Ford Games
Major League Talent Stephen Ridings pitching for the New York Yankees against the Seattle Mariners in an Aug. 6 game at Yankee Stadium.
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n the 188-year history of Haverford College, just one alumnus had ever played in a Major League Baseball game: Bill Lindsay, Class of 1906, an infielder who played 19 games in 1911 with a team then known as the Cleveland Naps. Since then, even with MLB teams drafting Haverford players to develop into possible major leaguers, no one else had accomplished that feat … until Aug. 3, 2021. That’s when Stephen Ridings ’19 came in to pitch an inning for the New York Yankees, some 40 miles from where he grew up on Long Island. In his eventual five additional appearances for the Yankees, he allowed just one run and turned a lot of heads on social media by striking out a batter in his debut with a 100 mph pitch. Although he returned to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders Triple-A team not long after his initial run with the Yankees, his future may include more time with the storied New York franchise. Ridings—who finished his degree in 2019 as a chemistry major after taking a leave when he was drafted by the Chicago Cubs in 2016—spoke to Haverford magazine about the journey that took him from the Main Line to the Majors.
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Haverford Magazine
PHOTO: ADAM HUNGER/GETTY IMAGES
Stephen Ridings ’19 gets called up to pitch for the Yankees. BY CHARLES CURTIS ‘04
