David Leslie Stapleton (born January 16, 1954) is an American former Major League Baseball player who played for the Boston Red Sox from 1980 to 1986.

Stapleton attended Robertsdale High School then the University of South Alabama.

Stapleton grew up on a farm in Loxley, Alabama and attended Robertsdale High School where he played football, basketball and baseball.

[1] Stapleton was selected by the Boston Red Sox in the tenth round (231st overall) of the 1975 amateur baseball draft and over the next five years worked his way up the Red Sox minor league system playing for Winter Haven, Bristol, and Pawtucket.

During Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, Red Sox manager John McNamara left Buckner in the game rather than replace him with Stapleton for defensive purposes, leading to the Mookie Wilson ground ball that went through Buckner's legs, giving the New York Mets a come-from-behind win in the tenth inning.