Bunky Stewart

Bunky Stewart pitched for the Washington Senators from 1952 to 1956.

Veston Goff Stewart Jr. was born January 7, 1931, in Jasper, North Carolina, the third of three children of farmer Veston Goff Stewart, usually known as Goff, and Bessie Bratcher Stewart. In the 1940 census the family is living on a farm in Craven County. Goff, who finished one year of high school, is 40; Bessie, who finished seventh grade, is 36; Evelyn is 16, Catherine is 13, and Veston is nine; plus there’s boarder/farmhand Charlie Newall, 25.

In the 1950 census the Stewarts are living at 1707 Fayetteville Street in New Bern, southeast of Jasper, near the coast. Goff is a carpenter; Veston, still in school, has no occupation listed but has the “occupation category” of “other;” sister Catherine is a bookkeeper for a sewing machine company, and her husband Oarie Adams is a collector for a clothing store. Also living in the house is Goff and Bessie’s four-year-old grandson Kenneth Courtney—Evelyn’s son, but I don’t know where she was.

Veston missed a lot of class time due to serious asthma, and was 20 years old when he graduated from New Bern High School in 1951, by which time he was known as “Bunky.” He then signed with the New Bern Bears of the Class D Coastal Plain League, where he had a great season, going 15-2 with a 1.16 ERA and allowing just 95 hits in 171 innings in 24 games. The following winter he was purchased by the Washington Senators, as described by Shirley Povich in the February 13, 1952, issue of the Sporting News:

Kid Stewart Eyed as Nats’ ‘2^nd Hudson’

Young Lefty to Get Chance to Jump From Class D to Big Time, as Sid Did

By Shirley Povich

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Bosses of the Washington Senators are intrigued with the hope they may have a “second Sid Hudson” in the person of a kid pitcher named Veston (Bunky) Stewart who, like Hudson, is trying to make the jump all the way from a Class D league to the majors in a single season without other experience.

Hudson did it, you know, back in 1940, moving smartly into big league company direct from the Florida State League and winning 17 games as a major league freshman. If young Stewart is a lefthanded version of Hudson, the Senators will be richly repaid for the $12,000 investment in the young man.

Stewart isn’t even on the Washington roster yet, but an indication of the Senators’ esteem for him is the fact he is getting a special invitation to train with the Senators rather than with the Charlotte farm club to which he was assigned after being purchased from New Bern in the Coastal Plain League.

The fact that the Senators paid $12,000 for a D leaguer is another parity. Years ago when they bought Hudson, it was considered quite a plunge at $5,000 to be risking on a graduate of the D circuits, but it was with alacrity that Clark Griffith went more than twice as high for Stewart.

The Senators scouted Veston well, and were undismayed by the fact that despite his six feet, two inches, he is a mere 160-pounder. They were especially intrigued with his record in the Coastal Plain League which showed 15 victories and only two defeats, one of his wins being a 1 to 0 no-hitter. Even more sensational, though, was his amazing 1.16 earned run average.

They outbid the Detroit Tigers, among other clubs. The Tigers shied off when it was reported that Stewart was afflicted by an asthmatic condition, but it has served to make him 4-F in the draft, which is no inconsiderable asset for a 21-year-old with baseball ambitions.

There will be only four other left handed pitchers in the Washington camp, and none qualifies as a starting pitcher. Manager Bucky Harris is dismayed by his lack of lefthanded pitching and will give Stewart a long look, he says. “If he can pitch a little bit, he could help us,” says Harris. “And there’s no rule against lifting him off the Charlotte club.”

Another TSN article two weeks later, by Bob Brooks, filled in some details:

…Griffith dispatched to New Bern his ace bird dog, Ossie Bluege, director of the Washington farm clubs.

Bluege was “sold” on the talents of the skinny southpaw. He hustled Bunky off to Washington, between his pitching assignments with the Bears, for a command performance before the Old Fox, himself.

