Benching The Slugger

Dick Stuart in 1964

Benching The Slugger

Dick Stuart had a great season in 1963.

Stuart hit 42 home runs in his first season with the Boston Red Sox. Dick drove in 118, which led the American League. Those 42 home runs were second only to Harmon Killebrew, who wound up with 45.

You’d think that Stuart would be the centerpiece of the 1964 Boston Red Sox lineup. However, as usual, the truth is a bit more complex than all that.

You see, Stuart had run-ins and confrontations with manager Johnny Pesky all the time. Part of this is likely because Pesky’s offensive style was focused more on reaching base than on swinging for the fences. And part of this is because Stuart had the unfortunate habit of getting into deep slumps at the wrong time.

There were flashes of brilliance, of course. Stuart hit a grand slam home run on April 28th to lead the Red Sox to a 6-4 victory over the Baltimore Orioles:

From The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Massachusetts), April 29, 1964, page 15

But Dick’s next home run didn’t come until May 24th:

From The Patriot Ledger, May 25, 1964, page 15

The whole season was simply an up-and-down affair for Stuart. And, worst of all, there were clear signs that Stuart cared more about picking up RBIs and home runs than actually getting on base:

From Herald News (Fall River, Massachusetts), July 18, 1964, page 12

We usually think of baseball as an individual sport with team aspects to it. However, the truth is that certain offensive approaches can be self-centered to a fault. Pushing for nothing but home runs and swinging at pitches way out of the strike zone might wind up doing more harm than good, especially if you’re on a team that is generally struggling offensively.

Anyway, Stuart was all over the northeastern newspapers as 1964 wore on. And there were some interesting stories like this one:

From The Boston Globe, August 20, 1964, page 40

I kind of wish we had a recording of that broadcast.

This started rumors that Stuart’s days in Boston might be numbered:

From Transcript-Telegram (Holyoke, Massachusetts), August 20, 1964, page 24

Tony Horton, by the way, was somewhat ineffective as a Red Sox player for three and a half years before winding up with Cleveland in 1967.

Anyway, the culmination of all of this was Pesky benching Stuart for two games against the lowly Kansas City Athletics in early September:

From The Boston Globe, September 1, 1964, page 33

Stuart, of course, responded the way you’d expect:

From The Boston Globe, September 2, 1964, page 33

The Red Sox split those two games against Kansas City, and Stuart went back into the lineup. However, the rest of the season was pretty negative, and Boston wound up losing 90 games before all was said and done.

Perhaps the greatest symbol of that awful season was a home game against Cleveland on October 1, which drew a crowd of a little over 300:

From The Boston Globe, October 2, 1964, page 37

Both Stuart and Pesky wound up leaving the Red Sox after this disaster. Dick Stuart wound up with the Phillies in 1965 for his last full season. Pesky, meanwhile, had a five game stint as Red Sox manager in 1980, but otherwise didn’t manage at the Major League level ever again.