He was not even a passing thought to fans of the sport, but as the medical trainer for professional baseball teams, he was a significant reason why players performed at optimum levels when they stepped across the white lines.

The top of his game

Stephen Gober III, in association with the Lehigh Valley Health Network, is currently the athletic trainer at Lehigh University for cross country and track and field. He was selected by the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society to be an assistant trainer for Team Czech Republic (Czechia) in the recent World Baseball Classic, where their games were played in Tokyo, Japan.

Gober had an impressive resume to earn him the selection that considers high level experience in major and minor league professional baseball.

A resident of New Tripoli, he has spent most of his career in baseball dugouts and training rooms.

“I was an assistant trainer for the Montreal Expos,” Gober said. “I continued with the organization when they became the Washington Nationals. I spent 10 seasons with the Louisville Bats AAA minor league team for the Cincinnati Reds as their strength and conditioning coach.”

A graduate of Shenandoah University in Virginia, Gober was the assistant trainer for the Nationals from 2013-2015.

Before that, he served for seven seasons as that organization’s minor league medical and rehabilitation coordinator. He was also involved in the development and implementation of rehab programs for MLB players.

Win some, lose some

“I’ve worked with Mike Piazza, (Mets) Bryce Harper, (Nationals) and Joey Votto, (Reds) to name a few,” Gober said. He also treated Stephen Strasburg earlier in his career before the All-Star pitcher, the MVP of the 2019 World Series, was forced into early retirement due to thoracic outlet syndrome.

“I see the futility in athletes when they have repeated injuries, especially if they are getting up in athletic age,” Gober said. “It’s their decision of course, but I’ll tell them to go home, look in the mirror and think about what to do with life after baseball.”

He cites shoulder injuries as the No. 1 concern in professional baseball.

“It’s most often tendonitis issues we treat,” Gober explained. “Sometimes the injured area involves ligaments or muscles. What we do is eliminate all the diagnoses as we can until we find the exact problem.”

In the recent WBC, Gober had no injuries to address for Team Czechia, except for one player who was hit in the head with a baseball. He had no lingering effects and continued to play for his country.

Czechia played a round of preliminary scrimmage games against Japanese “JV” teams before finishing 0-4 in the two weeklong tournament.

Gober has naturally been a fan of the teams he’s treated with his expertise.

“I want them to win,” he said. “I was with the Nationals for 11 years. Not only do you become a fan of the team you’re with, but you get a bonus check if they make the playoffs like I did with the 2014 Nationals team.”

Money ball

Gober has been around the game of baseball for more than two decades and he does not like how the sport has been evolving. It’s no longer the game pro players played for fun when they were kids; it’s a business of big money.

“Very few players really care about winning,” he said. “Most want to stay in the game, perform their best and get a big contract. Make as much money as they can. There are exceptions. Bryce Harper is one. He wants to win.

“I didn’t just deal with the athletes, but also with their agents, who need to know how serious the injuries are to their players and if they are career threatening. Some agents will even try to dictate medical advice to newer players. Their interest is strictly business. They need to recruit new clients to replace the seriously injured ones whose careers are nearing the end.”

Extra innings

Through the years, Gober has earned the trust of many athletes whom he has treated. Some continue to seek his advice long after the conclusion of their playing careers.

“I get calls from former players who are now married with kids who get injured. They ask for my advice. Sometimes I have to talk their wives off the ledge,” he added with a laugh.

Gober is getting closer to the day that he’ll retire.

“I’ve been away for much of my working life. I want to be home with my wife, my three daughters, my dogs, and spend some time fishing.”

He’s the father of Hannah Gober from Northwestern High School, the 2025 Times News Field Hockey Player of the Year. “She’s going to Ohio State next year so we’ll go out and see her play as much as we can.”

Keeping pro athletes on the field and out of the athletic training room has been his key responsibility and primary purpose.

Baseball is a sport loaded with statistics about everything that happens between the lines, but it does not have a stat that shows how many games were won because athletic trainers like Steve Gober helped injured players get back in the game to lead their teams to victory.