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.
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