Dick Stuart

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Richard Lee Stuart (November 7, 1932 - December 15, 2002) was a Major League Baseball first baseman from 1958 to 1969. Throughout his baseball career, Stuart was known as a fine hitter, but a subpar fielder, garnering the unique nickname of "Dr. Strangeglove" for his poor defense. That was a play on words of the movie Dr. Strangelove, which was released in the middle years of Stuart's career. Similarly, the movie Goldfinger inspired another nickname, "Stonefingers". [1] In 1963, he set a record by committing 29 errors, a major league record for first basemen that still stands.

Stuart played the bulk of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Boston Red Sox. He hit 228 home runs in his Major League Baseball career, with a batting average of .264. He was elected to the All-Star team in 1961. While Stuart never led the league in home runs, he finished in the top ten in five seasons (1959-61, 1963-64). As a minor league player, Stuart smashed 66 home runs for the Lincoln club of the Class A Western League in 1956; it remains one of the highest totals in the history of minor league baseball.

Stuart was a member of the Pirates' 1960 World Series-winning team. He was on deck when Bill Mazeroski hit the ninth inning home run off Ralph Terry to win the 1960 Series at Forbes Field.

When Stuart was with the Dodgers, he pulled off a superb play at first, so impressive that an entry in the Dodgers' scorecard for that year commented "'Dr. Strangeglove,' Indeed!"

In their book, The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book, Brendan C. Boyd & Fred C. Harris, Little Brown & Co, 1973, on p.77, the authors 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."

Stuart grew up in Redwood City, California graduating from Sequoia High School. Stuart died of cancer in Redwood City. [2]

[edit] See also

• Top 500 home run hitters of all time
• List of Major League Baseball RBI champions
• Major League Baseball hitters with three home runs in one game

[edit] External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference
• Dick Stuart at Historic Baseball
• The Deadball Era