Former Phillie of the Day - Jeff Stone

As humble beginnings go, it's hard to top where Former Phillie of the Day Jeff Stone came from. He had 8 brothers and 6 sisters who grew up dirt poor in southwestern Missouri. He and his siblings often joined their parents picking cotton just to get by.

Stone was a gifted athlete and was a pitcher in high school whose fastball touched 90 mph. But scouts were more impressed with his foot speed. He was convinced to switch to the outfield and signed with the Phillies in August 1979.

His minor league numbers were astonishing. In his first year with the Central Oregon Phillies in the Northwest League, Stone stole 32 bases in 55 games while hitting .261. The next season Stone hit .277 and stole 123 bases for Spartanburg of the South Atlantic League. In 1982, he stole 94 bases and hit .297 for Peninsula of the Carolina League. With AA Reading of the Eastern League in 1983, Stone hit . 317, stole 90 bases, and scored 107 runs. His numbers were the stuff leadoff hitting legends were made of. He got called up to Philadelphia that September and was used primarily as a pinch-runner, where he stole 4 bases without getting caught, but was picked off once. In the last game of the 1983 season, Stone got a start in the outfield and went 2-for-3 with 2 triples and 3 RBIs.

Stone started the 1984 season with Portland of the Pacific Coast League, the Phillies top minor league team. In 82 games, he hit .307 and stole 33 bases, scoring 59 runs. The Phillies brought him to the majors in June and he went hitless in 4 at-bats in his June 19 debut. But he got hits in the next 11 straight games, raising his batting average to .463. In that 11-game stretch, he stole 5 bases, scored 11 runs, with 3 doubles, 3 triples, and 5 RBIs. A pulled groin muscle sent him to the disabled list for a month. 

Stone returned to the lineup in August, but was sent to the minors when the Phils acquired Al Oliver from the Giants. Stone came back to the majors in September and finished the season at .362 in 185 at-bats, with 27 runs and 27 stolen bases. But Stone's defense was shaky, at best. 

He was the starting left fielder for the 1985 season but didn't have the same success as the year before. He was hitting just .250 when he was sent back to the minors in mid-June. He got called up in late August and finished the year hitting .265, with 15 steals in 88 games. 

The Phillies had soured on Stone and acquired speedy outfielders Milt Thompson and Gary Redus before the 1986 season. He was back in the minors at the start of the season, but was back with the Phillies in mid-May. He hit .277 in 82 games with 19 steals and a career-best 6 home runs. It was back and forth between the minors and majors in 1987 and in 1988 he was traded to the Orioles. Both he and the Orioles got off to horrible starts. Stone had 1 hit in his first 32 at-bats and the Orioles lost their first 21 games of the season. 

His last big league appearance was in 1990 with the Red Sox and he was out of baseball in 1992. With Stone's humble upbringing, he couldn't help being naive. The Society for American Baseball Research likened his observations to Yogi Berra:

• In 1984, while dining with his Phillies teammates, Stone was asked if he wanted an order of shrimp cocktail. “No thanks,” he replied. “I don’t drink.”
• In Pittsburgh a year later Stone, at the time mired in a horrible slump, was having trouble sleeping at night. A teammate suggested that he try counting sheep, to which Stone replied, “They don’t have sheep in Pittsburgh.”
• Returning to the United States from Venezuela after a season of winter ball, Stone explained that he left his television behind “because it only had Spanish stations.”