Yankle will join Tony Gorvet as the two baseball inductees to be enshrined in this year’s class.
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Born November 9, 1960, Yankle is a 1978 graduate of Chaney High School where he starred in baseball for head coach Bob Garcar and assistant coach, Joe Lutsi.
A three-yar letterwinner for the Cowboys, he posted a 20-3 career mound ledger, batted .390 for his scholastic career and was named to the all-City Series squad all three varsity seasons.
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He posted a 1.20 career earned run average and was the starting pitcher as a sophomore in the 1976 Class AAA state championship game, going six innings while allowing no earned runs, striking out four and walking one but not figuring in the decision as the Cowboys lost to Shaker Heights, 5-4 to finish as state runners-up that season.
He was inducted into the Chaney High School Athletics Hall of Fame in 1996.
A standout player on the local sandlots during the summer months, from 1976-78 he played in the area’s highly-regarded Class “B” League for McAuley Awnings and legendary manager (he is a Curbstone Coaches Hall of Fame inductee, Class of 2003), Mel Weaver.
During those three summer seasons, he was a three-year Connie Mack Tournament all-state selection, was chosen to play in the Connie Mack World Series in Farmington, New Mexico in 1977 and in 1978, was named MVP of the Ohio Connie Mack Tournament.
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Upon graduation from high school he was recruited by YSU, Miami (OH) University, Ohio State and the University of Toledo, among others but chose a scholarship offer from nearby Kent state University where he was a four-year letterwinner for the Golden Flashes.
He played his first three seasons under former head coach Art Welch, finishing his college career under the tutelage of the program’s then first-year head mentor, Bob Morgan, posting a 15-6 overall mound mark while batting .315 during his collegiate career.
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During his time with the Golden Flashes, he was an all-Mid-American Conference pick on two separate occasions and was chosen to serve as captain of the ’82 KSU squad.
From 1979-80, he played in the local Class “AA” League for Miller Brewing and manager John Zizzo and in 1981, was selected to play in the highly-regarded Cape Cod (Massachusetts) National Collegiate Summer League, one of just 150 select players chosen that season from throughout the country to play in the league.
Invitations to play professional baseball were spurned, choosing instead to begin a career utilizing his college degree which he earned from Kent State in 1982.
Self-employed, he is married to his high school sweetheart, the former Chris Mancini – her father, Herb, is a 1992 Curbstone Coaches Hall of Fame honoree and former professional baseball player (and scout) with the St. Louis Cardinals organization, playing seven years in the Minor Leagues where he posted a lifetime .270 batting average from 1949-55 as a second baseman-shortstop – and they are the parents of two children, son Donny and daughter Jaclyn.
They reside in Youngstown.
