Chuck Stobbs; Senators Pitcher in 1950s

At Granby High School, Mr. Stobbs was "one of the greatest athletes ever to come out of Virginia," Washington Post sports columnist Bob Addie wrote in 1957. In football, he was a three-time all-state quarterback who led his school to three consecutive state championships. He was a two-time all-state basketball player and an all-American in baseball.

He had dozens of college scholarship offers but turned them down to accept a $35,000 bonus from the Boston Red Sox. He pitched in his first big-league game when he was 18 and became a friend of slugger Ted Williams's, but he always considered baseball his third-best sport.

"My biggest ambition was playing college football and going to the Rose Bowl," Mr. Stobbs said in 2002, when he was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. "I regret sometimes even now not going to school and finding out if I could have played football."

After five seasons with the Red Sox and one with the Chicago White Sox, Mr. Stobbs arrived in Washington in 1953. He was one of the most popular Senators of the era and showed flashes of excellence, including a 3.29 ERA in 1953.

Mostly, however, he was a hard-luck symbol of the team's futility, when Washington was mocked as "first in war, first in peace and last in the American League."

Mr. Stobbs won a career-high 15 games in 1956 but had another embarrassing moment, when he threw a pitch so wildly it landed in the 17th row of the stands, between first base and home plate.

He lost 20 games in 1957, then had a short stint with the St. Louis Cardinals before returning to Washington in 1959. He pitched well in 1960, going 12-7 with an ERA of 3.32, during the original Senators' final year. When the team moved to Minnesota in 1961, he played briefly for the Twins before retiring at 31. His career record was 107-130 (64-79 in his eight years in Washington), with an ERA of 4.29.

After coaching at George Washington University and selling insurance, Mr. Stobbs moved to Florida in 1971 to work at a baseball academy operated by the Kansas City Royals. From 1980 to 1984, he was a minor-league pitching coach with the Cleveland Indians.

His first wife, Jocelyn Johns Stobbs, died in 1973.

Survivors include his wife of 29 years, Joyce Tindall Stobbs of Sarasota; four children from his first marriage, Charles K. "Charley" Stobbs II of Hillsboro, Ore., Betsy Stobbs of Shreveport, La., Nancy Powell of Tifton, Ga., and Hasse Peters of Sarasota; two stepdaughters, Kim Loeshman and Belinda Macumber, both of Sarasota; two brothers; and 15 grandchildren.

Mr. Stobbs enjoyed occasional reunions with his Senators teammates and was a spokesman for one of the groups vying to buy the Washington Nationals franchise in 2005. But try as he might, he could never escape the memory of Mantle's long home run.

"That's one day I'd like to forget," he said in 1999, "but nobody lets me."