Happy Independence Day

For our Fourth of July posting we present short Dave Stewart who briefly pitched for the Phillies in the middle 80s.

 2004 UD USA Baseball #USA-173

We recently featured Stewart as part of our 1990 No-Hitter Series. His card here is devoted to Stewart's 2003 stint as pitching coach of team USA.

 2004 UD USA Baseball #USA-173 (b-side)

The flip of the card mentions Stewart's 1989 World Series MVP award and Team USA's performance during the 2003 qualifier.

For more on Stewart's 1990 no-hitter click here.

Sources and Links
1990 Year of the No-Hitter Index

1990: Year of the No-Hitter - June 29th Dave Stewart

June 29th 1990 was one of the two greatest days in No-Hitter History. It started in Toronto with the Oakland A's Dave Stewart.....

1990 Score #702 No-Hit Club Dave Stewart

On May 9th 1986 the Phillies released Dave Stewart to make room for Ron Roenicke whom they purchased from the Oakland A's. A year later the Phillies released Roenicke and Dave Stewart led the AL in Wins en route to finishing 3rd in the AL Cy Young Voting.  

1990 was the fourth consecutive year that Stewart would finish in the Cy Young top four. He was coming off a World Series MVP award in 1989 and was near the top of his game.

That was not good for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Flip

1990 Score #702 No-Hit Club Dave Stewart (b-side)

Stewart was dominant, He struck out 12 and walked 3 pitching to two over the minimum - the extra runner (Junior Felix) was eliminated via caught stealing.

Looking inside the box we find the 1990 Blue Jays to be a pretty good hitting squad, Fred McGriff would hit .300 that season and the young John Olerud would eventually win a batting title.  Stewart's final three outs were Strike Outs of Manny Lee and Mookie Wilson and a Tony Fernandez Fly Out.

Dave Stewart's battery-mate for the no-hitter was Terry Steinbach who doubled and tripled in the game. In 1999 as a member of the Twins Steinbach called a second no-hitter authored by another Phillies connected pitcher - Eric Milton.

Among the folks playing defense for Stewart's no-hitter was future Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson. Rickey pitched in with a Homer, Sac Fly, and a Put Out in left.

1990 06 29
We are only half way threw June 29th 1990. Tomorrow we will jet off to the West Coast to see what happens later that day...




Team USA

in 2003 Dave Stewart was pitching coach for Team USA for a look at his 2004 UD card check here
  Sources and Links
1990: Year of the No-Hitter
Baseball-ref

2004 UD USA Baseball #GU-DS Dave Stewart

For Patriot Day 2014 we are posting a USA Baseball Card.

2004 UD USA Baseball #GU-DS Dave Stewart

This is part of my USA baseball album, but could be part of my Phillies collection. Yes Dave Stewart did spend about 15 minutes playing for the Phillies in the middle 80s. This was in the era just prior to Dave Stewart becoming a perennial Cy Young candidate and dominant postseason pitcher.

During the 9 month period that Stewart played with the Phillies he pitched 12 games all in relief and sccrued a 6.48 ERA. For obvious reasons the Phillies released Dave Stewart.

Stewart was signed by the Oakland A's and his career changed. Between 1987 and 1991 he was a top 4 finisher in the Cy Young voting. In 1987 he led the league in Wins, twice during the aforementioned four year period he led the league in Innings and Complete Games. 

In 1988 He was named the World Series MVP in the Earthquake Series. It was one of 3 World Series Ring Dave Stewart would win. The first was as a relief pitcher for the 1981 Dodgers, the other was versus hte Phillies in 1993. In addition to the WS MVP Stewart also collected postseason honors in 1990 and 1993 when he was named MVP of each of those ALCS. Overall Dave Stewart was 10-6 with a 2.77 ERA pitching 133 innings across 6 postseason runs.

Patriot Day
Patriot day is also known as a Day of Service and Remembrance conceived to help honor and remember lost love ones and those who were affected by that loss.

Dave Stewart had some missteps off the field early in his career, but in retirement has become an important contributor to his community. He is a strong supporter of the Oakland Boys and Girls Club and other Youth oriented organizations in the bay area. Each year the Oakland A's present a team member with a Community Service Award that is named for Dave Stewart. Reliever Sean Doolittle won the award in 2013, Doolittle is active with Veteran's Afffairs offices in Palo Alto and nationwide. I found no record of a 2014 award recipient.

Sources  & Links
The White House
Oakland A's
baseball-ref