Stone, Steven Michael
STONE, STEVEN MICHAEL
STONE, STEVEN MICHAEL (Steve ; 1947– ), U.S. baseball player and sportscaster, 1980 Cy Young Award winner. Born in Euclid, Ohio, Stone was an all-around athlete as a child, shooting a hole in one at golf at age 11 and winning the Cleveland junior tennis title at age 13. In 1965, Stone graduated Bush High School in Cleveland, where he won All-State honors in baseball as a junior and captained the team as a senior, and was the winning pitcher in a state high school All-Star game. Stone attended Kent State University, and signed with the San Francisco Giants on February 15, 1969, before graduating. After three years in the minor leagues, Stone made his Major League debut on April 8, 1971. He played for the San Francisco Giants (1971–72), Chicago White Sox (1973), Chicago Cubs (1974–76), Chicago White Sox (1977–78), and Baltimore Orioles (1979–81). Stone had never won more than 15 games until he dazzled the baseball world in 1980 with a 25–7, 3.23 era season to win the Cy Young Award, and was named American League Pitcher of the Year by The Sporting News. He also started and pitched three perfect innings in the All-Star game, and in one stretch won 14 games in a row, two shy of the al record. Tendonitis curtailed his season in 1981, and in June 1982 Stone announced that he was retiring from baseball. Stone finished with a 107–93 record, and an era of 3.96 in 1,789 innings, and 1,065 strikeouts. He is 3rd on the all-time list of wins and strikeouts by a Jewish pitcher, behind Ken *Holtzman and Sandy *Koufax, and fourth in games. Stone was the rare pitcher who called his own pitches from the mound, giving signs to the catcher on what he would throw. After retiring, Stone worked for the Cubs as a broadcaster from 1983 to 2000 and in 2003–4, when he left amid a controversy involving Cubs players who felt he was being overly critical of their performance. Stone was hired the next year by Chicago radio station wscr to host a weekly talk show, and by espn to work some of the network's baseball telecasts.
[Elli Wohlgelernter (2nd ed.)]