Posted By:
Dan BrettaClint, I hope to write a book someday.
Max, Stuart was just as bad in the outfield as he was at first....his manager in Lincoln was Larry Shepherd (who later went on to coach for the Big Red Machine in the 1970s) whom Stuart had a tumultuous relationship with...Stuart played in right field and incensed Shepherd on more than one occasion because he wouldn't put his glove on...he also took a bag of peanuts out into the outfield with him once. He was bad on the basepaths as well, once he was at third and looked over at Shepherd who was coaching third and asked if the squeeze was on...Shepherd said "no"....on the next pitch he asked again and Shepherd said "no" again...then on the third pitch Stuart took off for home and was easily tagged out by the catcher...Shepherd asked him what the hell he was doing, there was no squeeze on....Stuart replied "I thought maybe you might have changed your mind".
In 1957 Life Magazine did a feature story on Stuart titled "The Man Who Hit Too Many Home Runs". Basically the story details the fact that Stuart was obsessed with hitting homers and didn't even try to play defense, and that was keeping him in the minor leagues.
Stuart was an egomaniac, but I've never really read or heard anything bad about him outside of the game. I think he may have been estranged from some in his family or he just wasn't close to them. His brother only saw him play one game (I think it was a minor league game) and he never met Stuart's two sons. Stuart was quite the character.