Richard Lee Stuart (November 7, 1932 – December 15, 2002), nicknamed "Dr. Strangeglove", was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a first baseman from 1958 to 1966 then, played in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) league from 1967 to 1968 before returning to play one final season in MLB in 1969.
His fielding also proved to be something of a liability.[5] The Pirates unsuccessfully tried him at third base with the Atlanta Crackers in 1957 before shifting him to first base in 1958.[6] Stuart clubbed 31 home runs in 80 games for the Salt Lake City Bees when he received his call to the majors in July.
Pittsburgh Pirates
Stuart made his major league debut with the Pirates on July 10, 1958, at the age of 25. With the Pirates trailing 8–5, Stuart hit a two-run home run in the ninth inning of his major league debut to bring his team within a run.[7] The following day, he hit a grand slam off Moe Drabowsky to lead his team to a 7–2 victory over the Chicago Cubs.[8] Over the remainder of the season, Stuart would bat .268 with 48 RBIs. Despite being called up halfway through the season, and being used in a lefty/righty platoon with Ted Kluszewski, Stuart's sixteen home runs was third best on the team. He also led the league in errors committed by a first baseman (16) for the first of seven consecutive years.
He was again in a platoon with Kluszewski in 1959, and was batting .294 with nineteen home runs and sixty RBIs when the Pirates dealt Kluszewski to the Chicago White Sox on August 25. As the Pirates' full time first baseman, Stuart improved to .307 with eight home runs and nineteen RBIs. His 27 home runs and 78 RBIs led the team, while his .297 batting average tied for the team lead with catcherSmoky Burgess. His .976 fielding percentage was the lowest for a National League first baseman since Fred Luderus' .975 in 1914.
His poor performance in the World Series preceded what would be his finest season in 1961. There were two All-Star games in 1961; Stuart was part of both NL squads. In the July 11 game at Candlestick Park, Stuart doubled in his only at bat.[11] in the July 31 contest at Fenway Park, Stuart grounded out in his only at bat.[12] His 35 home runs and 117 RBIs far and away led the Pirates, while he batted over .300 for the only time in his career (.301). He also led the NL with 121 strikeouts.
Stuart's physical resemblance to Red Sox legend Ted Williams immediately endeared him to fans.[14] Endearing him even more to Bosox fans was the fact that through the first 26 games of the 1963 season, Stuart had five home runs and seventeen RBIs without committing an error. That streak ended abruptly, when Stuart had errors in both games of a May 15 doubleheader with the Los Angeles Angels.[15][16] His .253 batting average, seventeen home runs and fifty RBIs at the All-Star break earned him a second-place finish to the Yankees' Joe Pepitone in fan balloting, but he was left off the team by American LeaguemanagerRalph Houk.[17] He was, however, named the first baseman on the Sporting News' AL All-Star Team.
He would earn a degree of revenge on Houk on August 15, when he hit his thirtieth home run of the season,[18] making him the first player to hit thirty home runs in a season in both the NL and the AL.[19] For the season, he would finish second to the Minnesota Twins' Harmon Killebrew in the AL home run race (42 to 45). While he would go on to lead the AL with 118 RBIs and 319 total bases, he would also lead major league first basemen with 29 errors, which remains both Stuart's career high and the Boston Red Sox single season record. By season's end, he had been dubbed "Stone Fingers" by none other than Hank Aaron.[20] Despite his well-documented defensive struggles, on June 28, Stuart became the first first-baseman in major league history to record three assists in one inning.[21]
The following season, Stuart would become far better known as "Dr. Strangeglove", a play on the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove. Despite his 24 errors at first, Stuart still mashed with the best of them. He hit 33 home runs and was second in the AL (to the Baltimore Orioles' Brooks Robinson) with 114 RBIs.
Philadelphia Phillies
In need of starting pitching, the Red Sox dealt Stuart to the Philadelphia Phillies at the start of the Winter meetings for left hander Dennis Bennett.[22] Following a 6-for-14 four game series in Los Angeles against the Dodgers, Stuart raised his batting average to .297. He followed that up with an 0-for-14 slump that saw his average drop to .216, and drew the ire of manager Gene Mauch.[23] Stuart batted .234 with 28 home runs and 95 RBIs his only season in Philadelphia.
The Mets moved 21 year old All-Star Ed Kranepool into a left field platoon with Ron Swoboda in order to make room for Stuart at first base. However, once Kranepool demonstrated that he was a terrible left fielder, and Stuart committed six errors by June 5, the idea was abandoned. The Mets released Stuart on June 15 with a .218 average, four home runs and thirteen RBIs. Shortly afterwards, he went from worst to first, signing as a free agent with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Though his role with the Dodgers was far more limited than Stuart was used to in his major league career, he returned to the post season for only the second time in his career. He appeared as a pinch hitter in games one and four of the 1966 World Series against the Baltimore Orioles, flying out to deep right center in game one,[25] and striking out in Game Four.[26] The Dodgers were swept by the Orioles, losing in four straight games as Stuart went hitless.[27]
Taiyo Whales
Prior to his trade to the Mets, Stuart seriously considered playing in Japan.[28] With no Major League offers on the table for the 1967 season, he signed with Nippon Professional Baseball's Taiyo Whales. After an impressive first season with the Whales (.280 avg., 33 HR, 79 RBI), Stuart dipped to a .217 average, with sixteen home runs and forty RBIs his second season. He became known as "Moby Dick" while playing in Japan.[29]
He returned to the major leagues with the California Angels in 1969, but after 22 games in which he batted .157 with just one home run, he was released on June 3. He finished out the season with the Pacific Coast League's Phoenix Giants before retiring at the age of 36.
In January 1973, almost four years after Stuart's retirement, it was noted that the not yet instituted designated hitter rule "would have suited Dr. Strangeglove perfectly". Other, less well known but equally unflattering nicknames included "Iron Glove"[30] and, in a more literary vein, "The Ancient Mariner", a reference to the first lines of the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: "It is an ancient Mariner, / And he stoppeth one of three".[31]
In their book, The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book, Brendan C. Boyd and Fred C. Harris wrote an essay on Stuart's notoriously poor fielding. An excerpt: "Every play hit his way was an adventure, the most routine play a challenge to his artlessness. It is hard to describe this to anyone who has not seen it, just as it is hard to describe Xavier Cugat or Allen Ludden. Stu once picked up a hot dog wrapper that was blowing toward his first base position. He received a standing ovation from the crowd. It was the first thing he had managed to pick up all day, and the fans realized it could very well be the last".[32]
Personal life
Stuart had a daughter, Debbie Lea, from his first marriage, and two sons, Richard Lee Jr. and Robert Lance from his second marriage to Lois. He was a member of the Screen Guild Extra Union, and appeared as an extra in the film D-Day the Sixth of June, and on the television shows Navy Log and Badge 714.[33] While with the Red Sox, Stuart began doing a sports TV show entitled Stuart on Sports Sunday nights after the news.[34] He also hosted like-named shows while with the Phillies and Mets.[35][36][28]
Stuart died of cancer on December 15, 2002, in Redwood City, California at the age of 70.[37]
Hernon, Jack. "Friend Gets 20th, Beats Giants, 6-4: Stuart's 2-Run Homer in 10th Breaks Deadlock". The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. September 11, 1958. pp. 1 and 28.
Jenkinson, Bill. Baseball's Ultimate Power: Ranking the All-Time Greatest Long-Distance Home Run Hitters. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press. pp. 80-83. ISBN978-1-59921-544-0.
