His second half was terrible, with a .125 average in August and .167 average in September. Although his final statistics were mostly at or below the league average, they looked very good compared to the rest of the team which lost 98 games and had the worst offense in the majors in 1977. His 25 doubles were tops on the team and 12 home runs tied Steve Henderson and John Milner for the team lead. Still, the most indelible image of Stearns for the season had to be when he became irritated at the Atlanta Braves mascot, Chief Noc-A-Homa, and chased him off the field before the game.