John Stuper, who took over the Yale baseball program in 1992, is the winningest coach in the Bulldogs’ storied 150-plus year program history -- and he continues to take the program to new heights. In 2019, the Bulldogs had four players selected in the MLB draft and earned the ABCA Academic Excellence Award. In 2018, the Bulldogs won the Ivy League title for the second season in a row, posting a 15-6 league record. That was their fourth Ivy title under Stuper. The Bulldogs' 3.01 ERA in Ivy games was nearly a full run better than any other team, and their Ivy opponents hit just .246 against them -- also a league-best. Five Bulldogs received All-Ivy honors, three were named All-New England and one (junior infielder Simon Whiteman) earned Academic All-America recognition.
In 2017 Stuper led Yale to a program-best 34 wins. The Bulldogs captured the Ivy League title and advanced to the final of the NCAA’s Corvallis Regional after defeating Big 10 champ Nebraska and Holy Cross in the tournament. For his efforts, Stuper was named Ivy League Coach of the Year, American Baseball Coaches Association Northeast Coach of the Year and New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association Division I Coach of the Year. The Bulldogs also featured eight all-Ivy selections.
Stuper's 533 career wins (267 in Ivy League play) are the most for any Yale baseball coach. He surpassed the legendary Ethan Allen for that honor in 2009. Stuper reached the 100-win mark faster than any coach in program history and oversaw the best four-year period in program history from 1993-96 (104-68). He won his 500th game in 2018, a 6-5 win vs. Fairfield at Yale Field on Apr. 4.
During the Ivy League's divisional era, Stuper’s teams had six first-place finishes in the Rolfe Division and three Ivy League championships. His first squad, in 1993, won a school-record 33 games, earned an NCAA Regional appearance, and set numerous school records, including 160 stolen bases in 44 games. He earned 1993 New England Division I Coach of the Year and Northeast Region Division I Coach of the Year honors. The Bulldogs won the Ivy League championship in each of his first two seasons.
In 2016, Stuper led the Bulldogs to the Rolfe Division title and had six players earn All-Ivy honors, including righthander Scott Politz, who was named a freshman All-American. The program also had an academic All-American in outfielder Nate Adams.
Stuper earned the 400th victory of his coaching career with a 5-2 decision in the second game of a doubleheader at Harvard on April 14, 2013. That day four Yale pitchers combined to strike out 13 Crimson batters, the perfect way for a former MLB pitcher to earn a milestone coaching victory.
Stuper has seen 49 of his players sign professional contracts. Recently, Simon Whiteman was a ninth-round draft pick in 2019 and three other Bulldogs -- Griffin Dey, Kumar Nambiar and Scott Politz -- were selected in later rounds of the draft. Left-hander Rohan Handa was a fifth-round pick of the San Francisco Giants in the 2021 MLB Draft.
Richard Slenker (28th round, Astros) and Harrison White (31st round, Marlins) were drafted in 2017. Righthander Chasen Ford was drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 27th round of the 2016 draft. Pitcher Rob Cerfolio was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2013 MLB Draft, but returned to Yale for his final season in 2014. Cerfolio’s selection represented the ninth straight year that a Yale player was selected, the longest consecutive stretch of draft selections by any school in the Ivy League at the time.
Not surprisingly, some of Stuper's top pupils have been pitchers. Brandon Josselyn, the 2009 Ivy League Pitcher of the Year (the sixth player to earn that distinction under Stuper), was drafted in June 2009 by the Seattle Mariners. Left-handed pitcher Craig Breslow, the captain of Yale’s 2002 squad, spent 12 seasons on a Major League roster.
Stuper has also coached two All-Americans while at Yale, including catcher Ryan Lavarnway, the 2007 NCAA batting and slugging percentage champion. Lavarnway was drafted in the sixth round of the 2008 MLB Draft by the Boston Red Sox.
Stuper pitched in the major leagues for the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds from 1982-85, appearing in a total of 111 games. He posted a 32-28 overall record with a 3.96 earned run average. His most memorable performance came with the Cardinals in the sixth game of the 1982 World Series. With St. Louis trailing the Milwaukee Brewers three games to two in the best-of-seven series, the right-hander helped the Cardinals even the series with a 13-1 complete-game, four-hit victory. St. Louis went on to win the Series the following day. Sports Illustrated listed his World Series performance among the 10 best by a rookie pitcher in the history of post-season play.
The only two-time all-conference baseball and basketball player at Butler County Community College (1976-77), Stuper fashioned a 34-3 collegiate record. He also helped Point Park (Pa.) College to the NAIA World Series in 1978 while earning NAIA All-America honors.
Stuper, who received his bachelor’s degree from LaRoche College and his master's degree in English at Slippery Rock University in 1989, was head coach at Butler until March 1991, when he returned to the Cardinals as a minor league pitching instructor. He remained with the Cardinals until taking over the Bulldogs’ clubhouse in 1993.
He and his wife, Pam, Yale's Caroline Ruth Thompson '02 Head Coach of Field Hockey, reside in Hamden.
