Friday, January 30, 2015

no. 374 - clete boyer


Who is the man: Clete Boyer was entering his last season in the major leagues in 1971. He may have been released by the time his card was pulled from packs, getting his pink slip on June 2, 1971.

Can ya dig it: The jaunty way Boyer wears his cap conflicts with his sneering stare.

Right on: That is some backstop behind Boyer.

You see that cat Boyer is a bad mother: Boyer led the American League in putouts, assists and double plays from 1961-63, but lost out on the Gold Glove each year to Brooks Robinson.

Shut your mouth: Boyer was just 33 when he was released by Atlanta. He feuded with general manager Paul Richards and after balking at the team's midnight curfew, Richards said, "For such a lousy player, Boyer sure does a lot of talking."

No one understands him but his woman: Boyer and his brother, Ken, were the first brothers on opposite teams to hit a home run in a World Series game. In Game 7 of the 1964 World Series, Ken homered first for the Cardinals and Clete homered two innings later for the Yankees.


(A word about the back): Regarding the write-up: In other words, pay no attention to the batting stats, Boyer could field.

1 comment:

  1. Boyer was a very prominent player, so when the Braves cut him and no one else picked him up it was a very big story. I remember it at the time, and it seemed the real story never came out so as a still very young baseball fan you wondered what really happened. That is a very funny quote by Paul Richards, though. I wonder why the Yankees didn’t bring him back. He was better than what they had. Maybe Ralph Houk didn’t want to deal with a sore head like Boyer, even though they knew each other very well.

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