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Ascend Books - Art Stewart , George Brett , Sam Mellinger

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173 pages

English

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The heart and soul of Kansas City's major league baseball franchise is a 5-foot-6 and impeccably dressed man you probably haven't heard of. You don't know the Royals history and successes until you know him. His name is Art Stewart and he hepled bring Bo Jackson to the Royals on a hunch. He once signed a player after sneaking into the home and listening in on a rival's offer. He has the kind of charm that's overmatched highway patrolmen. Art has paid two speeding tickets in his life , and guesses that baseball stories have gotten him out of a dozen more. Once, his rental car running on fumes in Florida's Aligator Alley, Art told a few baseball stories and a man siphoned gas for him. He fell in love with baseball when he snuck into his attic and found his late father's baseball gloves, and his seven decades on the wild ride of major league baseball make him a living, breathing, storytelling personification of America's pastime. Art was born on Babe Ruth's 32nd birthday, and has been indise baseball through Ted Williams' triple crown, Willie Mays' catch, Hank Aaron's home runs, George Brett's chase of .400, all the way through the high-definition instant-replay times of today. Art helped build the Yankees' dynasty of the 1950s and 1960s, before becoming an integral part of making the Kansas Dity Royals the most sucessful expansion frnachise in baseball history. His aggresive wasy are part of why baseball's owners voted overwhelmingly to institute a draft in 1963. Art signed one 20-gme winner sho shook the sport with an explosive book, and another 20-game winner who shook the sport by swapping wives with a teammate. From George Brett to Frank White, Bret Saberhagen to Bo Jackson, Carlos Beltran to Eric Hosmer, the Royals' history is Art's history. Art just tells it better than anyone else.

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Publié par	Ascend Books
Date de parution	01 juillet 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780991275625
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0550€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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“Art Stewart has done it all: Stadium clean-up kid, sandlot baseball manager, professional scout, Major League executive and hilarious storyteller. For example, one of Art’s tricks was to hide me from competing scouts by pitching me exclusively against the Joliet and Statesville, Illinois penitentiary teams. The next trick was to making it out of there. And eventually I made it to the Yankees. Thanks, Art.”
Jim Bouton, 20-game winner for the New York Yankees and best-selling author of Ball Four
“Eat a good meal and sit down for a while, because you’re going to hear a lot of great stories. He’s an encyclopedia of great stories and facts. His memory is incredible. He’s just a wonderful source of entertainment, stories, knowledge and information.”
Denny Matthews, Ford Frick Award winner from the Hall of Fame and voice of the Kansas City Royals from the team’s inception in 1969
“Art Stewart represents the greatest era in the baseball scouting profession. His expertise, experiences, and stories as a baseball man are to be cherished. He is simply loved and respected by all who know and work with him.”
Dayton Moore, general manager Kansas City Royals
“Art is a legend in baseball. He’s passionate about the game, and hasn’t lost that passion. He’s rare. You don’t see people involved in the game often with that length of service, and stay as involved as he does. He can talk baseball forever. He’s that rare individual who will never tire of it, and bring up great points and great discussions, from a historical or contemporary perspective.”
Dave Dombrowski, general manager of the 1997 World Champion Florida Marlins and Detroit Tigers GM since 2002
“Passion, loyalty, integrity, work ethic, competiveness, friendship. This would be the scouting report on Art Stewart. Having signed 70 major leaguers and traveling millions of miles evaluating thousands of players, whom is more qualified to tell the scouts’ story?”
Pat Gillick, Hall of Fame general manager for the Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners and Philadelphia Phillies
“Three of the most influential men who really put the Royals on the map are Ewing Kauffman, George Brett and Art Stewart. Art is like a doctor at the Mayo Clinic, at the top of his field, but also like your grandfather, someone you just want to sit with and listen to his stories. Henry Ford brought to life the automobile, and Art Stewart brought to life scouting. The proof of that is in his stories, his connections, his life.”
Mike Sweeney, five-time All-Star and 2007 winner of the Hutch Award
“Art is a pioneer. He believes what he sees, what those eyes tell him. He has a real gut feel for it, and a real passion for people. He’s just a tremendous, tremendous person and obviously a very talented baseball man. I’ve always had the utmost respect for him. He’s one of the originals.”
Jim Leyland, three-time MLB manager of the year and world champion with the 1997 Florida Marlins
“Art is among the greatest who’ve been part of our game. He has a wonderful smartness about who can play and how they should play. He learned so much from so many great experiences, and has a terrific personality so he’s always around people who want to share their knowledge and love for the game. And the thing that puts him over the top is longevity, because he’s accumulated all of this over decades and can pass it along in a book about our modern game.”
Tony LaRussa, Hall of Fame manager and three-time world champion with the Oakland A’s and St. Louis Cardinals
“Art Stewart is an icon in the scouting world. Art is the ultimate pro. His focus during games, complete concentration, and knowing when to approach coaches and players after the game is a model for scouts young and old. Times have changed around him, but Art excels under any circumstance. His book is educational and entertaining on all levels.”
Roland Hemond, three-time MLB Executive of the Year winner and the first person other than the namesake to win the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award
“Art was always there for me from day one when I signed with the Royals and he took me to Memphis to start my baseball career. I’ve never seen anyone who loved the game more. He gave his life to it. His wife, Donna, was like a second mother to me and I could always hear her voice even if there were 40,000 people in the stadium..”
Bo Jackson, Royals All-Star, NFL Pro Bowler, Heisman Trophy winner and ESPN Sports Science’s greatest athlete of all-time
“His passion and his fervor and love of baseball is so obvious. This is his life, his dedication. He brings an energy that is beyond measure. He is a goer, a digger, he gets information about where the players are and who they are. What stands out to me is his passion, energy, vigor and complete, total-body-experience dedication to baseball. His wife, too. You’d see Donna with her radar gun and stopwatch, they were a real baseball family. A baseball couple. And he still has the same passion today. For a guy to be working 60-some years with no diminished light in the eye or interest or reverence for the game, every breath he takes in and out is about finding players and keeping the pipeline filled.”
John Schuerholz, Atlanta Braves president and two-time World Champion general manager with the Braves and Kansas City Royals
“I first met him in 1970, because Mr. K wanted to know what kind of prospects he had in the Baseball Academy. When you go through the years, and you see the players he had contact with, the guys he found and signed, those players look at Art like a father figure after a while. He’s been in the game so long, and remembers everything about them. You don’t get that from a lot of people. That tells me he didn’t just sign guys. He took a personal interest in who they were.”
Frank White, nine-time Gold Glove winner and one of only three Kansas City Royals with their number retired
“I scouted against Art. We had the same area and he was one of the veteran scouts even back then that you’re competing against and you knew Art was always a threat. He was one of those guys, if you saw him at the park you knew it would be a battle to get that player. A guy scouting as long as he has, that’s almost unreal. He is a well-rounded, efficient scout who could close deals. And that’s the trick. If he was at the game you went to, you knew you had some issues. The Bo Jackson thing didn’t happen by chance, you know.”
Terry Ryan, two-time executive of the year and former general manager of the Minneosta Twins
“I’ve known Art since I was 16 years old. He’s been with the Royals almost since their first day, and his opinion has been important for the team, and the game of baseball. When I think about Art, I think of love and passion. The only thing he wants to do is make a difference in people’s lives, whether they’re baseball players or otherwise. He’s always making certain he can do the best he can to put a smile on your face.”
Ron Washington, winningest manager in Texas Rangers history and two-time American League champion

