Obituary: Buzz Stephen (1944-2024)

RIP to Louis “Buzz” Stephen, a pitcher who made it to the major leagues for two games. A native and long-time resident of Porterville, CA, he died on May 9 at the age of 79. Stephen played for the 1968 Minnesota Twins as part of a 5-year pro baseball career.

Louis Roberts Stephen was born in Porterville on July 13, 1944. He grew up in the family business, which was… gravestones. Both grandfather William and father Louis Sr. owned and operated Porterville Monumental Works, which provided grave markers for residents in Tulare County. Buzz Stephen would later become the third-generation owner and renamed the business Porterville Monument Works. (RIP Baseball likes him already.)

As early as his days at Porterville High School, Stephen was going by “Buzz.” He stood 6’4″ and was unsurprisingly the center of the school basketball team. He was also a pitcher for Porterville High and the Poplar-Woodville Colts of the summer Connie Mack League. He 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. In a 1964 game against San Francisco State, he walked 8 batters and hit another but still won the game 8-3. He had a 5-2 record and a 3.92 ERA that spring for the Bulldogs. The Fresno Bee labeled him as an “erratic righthander” in 1965 after striking out the side in one inning and walking the bases loaded in the next. Stephen was drafted in the 25th Round of the 1965 June Amateur Draft by the Houston Astros, but he elected to spend the summer pitching for the semipro Eureka Crabs in Alaska and returned to Fresno State in the Fall.

The Minnesota Twins were very interested in Stephen, and the team drafted him in the Second Round of the 1966 January Amateur Draft – Secondary Phase, which was for players who had been drafted previously but did not sign. He remained with Fresno State and showed how dominant he could be when his control was working. He pitched in 20 games for the Bulldogs and had a 9-3 record and 1.95 ERA. He struck out 128 batters in 119-1/3 innings. The Twins drafted him again in the ’66 June Amateur Draft – Secondary Phase, this time in the First Round. The 22-year-old signed and immediately showed his potential, winning 10 games for St. Cloud of the Northern League while recording a 1.82 ERA. He struck out 18 Sioux Falls batters in a 4-1 win on July 7. Those 10 wins were tied for the most in the Northern League, and he also finished second with 170 strikeouts and first in complete games (12), shutouts (4) and hit batters (13).

Stephen struggled with his control in 1967 and won just 4 games while pitching for Class-A Santa Barbara and the Twins’ Florida Instructional League. One of those wins was a combined no-hitter. He pitched hitless ball for 5 innings against Stockton in August and then exited in the sixth with a sore shoulder while walking the first two batters. Teammate Mike Mathwig finished up the no-no in relief. Stephen explained that a six-month stint in the Army cost him his spring training, so he had to muddle through the season without his typical spring preparations. “My control is way off and I have had to rely entirely on my fastball because I have not had time to get my curve working,” he said. Stephen had a more typical spring in 1968 and won 11 games for Charlotte of the Double-A Southern League. He had 115 strikeouts and 74 walks, and the performance was good enough to earn him a trip to the major leagues in September.

Stephen made his major-league debut with a start against the Oakland A’s on September 20. It was an inauspicious debut, as Bert Campaneris welcomed him to the majors with a leadoff single and stolen base. Then Reggie Jackson walked and pulled off a double steal with Campaneris. Stephen allowed those runners to score on a Danny Cater groundout and a Sal Bando sacrifice fly. He pitched 6-1/3 innings and allowed 5 runs (4 earned) on 4 walks and a wild pitch. The A’s took advantage of the rookie by stealing 4 bases against him. The Twins also played sloppy defense and committed 3 errors in the seventh inning (one was charged to Stephen after throwing the ball away on a pickoff attempt). The only batter he struck out was opposing pitcher Catfish Hunter.

Stephen’s second start went a little better. He threw 5 innings against the California Angels on September 25 and gave up 2 runs on 3 hits, 2 walks and 3 strikeouts. The Twins got the 5-2 win, thanks to a pair of home runs by Harmon Killebrew. Stephen later related a story in that game, which was published in The Porterville Recorder in 2023. Angels batter Jim Fregosi paused to talk to Minnesota Twins catcher Bruce Look before an at-bat, and Stephen noted that he was bailing out of the batter’s box during each pitch. Fregosi was retired on a weak grounder, and Stephen asked Look about the conversation when they got to the dugout. “He wanted to know who you were, so I told him you were a kid from up in the San Joaquin Valley,” Look replied. “I told him you throw hard enough to throw a grape through a brick wall, but you don’t always know where it’s going.”

Those two starts were the only major-league appearances for Stephen. He had a 1-1 record and a 4.76 ERA, with 4 strikeouts and 7 walks in 11-1/3 innings. He also hit a batter and had a wild pitch.

In the 1968 offseason, Major League Baseball held an expansion draft for the Seattle Pilots and Kansas City Royals. Stephen was taken by the Pilots in the fifth round, much to the dismay of Twins management. “We were concerned about losing some good young players. Stephen has one of the best arms we’ve ever had in our organization,” said team president Calvin Griffith. “We didn’t think he would be taken that high. He had a good year with Charlotte but he certainly isn’t ready to pitch now in the major leagues.”

Stephen never pitched for the Pilots but instead spent 1969 with the team’s Arizona Instructional League, as well as stops with Rochester and Vancouver. He worked as a swingman and won just 1 game with an ERA over 5. The Pilots moved to Milwaukee in 1970 and became the Brewers, and the team traded Stephen to Baltimore in June, along with pitcher Dick Baney, for outfielder Dave May. Thanks to the trade, Stephen pitched for four different minor-league teams in 1970 and had a combined 5-7 record and 5.57 ERA. His best work came in Double-A Jacksonville, a Brewers affiliate, where he had a 3-2 record and a 1.89 ERA in 8 games, including 4 starts. He joined Baltimore in spring training in 1971 but ultimately decided to return to California to complete his education. Before leaving Arizona, though, he got married to his wife, Julie, a student in Phoenix and a former TWA flight attendant. In 5 seasons in the minors, Stephen had a 31-25 record, and he recorded 377 strikeouts in 427 innings pitched.

According to the Recorder, Stephen bought the Monument Works from his father in 1982. It is believed to be Porterville’s oldest continually operating business, as it was founded in 1889 and has been run by the Stephen family since the ’30s. Stephen and Julie were married for 53 years, and they had two daughters, Jennifer and Sara, and four grandchildren. He is a member of the Porterville High School Athletic Hall of Fame and the Fresno State Baseball Hall of Fame.

There is one other story from Stephen’s playing career, as noted by the Recorder. He attempted a pickoff against the Angels, but the throw went wild and caught the first base umpire in the backside. As the ump rubbed where he got hit, he told the rookie pitcher, “That was the best fastball you’ve thrown all night and you wasted it on me!”

For more information: Porterville Funeral and Cremation Center

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