Stewart went through a 20-minute workout in Griffith Stadium while the Washington press watched. He showed ‘em a sweeping curve, a fast ball with a hop on it, and the kind of control which held his walks to only 77 batters in an entire season in the Coastal Plain loop [77 walks in 171 innings isn’t impressive].

Griffith was sold, and so was Bunky, for 1952 delivery…

Until his senior year, Bunky’s career as a pitcher at New Bern High School was undistinguished. Asthmatic attacks hampered him in the classroom and on the athletic field.

The asthma, which is still with him and has resulted in a 4-F draft classification, eased up during his last year in high school and Bunky started to blossom. In a game against Greenville High, he struck out 23 batters.

After graduation last year, Stewart gave some thought to going to college. Wake Forest was his preference. But he signed with New Bern, instead.

His first four appearances as a pro were so-so. Runners stole third base twice off the uncertain rookie in one of those early games with New Bern.

But Bunky quickly got wise to the pros. Nobody else stole third on him. What’s more, he hasn’t lost a game since his record stood at 2-2 back in the early days of last season.

After winning 15 straight [13] in regular season play, he added two more as New Bern won the Coastal Plain League playoffs.

Modest but quietly confident, Stewart isn’t frightened by the prospect of pitching against big leaguers. “You never know what you can do until you’ve tried,” he said. “I figure I’m lucky to get the chance to make such a big jump. I just hope I can stick.”

In the March 12 TSN Shirley Povich added another piece to the narrative:

Nat Rookie Stewart Was Scouted by Congressman

ORLANDO, Fla.—Veston Stewart is a member of the Nats’ squad here by act of Congress, it’s almost permissible to say. At any rate, he’s probably the only ball player in history scouted by a member of Congress.

In this case, the bird dog, as the baseball scout is known to the trade, was Graham Barden, of the United States House of Representatives, who used to coach baseball at New Bern (N.C.) High School, and pretends to know a ball player when he sees one.

Congressman Barden, who knocks off at Capitol Hill sometimes to watch the Nats at Griffith Stadium, set about to acquire a local rooting interest for himself by shepherding home town boy Stewart to Washington for a tryout with the Nats last September.

The Congressman apparently latched himself on to a pretty fair country pitcher because Clark Griffith and Farm Manager Ossie Bluege and Bucky Harris were quickly smitten with the lefthanded stuff of young Stewart. By nightfall Griffith had shelled out $12,000 to New Bern (Coastal Plain) for the kid, a new high for a purchase from a D league.

Bunky made the team, but didn’t make a regular season appearance until the Senators’ 15^th game of the year, the second game of a home doubleheader against the Browns on May 4. Washington starter Sandy Consuegra gave up two runs in the first, and after he allowed singles to the first two batters of the second Bunky was brought in to relieve. He walked Jim Delsing to load the bases, got a force out at home, and allowed a bases-clearing double to Jim Dyck. Bob Nieman hit an infield single that moved Dyck to third, and then Bunky picked off Nieman but Dyck scored before the tag. This made the score 6-0, but Bunky was pinch-hit for in the bottom of the inning and then the Senators came back to win 15-7.

That was Bunky’s only major league appearance of the season; on May 7 he was sent down to the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Class AA Southern Association. On September 17 he was recalled by the Senators, but didn’t get into any more games. For Chattanooga he pitched 110 innings in 26 games, 16 of them starts, and had 76 strikeouts, 65 walks, and a 4.58 ERA.

Bunky went to spring training with the Senators in 1953. From the March 1 Washington Evening Star:

A former Chattanooga player says Sonny Dixon, who won 19 games with the Lookouts last season, is a better pitcher than Al Sima, who won 24…And that Bunky Stewart, who won only six games for the same club, is better than either…”Bunky just didn’t get enough work,” the player explained, “and it’s a crime because he has great stuff.” [all ellipses part of original]

Same newspaper, March 7:

Careers Ride on Pitches

Stewart and Johnson Getting Big Tests as Nats Play A’s

By Burton Hawkins

Star Staff Correspondent

…Stewart has enormous possibilities. He may be the most promising prospect in the Nats’ farm system since Early Wynn. But whether he comes along this year or a year or two hence will depend on his pitching in exhibition games.

