Stephen Wayne Yeager was born in Huntington West Virginia on November 24th, 1948. His father was a businessman and his mother, a homemaker. He was 18 years old when he was drafted by the Dodgers out of Meadowdale High School in Dayton Ohio. Yeager has kept most of his early years private so not much is known. He was taken in the 4th round of the 1967 draft. What is known is that he is the cousin of Chuck Yeager, the pilot who broke the sound barrier and was a WWII Ace.
He moved through the Dodger system with members of the famed 68 draft class, Cey, Garvey, Buckner, Ferguson and Lopes.