I have wanted to cover this for so long I almost forgot about it entirely!
In the 1979 Topps set Stewart was prominently given a “Record Breaker”
card for his incredible Major League debut where he struck out seven
straight batters in his first Big League game.
Pretty nifty!
Yet much to my (then) nerdy baseball-loving self, I could not find his
card anywhere. It was my cousin who pointed out that Stewart’s place in
that set was on one of those dreadful black-and-white rookie cards,
which blew me away.
I remember thinking “Damn, you get a record breaker card but not even a “regular” card?!”
Well, looking back and seeing that he only appeared in two games during
the 1978 season makes it all a little more digestible, but barely!
Stewart struck out 11 batters over 11.1 innings in his two games, both
starts ironically since he’d go on to be a solid reliever over his
10-year Major League career.
He would pitch into the 1987 season where he finished up with the
Cleveland Indians after a sole season with the Boston Red Sox in 1986
(great timing!), and eight years with the Orioles.
He finished his career with a record of 59-48, with an ERA of 3.59 over
359 appearances and 956.2 innings, with 45 saves and a shutout thrown
in.
I STILL can’t figure out who the rightful American League Earned Run Average champ is for the strike-shortened 1981 season.
While for many years the Oakland A’s Steve McCatty was given the honor
for his 2.33 ERA over 185.2 innings pitched, now I see that Stewart is
given the honor on Baseball_Reference.com based on his 112.1 innings,
which I guess “technically” gives him the rightful title.
Then of course there a great left-handed New York Yankee rookie by the
name of Dave Righetti who ended the season with a brilliant 2.05 ERA but
fell about an inning or so short of the title himself!
What a crazy season!