Bunky has been a favorite of Bucky Harris, Nats’ manager, since he first saw Stewart throw. Bunky lost no stature last year when, after a long wait, Harris told him he’d start a game in North Carolina 10 days later. Stewart, inactive to that point, sarcastically replied, “Gee, I guess I’d better go to bed right away.”

Bucky likes Stewart’s style, his fast ball, curve and poise, but Stewart must prove himself. He impressed Harris enough last season to survive the trip north, but lasted only one major league inning before Harris decided Bunky would benefit by more seasoning.

Same paper, two days later:

In the split with the A’s, Harris particularly was pleased by the pitching of young Bunky Stewart. The slim left-hander was the only one of six Washington pitchers to hold Philadelphia scoreless in his 3-inning test.

“He’s the most promising young fellow I’ve seen come along in the long, long time,” Harris enthused. “There’s all the difference in the world in the way he looks now and the way he looked this time last spring. He has acquired more poise. I like his ice-water attitude.”

Bunky won only six games and lost nine with Chattanooga last season, but Harris disregards the record book when examining rookies. He’s sold on Stewart.

“Maybe he hasn’t had enough experience to stick this season,” Bucky said, “but I’ll overlook that lack of experience if he keeps pitching the way he did the other day.”

Same paper, next day:

Eddie Robinson, Athletics’ first baseman who didn’t play against the Nats Saturday when Rookie Bunky Stewart pitched, was asked if there was any comment about Washington’s left-hander on the bench…”Sure,” Eddie said. “I told myself, ‘Gee, I’m glad I don’t have to hit against that kid.’”

From Red Smith’s column, appearing in various newspapers March 19 and shortly thereafter:

“I think Bucky is kind of high on little Bunky Stewart,” Jimmy Johnson said. “He’s a left-handed pitcher, six feet tall and weighs 158. He was down here last year and he was this big around.” Jimmy held up his little finger. “This year he’s this big.” Jimmy held up a thumb. “They have to take a size 6 3/8 cap and cut it down to fit him.”

This was the first of a number of mentions of the size of Bunky’s head over the years; usually he would be credited with the smallest cap size in the major leagues or the smallest cap size that the company had ever made.

Bunky started the season with the Senators but was sent back to Chattanooga on April 23, a week into the season, without having made an appearance. From Burton Hawkins’ “Baseball Beat” in the April 26 Evening Star:

Pitcher Bunky Stewart was near tears the other day when informed Griffith was sending him back to Chattanooga…The young left-hander twice has made the trip North with the Nats, but pitched only one inning last spring and none this year…”Back I go to the Rinky-Dinks,” Stewart said, sadly…But over in a corner of the clubhouse [pitcher Spec] Shea was saying, “All that kid needs is a lot of work. He’s going to be a terrific pitcher.” [all ellipses part of original]

Bunky had a much better year with Chattanooga this time. He had a 14-10 record and 3.29 ERA in 194 innings in 34 games, 27 of those starts, with 118 strikeouts and 98 walks, plus a league-leading 14 hit batters. After the Southern Association season ended he was called back up to Washington.

Bunky got his first major league start on September 20 in Philadelphia. He and the Athletics’ Marion Fricano were tied 3-3 through ten innings, but Joe DeMaestri singled in Tommy Giordano with one out in the bottom of the eleventh. In his 10 1/3 inning complete game Bunky allowed ten hits, seven walks (four of them intentional), a hit batter and a home run, and also singled and scored a run. In his second start, also against the Athletics, at home on September 27, he was pinch-hit for in the bottom of the fifth, down 5-1, in a game the Senators lost 9-2.

Bunky again went to spring training with the Senators in 1954. From the February 23 Evening Star:

Always Expects the Worst

Stewart, No Worrier, Hopes For Early Verdict by Senators

By a Staff Correspondent of The Star

ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 23.—“I ain’t kidding myself and I ain’t kidding anybody else,” said Bunky Stewart, 23-year-old left-hander who is one of the Senators’ more refreshing characters. “I ain’t no Bob Porterfield out there pitching, but I don’t see no use worrying about it.

