Catching a Major-League Career In Travel
Written by Michael Harris; Photos by Anthony Rao
Somewhere, somehow, a sign would always pop up in Bob Stinson’s life shortly before his next career move.
And in Bob Stinson’s career he moved quite a bit, going from Miami to Los Angeles to St. Louis to Houston to Montreal to Kansas City and ending in Seattle. In short, Bob Stinson travelled and moved quite a bit because of a Major League Baseball career spanning 11 years from 1969 to 1980.
Easily, Bob was labeled a “journeyman” catcher meaning he played for many teams without really securing a spot as a team’s No. 1 catcher – until he reached Seattle.
“I was in the wrong place at the right time,” he says.
But Bob, now a resident of The Villages, admits he “wouldn’t trade any of that in.”
Bob was a career .250 hitter in 1,905 plate appearances and his best year came in 1978 with the Seattle Mariners as he hit .269 with 11 homers and 55 runs batted in.
He was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of Miami-Dade Community College in 1966 and within three years he progressed to Triple A Spokane where his teammates included top stars like Steve Garvey, Bobby Valentine, Bill Buckner, Davey Lopes and Bill Russell.
He made his major league debut on September 23, 1969 and played in four games. He spent more time in the minors during the 1970 season before being called up again late in the major league season.
Sign of the Times
The first of his “signs” came before the end of the 1970 season.
Bob asked the clubhouse trainer for an order of long-sleeve baseball undershirts in the proper famed Dodger blue. But the order came in – wrong.
“It was Cardinals red,” Bob says. “I should have known then.”
A couple weeks later after the season ended, he was driving from Los Angeles to Miami with his wife when he noticed something white in between the glass and the dashboard of the car. It was annoying him, so he asked his wife to pull out the piece of paper. Turns out it was a Dodgers window decal.
“Three minutes later, I heard on the radio that Ted Sizemore and I were traded to St. Louis,” he says.
Going into Spring Training, Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst came up to Bob in practice.
“Scrap, come over here. I want to talk to you,” Bob says. “So he pulls me over to the side. He tells me ‘you’re the No. 1 catcher, until you play your way out of it.’ Then he said ‘have a good spring.’”
In the first Spring Training game, fate played another nasty trick on Bob. With New York Mets Tommie Agee at the plate and the great Bob Gibson on the mound, it happened what would ultimately lead to the next sign Bob was destined for another team.
“Gibson threw a slider on the outside corner and I reached out and Agee fouled it back and it hit my thumb and drove my thumb back. I reached and pulled it back out and taped it up. I went two more innings, went up to bat and singled, and drove in a run,” he says. “I guess it was about the fourth inning and someone said ‘you know Stins isn’t throwing the ball back to the pitcher too well.’ I was sitting at the end of the bench and heard it. So I wrapped my hand up in a towel. The doc comes down and says ‘let me see your hand.’
“It was broke. Red says I’ll be out six weeks, but to keep in shape.”
But by the time he came back, he had lost the No.1 catcher job to Ted Simmons. And following the 1971 season, he was dealt to the Houston Astros.
Bob figured he would be able to make the Astros roster coming out of Spring Training and he did. Or at least he thought he did. The start of the 1972 season was marred by a strike that lasted just 13 days.
With Houston, Bob played behind aging catcher Johnny Edwards.
“Johnny was 36 or 37 years old. His knees hurt so bad he could hardly run,” he says. “He was in the whirlpool every night.”
But then again, Bob’s thoughts about the Astros’ front office weren’t very high at the time.
“At the time I was traded from Houston, Houston management could put their brain in a bird and it would fly backwards. They made some bad trades,” he says.
Still, at the start of the 1973 season, Bob began camp in Cocoa Beach with the Astros when he ran into his old Double A manager and former Dodger great Duke Snider.
“Duke was talking to me and he just asks how my French was,” Bob says. “Didn’t think much of it, but a couple days later I get traded to Montreal.”
Another trade, another team. This time Bob played behind catcher John Boccabella – a career .219 hitter and during 1973 hit just .233. Bob was hitting .261.
“I think they just liked saying Boc-A-bella in Montreal,” he says.
Bob’s stay in Montreal lasted two years, but his second year he played behind a young … and future Hall of Fame catcher, Gary Carter.
Going into the 1975 Spring Training still with the Expos, Bob and his wife went to dinner at a restaurant owned by a friend in Daytona Beach.
“We get there and a band is setting up and they said they were going to play a little test song,” he says.
Turns out it was the Muddy Waters song “Going to Kansas City.” Moments later, during the local news, Bob found out he had been traded to the Kansas City Royals.
“I yelled ‘Great, I’m out of Montreal,’” he says.
Bob admits being in Kansas City may have been the best part of his career just for the fact the whole team was like a family. He split time as catcher with Buck Martinez and Fran Healy and hit .265 in 172 plate appearances.
“We were all close-knit on the team, except for Fran Healy and Harmon Killebrew,” he says. “We’d all go out together and we were all close. Healy was the snitch though. The whole team would be out and if he came around we’d leave, because he would tell (manager) Jack McKeon the next day.
“But here’s an example: When we would go on a road trip, the bullpen decided where we were going to go that night for dinner and they would call up the restaurants while the game was going on and make arrangements for all of us to sit together.”
He even said the players’ wives were all friends as well.
However after two years in Kansas City, he saw the writing on the wall again. Lou Gorman, who had been in the Royals’ front office and was instrumental in bringing Bob over from Montreal, took the general manager’s position with the expansion Seattle Mariners.
“I knew I wasn’t going to be protected and I knew I was going to Seattle,” he says.
“I Was an Everyday Catcher”
For the first time in his career, Bob was an everyday catcher with the Mariners and he spent four seasons with the club. In those four seasons, Bob hit .253 with 26 homers and 123 RBIs.
“I was hoping to have great years in Seattle so they would trade me. Every year I would come to camp and they would say there are five people they aren’t going to trade. Of course, I was one of them,” he laughs.
His career ended when manager Darryl Johnson was replaced in mid-1980 by Maury Wills, who proceeded to cut Bob. At age 34, Bob was unable to hook on with another team and retired.
For awhile Bob could be labeled a “journeyman” in the job sector after baseball before landing a position with Boeing in Seattle. He worked there for 15 years before retiring to The Villages.
Even that was a sign to move there as his son and daughter live not far away in the Ocala area.
8 Photos
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