ME, YOU AND STEW
CATCHING UP WITH CLUB ICON AND NATIVE SON DAVE STEWART, AS HE WAS NICE ENOUGH TO SWING BY FOR A CHAT WHILE WORKING WITH A’S PITCHERS THIS SPRING.
“A lot of times you come back to where you were raised, and you don’t necessarily play good. But to come home and win a championship, it’s a dream come true.”
As the walking epitome of the A’s slogan, Dave Stewart truly is “Rooted in Oakland.” With the team celebrating its 50th season in the East Bay, the native son was a perfect candidate to catch up with given his lifetime connection with the club. Stewart, who stopped by spring training for a week to work with A’s pitchers as a special instructor, agreed to sit and chat about topics such as playing Little League baseball with Rickey Henderson, his showdowns with Roger Clemens, the current state of baseball, memories of the late Bob Welch and why his foray as a general manager didn’t go so well.
QBeing an Oakland native, what did it mean to you to be able to play for the team you grew up watching?
AThat was a dream come true. I grew up blocks from the Oakland Coliseum. I had an opportunity to watch the A’s come here in 1968 when they were a very young up-and-coming team. Blue Moon (Odom), Vida (Blue), Reggie (Jackson), Dave Duncan. To have an opportunity to watch those guys and see the championships from 1972-74, and then to actually come here and play was amazing. A lot of times you come back to where you were raised, and you don’t necessarily play good. But to come home and win a championship, it’s a dream come true.
QWhat was it like to play alongside Rickey Henderson on the same Oakland Little League team?
AWe played against each other and with each other as kids. Those days were competitive. Rick has always been a great athlete in all sports. He was a good baseball athlete, great football athlete and a good basketball athlete. There’s not much different about Rickey today than when he was growing up. He’s always had a style, which I always called it the “Rickey Style.” He’s always had some type of flair. He’s always done things according to Rickey.
It was great growing up with Rickey, Lloyd Moseby, Gary Pettis — all those guys were great. Not to mention Al Woods, who’s also from the Bay Area, Cleo Smith, you’ve got Marvin Webb, Glenn Burke, there’s a bunch of guys that came out of the Bay Area that were all playing at the same time. Charlie Beamon ... all of us had an opportunity to touch the big leagues at some point.
QLooking at these current A’s, is there anyone you think would have been a good fit with your Oakland clubhouses of the 1980s?
AKendall Graveman would have been a good fit. I think he would have fit right in with Welchie (Bob Welch) and myself, Mike Moore, Curt Young, who was his pitching coach for a while. His work ethic is unmatched by anybody on this current team. He goes about his business and competes. He likes to take the ball. I think Kendall fits. And I like Chris Hatcher out of the bullpen. Take the ball and compete. He takes responsibility for anything that happens out there, and that’s how Dennis Eckersley was and Gene Nelson, Rick Honeycutt, that group of guys.
QThat era of A’s baseball you played in was so special. There was a magic about it. Given the way the game is played today, is something missing from today’s game that makes that vibe you guys had something difficult to replicate?
AThe workload is different, especially the pitching part of the game. Pitchers don’t do as much. They’re not required to do as much. The days of 14 or 15 complete games in a season are done. You make 36 or 37 starts, those days are done ... 250, 260, I think I had 270 to 280 innings pitched one year, you’ll never see that again. And I would almost dare anybody to win 20 (games) four years in a row. I would not have been able to accomplish that I had not been able to go out and throw innings.
QWhat was it about those matchups with Roger Clemens that seemed to bring out the best in you?
AI had a chip on my shoulder every start. I was the No. 1 starter, and there’s a responsibility that goes with that. Nobody ever told me that I was responsible, I took it upon myself to be responsible. I was in the best of condition and shape that I could possibly be. I made my starts every fourth or fifth day, whatever I was called to do, but more importantly, competed against the best. I gave us an opportunity and a chance to win, and I wore that with pride. I was prideful of my position. So with Roger, Jack Morris, Frank Viola, Ron Guidry — you can pick anybody in that period of time — with those guys, you could lose a game in the first inning. If you give up one run in the first, all those guys were capable of shutting you out. Roger was the guy that everybody looked at as being the best in that period of time. I’m not trying to take that from him, but I can tell you what, I put a few kinks in his armor. I wasn’t gonna let Roger beat me. That’s the way I looked at it.
QDo you have a favorite player to watch in MLB today?
AI enjoy watching Madison Bumgarner from the Giants. I enjoy watching King Felix (Hernandez) from Seattle. Those guys are old school. They could have played in any era of baseball. They take the ball and they wear it. It’s gonna be a tough day when they’re on the mound. When it comes to position players, you gotta love (Giancarlo) Stanton. You gotta love (Buster) Posey from the Giants. I enjoy watching (Anthony) Rizzo from the Cubs and (Jose) Altuve, who in my opinion, people say he’s one of the best “small” players in the game, but he plays big. He’s one of the best players in the game, I really love watching him play. How can you not like watching (Mike) Trout play. That guy represents every tool of the sport.
QYou’ve coached in baseball, you’ve been a general manager, been an agent. Were any one of those roles particularly harder than the others?
AI think they’re all tough in their own ways. Being a general manager in Arizona was probably the toughest role that I’ve had, and it was only tough because I had three bosses. If I only had one person that I needed to report to and talk to, I think the job would have been easier. But it’s really difficult to get something done when you have to run it past three people and you have to manage three personalities.
QBob Welch was a really good friend of yours. Is there a favorite story or memory that you have of him?
ABobby and I were together since 1978 back in the Dodger days. There are thousands of stories I can tell about Bobby Welch. We were at Municipal Field doing our spring training games, and we always did our long distance running out of the stadium. One time Bobby and I went for a run, and we had run for so long that I stopped and said, “Bobby, where are we?” He didn’t know where we were, and he said, “Man, let’s just keep running.” So we start running a little bit longer, and I decided that I’ve had enough. I had run so far that I had to get a cab back to Municipal Stadium. It was an $8 cab ride, which was a lot back in those days — that’s how far we had run. There’s just endless stories and endless memories. Bobby was one of my best friends.