“I always expect the worst,” continued Bunky, a 14-game winner with a poor Chattanooga club last season. “If anything good happens, then it feels twice as good. I don’t know if I can stick with this club or not, but I hope they make up their mind about it before we go North. I’d hate to start the season with Washington, then be sent down to Chattanooga like I was last year.”

Bunky put in two bench-warming weeks with the Senators last April before being sent down. “They sent me to Chattanooga April 24 and when I got there they said I wasn’t in shape. I didn’t start a game until late May. I could have won 20 if I had been there all season.

“Shucks, I lost my first three starts by one run—2-1, 3-2 and 3-2. I ain’t a good loser. I get furious. Altogether I lost five games by one run. I figure I should have won about 18 games even with the late start I got.”

Bunky, a 6-footer, broke into organized baseball in 1951 with a 15-2 record in his home town, New Bern, N.C. His 1.16 earned-run average may have been the best in baseball. His fancy record got him a trial with the Senators in 1952 and Bunky would rather forget it.

“Man, I couldn’t eat, worrying about it.” Said Bunky, who since has adopted a more relaxed attitude. “When I was pitching batting practice down here I was just as likely to throw the danged ball over the grandstand as over the plate. I never been so worked up in my life. I was lucky I didn’t smack some batter in the head.

“They sent me to Chattanooga that year. I had pretty good control. Everything I threw was right across the plate—and everything I threw was hit, real hard. I wound up 6 and 9, all because I was worrying about it too much.”

Bunky is up against it, attempting to win one of the four relief berths open on the club. He normally weighs 158 pounds, extremely light for a 6-footer, but he reported at 145 pounds after rough attacks of asthma this winter.

“I was in the show one night with my girl when that asthma hit me,” Stewart said. “We left and I drove home as fast as I could. My uncle got me to the hospital right away and they dug a couple of needles into me. In seven minutes I was breathing all right again.

“Damp weather or a change of weather will bring it on,” Bunky continued. “I’ve gone three hours of sleep a day by sitting up in a chair. I guarantee if I get one of those attacks down here, ain’t nobody gonna sleep in the hotel. I really wheeze.

“When I was in grammar school I bet I missed 100 days a year because of asthma. The doctor wanted me to drop out of school, but my folks didn’t want that and neither did I. Didn’t think I’d ever get through high school, but I finally made it.”

Bunky is rooming with Lyle Luttrell, rookie shortstop. “What a build,” exclaimed Bunky, “and what a religious fellow. Preachers and people like that are always calling him up and having him to dinner. He sure must have been popular when he played here. He don’t like to hear no cussing, so I don’t swear none around him.”…

“It’s remarkable he can pitch as effectively as he does,” Bucky Harris said. “He looks as if a stiff breeze would blow him over. The poor kid just can’t put on any weight.”

If he gets relief from asthma, Stewart could wind up giving the Senators relief. There’s no chance of him getting a swelled head about it if he does a good job. He wears the smallest cap in the majors, size 6 ¼.

This time Bunky spent the whole season with the Senators. He only made one appearance in April and two in September, but in between he got fairly regular work from the bullpen and made two starts, in neither of which he got through the third inning. He had an 0-2 record and a 7.64 ERA in 50 2/3 innings in 29 games. The 1954 New Bern city directory showed him as a baseball player, living with his parents on Fayetteville Street.

Chuck Dressen replaced Bucky Harris as the Senators’ manager for the 1955 season. From Burton Hawkins’ column in the February 20 Evening Star:

Bunky Stewart, who failed to win a game last season, will be pleased to learn Dressen has glowing reports on him…”People outside the Washington organization have told me Stewart potentially is a better pitcher than Dean Stone,” Dressen said. “I’m anxious to get a look at him. A tip or two might make a winner of him.”

