Player #151: Walter C. "Lefty" Stewart. Pitcher with the Washington Senators in 1933-1935. 101 wins and 8 saves in 10 MLB seasons. He debuted with the Detroit Tigers in 1921. His best season was 1930 with the St. Louis Browns as he posted a 20-12 record with a 3.45 ERA in 271 innings pitched. He ended his career with the Cleveland Indians in 1935.
Deveaux gives us the trade that brought Stewart (among others) to Washington: The trade for Whitehill (which sent Firpo Marberry to the Tigers) appeared relatively insignificant, however, compared to the other deal swung by the Senators on the same day, December 14, 1932. Since the firing of Walter Johnson, Goose Goslin, who didn't get along with Johnson, had put the word out to Clark Griffith that he would love to come back to the capital. As Griffith negotiated with the Browns for Walter "Lefty" Stewart in exchange for Sammy West, he kept Goslin's plea in mind. He offered Carl Reynolds if the Browns would include Goose, who'd hit .299 with 17 homers and 104 ribbies in the last campaign. The Browns didn't think that was quite equitable, and asked Griffith about Lloyd Brown, the lefty who'd won 15 in '32. (Brown would never again win more than nine games in a season and would be gone from St. Louis after just eight games at the start of the '33 campaign.)
Deveaux goes on about Lefty: Stewart born in 1900 in central Tennessee, nearly died in 1927 when his appendix burst while he was out hunting. Told he'd never play baseball again, lefty persisted and eventually proved the experts wrong. Nevertheless, he was only 24-26 over three years with the Browns, who had been enjoying relatively good years over that same period. Then, in 1930, Stewart came into his own, sounding the death knell for the Washington Senators in the process. Lefty beat the second-place Nats five times that year on his way to a breakthrough 20-12 season during which the Browns made a swift return to mediocrity. While he remained the Brownie's ace in '31 and '32, he recorded a composite 28-36 over those two seasons. (The Washington Senators by Tom Deveaux.)
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