Copyright © 2014 by Art Stewart ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher.
All names, logos, and symbols that appear in this book are trademarks of their individual organizations and institutions and have been reproduced with permission. This notice is for the protection of trademark rights only, and in no way represents the approval or disapproval of the text of this book by those organizations or institutions.
Requests for permission should be addressed to: Ascend Books, LLC, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, 12710 Pflumm Road, Suite 200, Olathe, KS. 66062
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ISBN: print book 978-0-9912756-1-8 ISBN: e-book 978-0-9912756-2-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publications Data Available Upon Request Publisher: Bob Snodgrass Editor: Jim Bradford Publication Coordinator: Christine Drummond Sales and Marketing: Lenny Cohen and Dylan Tucker Dust Jacket and Book Design: Rob Peters
All photos courtesy of Art Stewart unless otherwise indicated.
Every reasonable attempt has been made to determine the ownership of copyright. Please notify the publisher of any erroneous credits or omissions, and corrections will be made to subsequent editions/future printings. The goal of Ascend Books is to publish quality works. With that goal in mind, we are proud to offer this book to our readers. Please note however, that the story, the experiences and the words are those of the authors alone. Printed in the United States of America
Table of Contents Dedication Foreword by George Brett Chapter 1 Donna Wakely and the two great loves of my life Chapter 2 Bo Jackson and the greatest scouting story of my life Chapter 3 The shortstop from El Segundo who changed the Royals forever Chapter 4 How trades happen Chapter 5 Bob Feller, straw hats and Peggy Move Up Chapter 6 Gun shots and bad cookies Chapter 7 The changing times Chapter 8 You drafted the player, but can you sign him? Chapter 9 How a phenom named Rick Reichardt changed the game Chapter 10 Mr. K Chapter 11 The greatest year in Royals history Chapter 12 Inside the draft room Chapter 13 Prisons and a wife-swapper: a scouting story Chapter 14 The greatest age in baseball’s greatest franchise Chapter 15 How the Royals Academy innovated scouting Chapter 16 Siphoning gas, breaking and entering, and how baseball has gotten me out of speeding tickets Chapter 17 So, you want to be a scout? Chapter 18 The owners and GMs Chapter 19 Rosemary Chapter 20 Seven decades aren’t enough Acknowledgements Author Bios
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Dedication
To Donna, my wife of 47 years, our daughter Dawn and grandsons David and Mark, and to major league scouts past and present.
Foreword by George Bret