Kevin Stuart, Millennium Hall of Fame

If anyone could take pride in a baseball tournament, it was Corona

del Mar High’s Kevin Stuart, a 6-foot-6 pitcher/infielder who dominated

in the springtime.

Dizzy Dean was the Pride of St. Louis and Lou Gehrig the Pride of the

Yankees, but Kevin Stuart was the Pride of the Coast.

In Stuart’s four years, CdM compiled a 15-1 record in the annual

tournament played during Spring Break. Stuart pitched shutouts and hit

game-winning home runs in a sometimes awesome display of individual

power.

Twice selected in baseball’s major league free-agent draft, once out

of high school as an infielder and again out of community college as a

pitcher, Stuart was a two-sport standout for the Sea Kings (football and

baseball) who ended his athletic career in 1996 as the Newport-Mesa

District’s all-time leader in home runs with 19. (Newport Harbor’s Joe

Urban broke the record in 1997 with 20.)

In Stuart’s senior year, he clouted four home runs in four Pride of

the Coast games, batting .500 in the tournament (7 for 14) with seven

RBIs and seven runs scored, meriting Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week

honors. Stuart hit two home runs against Chaminade, then hit two more in

a game against Bishop Montgomery as the Sea Kings captured another Pride

of the Coast title.

“I think every time the Pride of the Coast came around, for some

reason I showed up to play,” said Stuart, who is now out of the game.

As a junior in the 1995 Pride of the Coast, Stuart ripped a

game-winning, three-run home run against Santa Margarita in the

championship game. In three years, Stuart had 19 RBIs in a dozen

tournament games.

Even more, he pitched a two-hit shutout against Rancho Alamitos in the

tournament in his varsity debut as a freshman in 1993.

Stuart, who batted .386 with a district-high nine home runs and 27

RBIs his senior year under CdM Coach Joe Koh, tied the single-season

school record for homers. Dave Angeloni hit nine bombs in 1993.

An all-district performer, Stuart became the first CdM player in 15

years to get drafted out of high school when the Seattle Mariners picked

him 32nd in the June 1996 draft. But Stuart, selected on the

recommendation of Seattle scout Craig Weissman, was advised to continue

his development at the community college level.

“I wasn’t ready to sign (a professional baseball contract), anyway,”

said Stuart, who went on to Golden West College, where he earned a spot

in the pitching rotation, while also playing first base and designated

hitter.

Following Stuart’s freshman year, he was picked in the 19th round by

the Minnesota Twins as a pitcher in the June 1997 draft. “Then the

(Twins’) regional cross checker came one day and I choked,” Stuart said.

“Golden West had a summer league and I got lit up, and that was all she

wrote.

“I went and played another year (in 1998), but I had (an

unsatisfactory) year and I really wasn’t enjoying baseball that much.

It’s hard when you’re playing for a losing team. That’s not an excuse,

but (losing) wasn’t helping, and after awhile I really wasn’t into it. I

didn’t have the drive to keep working, to do the things to make it to the

next level. So I just stopped playing.”

Stuart, who turns 22 on Sunday, put the long ball on another level in

1996, two years before Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa rejuvenated the game’s

sexiest stat around the world.

In football, Stuart played left tackle on Corona del Mar’s vaunted

offensive line (dubbed the Five Crowns). Stuart and right tackle Nick

Schaumburg (Colorado State), guards Tim Goode and Jeff Bogdan, and center

Richy Nichols, formed an offensive line that guided the Sea Kings to the

CIF Southern Section Division VI semifinals.

“High school football in general was a great experience, and that’s

probably what I miss most out of high school,” said Stuart, whose team,

led by quarterback Josh Walz, went 5-2 down the stretch and finished in

second place in the Sea View League, before beating Brea Olinda in the

first round of the playoffs, 49-28, and Kennedy in the quarterfinals,

28-0.

Marred by a controversy involving former CdM head football coach Mark

Schuster, the program moved forward under Dick Freeman, going 9-4

overall, while losing to Servite in the semifinals at Cal State

Fullerton.

A longtime Newport Beach resident, Stuart works for an investment

firm, San Clemente Securities, and is planning to relocate to Beverly

Hills, where another branch of his business is opening. “I’m totally

excited,” Stuart said.

Stuart, the Class of ’96 from CdM, today enters the Daily Pilot Sports

Hall of Fame, celebrating the millennium.