Baltimore
Orioles’ pitcher Steve Stone was recipient
of Major League Baseball’s American League Cy Young
Award in 1980. That ‘career’ season he had
a 25-7 won-loss record and a run of 14 straight victories.
The Baltimore right-hander was the American League's 1980
All Star Game starting pitcher, and he retired all nine
batters he faced. The Sporting News named him
1980 "Pitcher of the Year".
Stone was drafted out of Kent State University by the San Francisco Giants
in the 4th round of the 1969 amateur draft. His KSU battery mate was future
New
York Yankee legend Thurman Munson. Stone made his Major League debut with the
Giants in April, 1971. A flame-throwing rookie with San Francisco, persistent
arm trouble turned him into a control pitcher as his career progressed.
In what began as a promising career, Stone was traded to the Chicago White
Sox following his first two big league seasons with the Giants. After a year
on Chicago’s
Southside the Sox traded him to the Chicago Cubs. Following three seasons with
the Northsiders, Stone became a free agent and returned to the White Sox for
another two years. In 1979, he signed a free agent deal with Baltimore, where
he finished his career.
Since 1935, only two American League pitchers have won more games than Stone
did in 1980. He registered a 107-93 won-loss record and 3.97 ERA during his
eleven injury-plagued Major League seasons. The 1980 Cy Young Award season
gave notice
that he had finally hit his stride as a big league hurler. But severe arm trouble
put him on the disabled list less than two months into the following year’s
schedule, and before the end of the 1981 season, his DL injury forced to retire.
In 1983, Stone was back with the Cubs, this time in the
TV broadcast booth, where he wrapped 24 on-air seasons
in 2004.
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