Ernie Young

Ernie Young was an outfielder who helped the United States baseball team win gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Young attended Lewis University and was drafted out of there by the Oakland Athletics in the 10th round of the 1990 Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft.

Young was with the Athletics organization through 1997, first playing in the minor leagues until 1994. He made his MLB début in May 1994 and mostly played in the majors through 1997, although he was sent down a few times in that period.

In 1998 Young played with the Kansas City Royals in MLB and he was with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 1999. In 2000 Young was back in Triple-A with the Memphis Redbirds, which allowed him to play at the Olympics with TeamUSA.

Young spent 2002 in Japan playing for the Yokohama Bay Stars. He came back to the US and played two more major league seasons, with the Detroit Tigers in 2003 and the Cleveland Indians in 2004. He finished out his professional career with three more seasons of minor league ball with the Indians and then the Chicago White Sox organizations but retired after the 2007 season.

After his playing retirement Young became a coach, starting as a hitting coach with the White Sox rookie-level team, the Great Falls Voyagers. In 2009 he became the manager of the Kannapolis (North Carolina) Intimidators and in 2011 he was named the manager of the Michigan Whitecaps, a class A team in the Tigers organization.

Young also managed and coached at the national and international level. He managed the US National Team at the 2011 Pan Am Games and Baseball World Cup. He later coached the 2020 US Olympic team that won a silver medal and was a coach for the 2019 WBSC Premier 12 tournament. In 2013 Young also served on the board of directors for USA Baseball.