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By Jon Paul Hoornstra
Contributing Sports Writer
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Stu Tate, a career-long San Francisco Giant who played a small role on an important team in franchise history, died Jan. 13. He was 60.
Tate's career in Major League Baseball consisted of two games. Yet both came with the Giants in 1989, when the franchise ended its 27-year drought between World Series appearances before losing to the rival Oakland A's.
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According to his obituary provided to Berryhill Funeral Home in Huntsville, Alabama, Tate succumbed to a massive heart attack.
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An Alabama native, Tate pitched collegiately at Calhoun Community College and Auburn University. A right-handed pitcher, Tate's talent on the mound led to him being drafted by the Giants in the eighth round of the 1984 MLB Draft.
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Tate made 12 starts for the Fresno Giants in 1985, his first full season as a professional, but mostly climbed the minor league ladder as a relief pitcher.
In 1986, Tate was promoted to Double-A Shreveport for the first time. He would repeat the level each of the next two years before reaching Triple-A in 1988. In 27 games (three starts) for the Pacific Coast League's Phoenix Firebirds that season, Tate went 2-4 with a 5.89 ERA.
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But in 1989, Tate became the closer for the Firebirds, the Giants' top farm team. In his first 43.2 innings, Tate went 2-4 with a 2.89 ERA and 12 saves — second in the PCL. That earned him a spot on the National League roster for the Triple-A All-Star Game in Columbus, Ohio in July.
"I like to have the game on the line. I like the pressure," Tate told the Shreveport Times**. "**As a short reliever, I figure I can get in four or five games a week. I'm just better as a short reliever. I guess a short reliever's work is patterned after my personality."
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Tate received his first big league promotion in September 1989, during the Giants' pennant chase. He struck out four batters over 2.2 shutout innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers in a mop-up appearance on Sept. 20. Ten days later in San Diego, Tate coughed up three runs without recording an out in another mop-up appearance.
Tate did not appear in a postseason game as the Giants reached the World Series. Although he competed for a major league roster spot with the Giants in spring training the following year, a rotator cuff injury ultimately sidelined him for all of the 1990 season.
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In 1991, Tate appeared in eight more games with Triple-A Phoenix before calling it a career. By 1992 he had returned home to pursue a career as a pharmacist.
Tate is survived by his parents, one sister, five children, six grandchildren.
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