangers front office.

Personal life

Steve graduated from

Servite High School Servite High School is a private, Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized ...

(Anaheim, CA) in 1979. Steve and his wife Nancy currently reside in

Arlington, Texas Arlington is a city in Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and is a principal c ...

. They have five children. His eldest son Garrett played baseball for the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma, United States. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two territories became the ...

and was drafted by the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

14th round of the

2011 Major League Baseball Draft The 2011 Major League Baseball draft was held from June 6 through June 8, 2011, from Studio 42 of the MLB Network in Secaucus, New Jersey. The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Gerrit Cole out of the University of California, Los Angeles, with the firs ...

, and his middle son Tanner played baseball for Fullerton College. Steve has two daughters, Jordan and Amber, both of whom attend the

. His youngest son,

Shane Shane may refer to: People * Shane (name), a masculine given name and a surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with this name * Shane (actress) (born 1969), American pornographic actress * Shane (New Zealand singer) (born ...

, attended

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

and SMU where he played

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

for the

Mustangs The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish conquistadors. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-domesticate ...

. In 2021 he was signed as an undrafted free agent by the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Established in 1959 ...

. At

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, his roommate was Hall of Fame quarterback

John Elway John Albert Elway Jr. (born June 28, 1960) is an American former professional football quarterback who spent his entire 16-year career with the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). Following his playing career, he then spent 1 ...

. He is a member of

Delta Tau Delta Delta Tau Delta () is a United States–based international Greek letter college fraternity. Delta Tau Delta was founded at Bethany College, Bethany, Virginia, (now West Virginia) in 1858. The fraternity currently has around 130 collegiate chapt ...

fraternity.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buechele, Steve 1961 births Living people Baseball players from Lancaster, California Major League Baseball third basemen Major League Baseball first base coaches Texas Rangers executives Texas Rangers coaches Texas Rangers players Pittsburgh Pirates players Chicago Cubs players Minor league baseball managers Tulsa Drillers players Oklahoma City 89ers players American Association (1902–1997) MVP Award winners Servite High School alumni Stanford Cardinal baseball players