Louis Roberts Stephen Jr. was born in Porterville, California on July 13, 1944 and recently passed away in the city in which he was born on May 9, 2024 at the age of 79. Stephen was better known as “Buzz Stephen” and he achieved his dream of pitching in the major leagues albeit in just two games.
In Porterville High school he was 6’4″ and was the center on the basketball team and a pitcher on the baseball team. Stephen graduated in 1962 and attended Porterville Junior College before transferring to Fresno State College. He had some success as a swingman for the Fresno State Bulldogs, even if his control was wild at times. Stephen was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 25th round of the 1965 MLB June Amateur Draft from California State University, Fresno (Fresno, CA), the Minnesota Twins in the 2nd round of the 1966 MLB January Draft-Secondary Phase from California State University, Fresno (Fresno, CA) and the Minnesota Twins in the 1st round (6th) of the 1966 MLB June Draft-Secondary Phase from California State University, Fresno (Fresno, CA).
In 1968 Stephen had his best season in pro ball at Double-A Charlotte and the Twins called him up in September for that “cup of coffee” and he made his major league debut on September 20 at Met Stadium versus the Oakland A’s and Catfish Hunter. The game was rescheduled from a May 15th rain out and with neither team in a pennant chase, a small crowd of 1,710 showed up to watch the rookie’s debut. Stephen gave up a harmless single to Bert Campaneris to lead off the game but then a steal, a walk, a double steal, a ground out and a fly out led to two runs scoring. By the time the Oakland A’s finished batting in the first inning they had already posted a 2-0 lead. It was a 3-1 lead for the A’s after six innings but Oakland knocked Stephen out of the game in the seventh after he had pitched 6.1 innings giving up 8 hits and 5 walks allowing 5 runs, but only 4 were earned while striking out one. Oakland went on to a 7 to 1 win and Stephen (0-1) had his first loss while Catfish Hunter (13-13) pitched a complete game for the win.
