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manager then, said bluntly that he couldn't stomach” Stuart as *n outfielder, and the young mnn worked his way down through the Pirates' organization until he was back in the home run in his first mnjor league game and kept right, on swatting them as the Pirates climbed from seventh place to second.Dick Stuart, 1959 ModelFORT MYERS, Fla., — No male animal ever looked more like a big league ball player than* Richard Lee Stuart and no character out of King Lardner ever Rounded more like a busher than the same Dick Stuart in some of the statements attributed to him on the sports pages. When he came to training camp with the Pirates in 11)57 he was promptly put away as an eccentric—partly because he had hit 66 home runs for Lincoln, Nebr., the preceding summer, which is not normal behavior for anybody; partly because his gift for reticence was as undeveloped as his skill in the outfield; partly because of his undisguised loathing for gloves and all other appurtenances of defensive baseball.Bobby Biagan, the PittsburghNow he is one of the three first basemen who expect to find gainful employment in the National League this summer under the supervision of Danny Miirtaugh. He may have found his niche and he certainly has discovered poise.“I guess I used to say some pretty funny things,” he admitted. I've settled down. I got married again and we’re having a baby in May and that sort of thing helps make anybody serious.'*STUART HAD been working at first base as the Pirates practiced cut-off plays on throws from the oulfield. When that was over he had gone into the club house to change his shirt and now he was in the dugout waiting his turn for special batting practice under George Sis-ler. He sat with a pair of bars propped between his knees, a tall, good looking young man who wears his 200 pounds like a Bond Street suit, with no traoe of boasting in tone or words.*‘11*3 been pretty slow for me so far this spring,'* he said. “1 haven't got started hitiing yet.”Dick,” a visitor said, there* ve hnen times when things you said made you sound like a pretty cocky pop-off. Do you consider yourself a pop-off fuynA lot of things have been misconstrued,” he said. This winter, for instance, Iwas in New York and a fellow there interviewed me. He asked how I hit against Milwaukee and I told him, Tt just happens the only hits I got against Milwaukee were off Spahn and Burdette/ So he wrote about the brash young rookie saying he’d like to hit against Spahn and Burdette every day.“I didn’t say that. Two twenty-game winners, could I say they weren’t good pitchers? It just happened to be the truth that against Milwaukee I got my hits off them and nobody else.”THOUGH he was with Pittsburgh only half of last season, Stuart was the only Pirate who hit a home run out of every park in the league. Starling with a two-run swat in his first game, he banged one with the bases filled the next dny as the Pirates whipped the Cubs, 7 to 2. He pruned trees in Schenley Park outside Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, bombed a laundry across the street from Cincinnati's Crosley Field, and on Aug. 19 in Chicago he smashed a drive that cleared the fence in dead center 400 feet from the plate, climbed up and over the top bleacher seals 50 feet above the wall, and may still he in orbit.*'T hit home runs in every park in the Pacific Coast League last summer, too,” he said mildly. Of course, I was exceptionally hot playing with Salt Lake City. You don't generally figure to hit 30 horr.e runs in Triple-A in half a season. I got 31 there and 16 with Pittsburgh, which is just about the difference between Triple-A and tlie big league/’The Pirates sent you out. in 1957,*’ It was remarked, and every time your name got in the paper that year some club was sending you to a lower classification. Was it a pretty heartbreaking gnmmcr?Oh, brother, was it! I went from here to Hollywood to Atlanta to Lincoln. Last year 1 went from Salt Lake to Pittsburgh. The difference between two years!”* “ITS BEEN a long, hard road,” Stuart said. *T never wanted to be anything but a ball player in the big leagues— not with Pittsburgh, especially, with any team in the majors. The Pirates signed me out of high school and I spent a few years in Class C,. a few years in Double-A, and parts of years here and there. IPs been a long road.”“How about first base, Dick? Do you feel that’s you position?”Yes, I may not he a great fielder, but I think T can help the club defensively better there than in the outfield.”The Pirates must have more muscle at first base than any other club in baseball. Ted Klus-zowski is here, says he's four inches smaller around the waist than he was a year ago. Rocky Nelson is here, too, the best fielder of the three. Nelsou lilts for averages like ,394 in the International League, but in the last ten years pitchers have chased him out of the majors five times.Three long knockers/’ Stuart said. I wish the oihcr two were outfielders.”
Newspaper Details
Florence Morning News
Florence, South Carolina, US
Thu, Mar 05, 1959
Page 22
Full Page
Clipped by
William R.
CT, USA 01 Nov 2018
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