Also Burton Hawkins, from April 5:

When Spec Shea spied Bunky Stewart’s abbreviated haircut yesterday he advised, “If you had a good lawyer you could clean up.”

Burton’s column of April 10 included pithy little summations of the Senator players, including this one of Bunky: “Plumber’s helper, with no ambition to be a plumber.”

Bunky made the team again, and he made his first appearance on April 23 in Baltimore, pitching to two batters (a single and an intentional walk) in a 3-0 loss. The April 27 Sporting News mentioned that he was rooming with Dean Stone, same as last year. On May 15 Burton Hawkins wrote: “Over the last two seasons Bunky Stewart has appeared in 29 games with the Senators, who have won one with Bunky on the premises, but Dean Stone received credit for that.” I don’t know whether by “last two seasons” he meant 1953 and 1954 or 1954 plus the one game thus far in 1955, but either way it is true that the Senators had only won one game that Bunky pitched in, a 12-6 game against the Athletics in 1954 in which Dean Stone got the win and Bunky the save.

Bunky got into three games in late May, all losses to the Yankees. On June 6 he was once again sent to Chattanooga, where he had a 4-7 record and 3.94 ERA in 89 innings in 17 games, 14 of them starts, and walked 54 batters. Then he was recalled to Washington, where he pitched three times in the last week of the season, all in losses, including a start in the final game in which he got no decision. He had a 4.11 ERA in 15 1/3 innings in his seven major league games of 1955. An article by Shirley Povich in the November 30 Sporting News on the off-season jobs of the Senators said that “Pitcher Bunky Stewart is a civilian employee at the Cherry Point (N.C.) Marine base.”

From the March 2, 1956, Evening Star:

Injury Sidelines Bunky Stewart

ORLANDO, Fla., Mar. 2.—Slim Bunky Stewart, trying fruitlessly since 1952 to notch his first major league victory with the Senators, apparently will be handicapped again this season.

Bunky suffered what Trainer George Lentz called “a nasty break” of his right little toe yesterday while in the sliding pit. His foot will be in a cast for three weeks and it’s doubtful if the 25-year-old lefthander will be able to throw competitively before the club breaks camp.

Bothered by bursitis and asthma in other seasons with the Senators, Stewart had his tonsils removed this winter in an attempt to gain weight and make a more determined bid to win a job.

Stewart, frequently shuttled between Washington and Chattanooga, snorted. “Sliding! The only use I’ve had for it the last four years was sliding up and down the bench.”

From Burton Hawkins’ “Baseball Beat,” March 13:

Pitcher Bunky Stewart, recovering from a broken toe, is walking around in tennis shoes, but Dressen won’t permit him to throw for fear the slender left-hander will favor his toe, put undue strain on his arm by throwing unnaturally, and come up lame.

On April 4 Bunky finally got into an exhibition game, giving up all five runs in a 5-0 loss to the Reds, allowing four hits and walking nine in three innings. On April 18, the second game of the season, he made his regular season debut, pitching a scoreless 5^th, 6^th and 7^th in a 9-5 home loss to the Yankees. On May 12, his fourth appearance of the season and the 43^rd of his major league career, he got his first win, pitching 3 2/3 innings of relief in a 12-9 home victory over the Red Sox. From Burton Hawkins’ column of May 15:

Bunky Stewart has received no Hollywood offers following his Sunday night appearance on Bob Wolff’s television show…Trying to get a word out of Bunky was the equivalent of attempting to pry open a safe with a toothpick…The lefthander has a sense of humor, but it wasn’t showing. [all ellipses part of original]

On May 18 Bunky got another relief win; on May 22 the following appeared in the Evening Star under “Marriage License Applications:”

Veston Stewart, 25, Woodner Hotel, and Jean Wright, 20, Marjorie Webster Junior College.

