OAKLAND — The scoreboard at the Oakland Coliseum displayed Dave Stewart’s accomplishments on a crawl.

All-Star, No-Hitter, World Series MVP. 119 wins, .604 winning percentage, 1,152 strikeouts, 49 complete games. All numbers that summed up Stewart’s impact in eight seasons with his hometown team. Former A’s that spoke at Stewart’s official No. 34 jersey retirement told the story behind those numbers.

What made Stewart great? Perseverance and hunger for a challenge.

“I understood the concept of fear,” Tony La Russa said at the podium on the Coliseum diamond, “because I feared Dave Stewart.”

It was most important for Stewart to have La Russa in attendance. Stewart requested that the ceremony be held when the Chicago White Sox — where La Russa is manager — were in town to play the A’s. It was a visit that nearly didn’t happen. Doctors had ordered La Russa, who had a pacemaker inserted into his heart, to stay clear of managing duties for the Chicago White Sox since Aug. 30.

Once cleared to travel from home in Chicago, La Russa made sure to get to the west coast for Stewart’s big day.

Stewart had hundreds of family and friends among the thousands of fans at the Coliseum wearing throwback golden Oakland uniforms with Stewart’s now retired number on the back. Sitting alongside La Russa was teammates Carney Langsford, Rickey Henderson, Reggie Jackson, Dennis Eckersley and former A’s owner Walter Haas.

Mark McGwire, who Stewart said wasn’t formally invited, made sure to show up for his old teammate, too.

It was La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan who helped resurrect Stewart’s career when he came to the A’s on the back of two lost seasons with the Texas Rangers and Philadelphia Phillies and on brink of giving up baseball in 1986 despite a standout few seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Stewart hit an all time low when the Baltimore Orioles couldn’t open up a roster spot for him in Double-A. A free agency opportunity with the A’s in May 1986 put Stewart further down the bench, unused by then-manager Jackie Moore and pitching coach Wes Stock. He credits his old teammate and friend Dusty Baker with keeping his competitive fire aflame when he considered quitting the game that seemed to want him gone.

“Stew, whatever you do, make them take the uniform off your back,” Baker told him in 1986. “Don’t give it away.”

La Russa, hired to manage Oakland in 1987, was all too familiar with Stewart from his view in the Chicago White Sox dugout in years prior. How could he forget that deadly stare smoldering under the brim of his hat?

Duncan told Stewart to resurrect pitches previous coaches told him to ditch and La Russa put the ball back in Stewart’s hands. An ace and champion was re-born. Those numbers a culmination of Stewart coming into his own as a leader not just because of his wicked arsenal, but his fearlessness.

“Never fun to see those beady eyes when we faced the A’s,” Marlins manager and former Stewart opponent Don Mattingly said in the videoboard message.

Stewart wanted to beat the best, often playing out in a rivalry with Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens. Stewart went 9-0 from 1986 to 1990 in head-to-head matchups with the star pitcher. But La Russa recounted some stories from behind the scenes.

Stewart, still a community leader in his hometown Oakland, led the team to aid rescue workers after the 1989 earthquake that delayed the Bay Bridge World Series by 10 days. He also led the charge in the clubhouse.

In the 1992 ALCS against the Toronto Blue Jays, the A’s were down 1-3 heading into Game 5 in Oakland. La Russa recalled an internal debate: Should the team pack up their bags for a Game 6 in Toronto? Stewart, the Game 5 starter, decided for them.

In a speech to the clubhouse Stewart told the team to pack their bags. He would make sure a trip to Toronto was in order.

Sure enough, Stewart threw nine innings and gave up two runs in an A’s win, out-dueling David Cone. The A’s would lose the series at home in Game 6, snapping the A’s World Series appearance streak at three. They don’t get to the doorstep without him.

“You’re not a championship contender unless you have a top of the rotation stud,” La Russa said. “Dave was every bit of that. He wanted to pitch the biggest games and have the toughest opponents.”

Related Articles

• Oakland Athletics |
  A’s starting pitcher has frightening incident in blowout loss to White Sox
• Oakland Athletics |
  Former A’s manager La Russa to attend Stewart ceremony. Here’s why that’s so significant
• Oakland Athletics |
  After blowout loss, A’s Kotsay senses White Sox knew what pitches were coming
• Oakland Athletics |
  Why Elvis Andrus is praising the A’s for releasing him when they did; Cairo talks La Russa
• Oakland Athletics |
  Oakland A’s officially out of playoff race, but rookie pitcher a bright spot in latest loss

Stewart’s No. 34 was was revealed atop Mt. Davis at the Coliseum between Catfish Hunter’s No. 27 and Rollie Fingers’ No. 34 — yes, the A’s will retire that number twice — in the right field side of the structure opposite Jackson’s No. 9, Rickey Henderson’s 24 and Eckersley’s No. 43.

“All those names are memorialized in the national baseball hall of fame,” Stewart said in his speech. “To the Oakland A’s, Dave Kaval, Mr. Fisher, Billy Beane, David Forst, thank you very much for putting me in a place I never thought I would be. Thank you very much because up until today, I didn’t think I belonged. Thank you.”