American baseball player, Sammy Stewart, Died at 63

  Sports

Samuel Lee Stewart was born on October 28, 1954, in Asheville, North Carolina and died on March 2, 2018.

He was an American professional baseball player.

He pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1978 to 1987.

He had the best-earned run average (ERA) in the American League (AL) in 1981 and he pitched in the postseason in 1979 and 1983.

In 1979, Stewart won the American League championship.

Then he won the World Series championship in 1983, both with the Baltimore Orioles.

He had major with drug addiction issues after he retired from baseball; his addiction reached its highest point from 2006 to 2013.

He found a new record for most consecutive strikeouts in an MLB debut with seven in the Orioles’ 9–3 victory over the Chicago White Sox in the second game of a twi-night doubleheader at Memorial Stadium on September 1, 1978.

Stewart’s performance surpassed the milestone established by Karl Spooner in 1954.

Several attempts at rehabilitation was not successful and Stewart slept under bridges in the Asheville area for a while. Allegedly Stewart said that the drug helped him not to feel the absence of baseball in his life.

He was arrested 26 times and spent several stints in prison, from 1989 to 2006.

Himself and his wife Peggy had a period of domestic disturbances with his wife, Stewart was charged with kidnapping in 1989 after Peggy said that he beat her and held her against her will overnight.

During 1994 they seperated.

In October 2006, Stewart was sentenced to 80 to 105 months in the Buncombe Correctional Center on drug possession charges after accepting a plea bargain as a habitual felon.

Stewart was released in January 2013.

He then moved to Hendersonville, North Carolina, to live with his girlfriend Cherie.

Stewart started teaching pitching lessons to local youth baseball players.

He had two children from his marriage with Peggy, which was both affected by cystic fibrosis.

Stewart son died in 1991, at 11, while his daughter received a double lung transplant, he also has two sons from another relationship.

Sammy Stewart died at 63 years old.