Sammy Stewart, a World Series hero for the Orioles in 1983,
passed away on Friday (March 2, 2018). He was 63.
Born in Asheville, North Carolina on October 28, 1954,
“The Throwin’ Swannanoan” was drawn to sports. And he was drawn to excel. You have a lot to live up to when your father continues working after losing an arm in a mill accident and your mother works at the same mill having lost a leg in a train accident. Sammy stayed out of trouble, never missed a day of school, and developed into a promising pitcher.
The Royals drafted Stewart in 1974, but he didn’t sign with them. Soon after, however, Baltimore scout Rip Tutor convinced him to sign with the Orioles. The half season in Bluefield, where he went 3-3 with an ERA of 6.07, was a learning experience for Sammy. But he broke out big time in his first full season in 1976. Pitching for Miami, the right-hander hurled 182 innings to a 12-8 record with a 2.42 ERA. That got him moved up to Triple-A in 1977 and he struggled there. Dropped back to Double-A, he dominated once again. Sammy was ready for Triple-A in 1978. Come September, Stewart was in The Show.
On September 1, 1978, Sammy Stewart made his major league debut, starting against the Chicago White Sox, and he would make major league history. He was a bit shaky in the first, but struck out the side in the second and third and whiffed the leadoff batter in the fourth, as well. The seven consecutive strikeouts was a rookie record and the career feat Stewart was most proud of.
Sammy was moved to the pen the following year, a role for which he was perfectly suited. He was a bulldog with an arm that never seemed to tire and Earl Weaver already had a strong rotation. Weaver saw Stewart as Mr. Everything; he could start, he could close, he could pitch long relief and come back the next night and do it all over again. Weaver felt Stewart, in essence, gave Baltimore the luxury of having two starting pitchers every night. Stewart was the workhorse. His innings pitched were 117 in 1979, 118 in 1980, 112 in 1981, 139 in 1982, and 144 in 1983. His IP dropped to 93 in 1984, but that was because he was sharing closer duties with Tippy Martinez. In 1982, Sammy’s ERA was 2.32, second best in the league. And, in the championship year of 1983, Sammy would throw 5 scoreless innings against the Phillies in the World Series.
Though Sammy pitched well in 1984, the team finished 19 games off the pace. It was more of the same in 1985. Then he found himself traded to the Boston Red Sox in the offseason. It should have been a positive move, as the O’s would drop to last place in 1986 and the Sox were on their way to the World Series. But it would be “the beginning of the end” for Sammy. Stewart missed over a month of the season with an arm injury. And, for whatever reason, he and manager John McNamara did not get along. Come the World Series, Stewart sat and watched while Boston’s other relievers turned what should have been a World Series win into a World Series loss.
“He [McNamara] lay down on me and it cost us the World Series,” Sam
would later say.
“I hated to see Al Nipper come out of the bullpen when I’ve never been scored on in the postseason and my arm was feeling good.”
After the season, the Red Sox opted not to resign Stewart. Sammy figured this was his moment to score the big bucks in free agency and he bought a big house in the Boston suburbs. But that was one of the collusion years and Sammy was without a team—without a job—until June 1987 when he was picked up by the Indians. The layoff was not a good thing for a player used to coming to the ballpark prepared to pitch seven innings everyday. At season’s end, Cleveland cut him loose and Stewart walked away from the game.
Stewart’s life had always been about the game. Without it, he was a bit lost. He went to a party in 1988 and noticed some girls
“moving around a little funny after going into the bathroom”. When he asked, he was told they were smoking crack. He decided to give it a try.
“It took away the absence of baseball,” he said.
Things spiraled downward from there. Sammy was stuck in Boston without any friends and without baseball. His 11 year old son would die of cystic fibrosis in 1991. He continued with the drugs, hocking his World Series ring and other possessions, losing his family, losing his home and living on the street, ringing up an astounding number of arrests, shooting up and getting shot at. Arrested again in 2006, he felt he’d reached rock bottom. He elected not to plea, telling the judge he needed to be locked up.
Sammy was released from prison in 2013, after serving 6 years and eight months for possession of $12 worth of crack cocaine. He came out clean and sober and, according to his former Orioles teammates, very much like his old (pre-drug) self. He settled into a humbler life in Henderson, NC, with a woman he reconnected with while in prison, living on his baseball pension, teaching some, and mending relationships with his children.
Images are from eBay and Topps Vault.