Also on the 22^nd Bunky got his first start of the season, getting removed with no out in the second after the first four batters reached base, and losing 6-1 in Kansas City. The June 13 Sporting News contained this item:

Bunky Stewart, Washington pitcher, took the matrimonial plunge on June 3 when he married Miss Jean Wright from his hometown of New Bern, N.C…The young couple didn’t have any honeymoon because Bunky was in the bull pen for the night game with Cleveland…

From June 12 through July 1 Bunky was in the starting rotation, getting one win, one loss, and three no-decisions, including a game in which he faced just five batters and didn’t get an out. He walked 23 batters in 24 2/3 innings and was sent back to the bullpen. On July 2 he made his only major league pinch-running appearance; pinch-hitter Lou Berberet walked leading off the bottom of the ninth with the Senators down 3-2 to the Red Sox. Bunky went in to run but didn’t get as far as second as the next three batters went out.

On July 4 Bunky got a save; on the 19^th he got the win while going 7 1/3 innings in relief against the Indians. This gave him a 4-2 record, and the Evening Star mentioned that he was the team’s only pitcher with a winning record. At this point he had a 3.74 ERA despite continued wildness. He got three more starts between July 24 and August 9 and lost all three, then finished the season in the bullpen as his season ERA climbed to 5.57. He had a 5-7 record with two saves, appearing in 33 games, nine of them starts, and had 36 strikeouts and 82 walks in 105 innings.

Bunky signed a new contract with the Senators in January 1957, but before the end of spring training he was optioned to Chattanooga, where he spent the entire season. The Atlanta Journal reported on June 2 that “Veston (Bunky) Stewart is making quite a comeback (4-3) after getting no one out but himself in the early games.” An AP story of August 23 said that:

Bunky Stewart, a frail left hander who gives the impression that the next pitch will be his last, has suddenly become a mound giant who may hurl the Chattanooga Lookouts to the Southern Assn. pennant.

The 6-foot, 160-pound southpaw, shrugging off the pressure of the league’s hottest stretch drive in modern times, has won his last four starts, three by shutouts…

The Lookouts wound up in fourth place and lost to first-place Atlanta in the playoff semi-finals. Bunky went 14-13 with a 3.79 ERA in 216 innings in 39 games, 29 of them starts, and got his strikeouts back ahead of his walks, 107 to 104. After the season he was sold to the Miami Marlins, a Phillies affiliate, of the Class AAA International League, one step up from Chattanooga.

In 1958 Bunky had a 5.21 ERA in 16 games, mostly in relief, for Miami, before being optioned back to Chattanooga on June 23. This time with the Lookouts he went 11-4 with a 2.73 ERA in 112 innings in 22 games, 14 of them starts.

In 1959 Bunky ended up with Miami again, now an Orioles affiliate. He went 6-11 with a 2.91 ERA in 127 innings in 31 games, 18 starts. He returned to the Marlins in 1960; his ERA went up to 3.98, but his W-L improved slightly to 7-10, pitching 113 innings.

In 1961 the Marlins moved to San Juan. Bunky was on their roster in early April, but somehow wound up with the Tidewater Tides, a Kansas City Athletics affiliate in the Class A South Atlantic (Sally) League. He made 12 starts for them, and had a 4-5 record and 3.66 ERA; he had much better control than he usually did, walking just 15 in 71 1/3 innings. By early August he had made his way to the independent Macon Peaches of the Class AA Southern Association, where he had a 3-2 record and 2.90 ERA in ten games and continued to have good control, walking ten in 40 1/3 innings.

In 1962 Bunky caught on with the Wilson Tobs of the Class B Carolina League, a Twins affiliate; after making five relief appearances he was removed from the active list and made a coach.

I found very little information about Bunky after this. I don’t know what happened to his marriage to Jean, or if they had any children, but in 1969 he got married again, in Brevard County, Florida, spouse unknown. In November 1978, also in Brevard County, his parents got divorced, and in July 1979 Goff remarried, still in Brevard County. Bessie died in March 1980 back in New Bern, and Goff died in May 1981 in Melbourne, Florida. Bunky passed away at age 76 in Wilmington, North Carolina; his residence was given as Carolina Beach.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/S/Pstewb103.htm

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/stewabu02.shtml