Clete Boyer

Cletis Leroy "Clete" Boyer (February 9, 1937 – June 4, 2007) was an American professional baseball third baseman—who occasionally played shortstop and second base—in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City Athletics (1955–1957), New York Yankees (1959–1966), and Atlanta Braves (1967–1971). Boyer also spent four seasons with the Taiyō Whales of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). In his 16-year big league career, Boyer hit 162 home runs, with 654 runs batted in (RBI), and a .242 batting average, in 1,725 games played.

Early life Born in Cassville, Missouri, Boyer grew up in Alba, Missouri, as one of fourteen children. All seven boys in the family played professional baseball, with two of his older brothers also reaching the major leagues: Cloyd was a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals in the early 1950s, and Ken became an All-Star third baseman for the Cardinals.

Early career Boyer was originally scouted by the New York Yankees while he was still high school. But because the Yankees had already signed two other highly touted "bonus babies" (Frank Leja and Tommy Carroll) prior to scouting Boyer, the team decided that they could not sign him due to the rules in which bonus babies had to be on the Major League roster for their first two professional seasons. Knowing Boyer might become a potential star, the general manager of the Yankees, George Weiss contacted the general manager of the Kansas City Athletics, Parke Carroll, whom the Yankees had a friendly relationship with, to sign Boyer with the final intention of eventually acquiring him (by trade or sale of his contract). In the 7th inning of that seventh game, Ken homered off Yankee pitcher Steve Hamilton and exchanged nods with Clete. Clete returned the favor in the 9th after homering off Cardinal ace Bob Gibson.

After the 1964 Series, Houk unceremoniously fired Berra (in mid-season the management, dissatisfied with Berra's work, made up their mind to fire him at the end of the season no matter what the Yankees did) and replaced him with Johnny Keane, who had managed the Cardinals to the World Series victory over the Yankees. In spring training of Boyer was involved in a fight in a Fort Lauderdale bar with a male model, Jerome Modzelewski. During the season, he batted .251 with a career-tying 18 home runs, but the Yankees slumped to sixth place, their lowest finish in 40 years. In the Yankees fired Keane two weeks into the season, and Houk returned as manager. However, Houk's second managerial stint was far less successful than his first. With their talent and farm system both depleted, the Yankees finished dead last—the first time they had done so since . After a season in which he hit .240 with 14 home runs, Lee MacPhail, who replaced Houk as general manager, traded Boyer to the Atlanta Braves for Bill Robinson, that year's Minor League Player of the Year.

During the off-season in 1964, Boyer appeared on To Tell the Truth as an imposter for a sponge diver. Boyer received three of the four possible votes.

Post-Yankee days In Boyer had his best offensive season. Playing in hitter-friendly Atlanta Stadium, he established career highs in home runs (26) and RBIs (96) in a lineup that featured the likes of Hank Aaron, Joe Torre, Felipe Alou, and Mack Jones; Boyer batted cleanup behind Aaron. He also continued his mastery of the glove, leading National League (NL) third baseman in fielding both in 1967 and . In the latter year, he finally won the Gold Glove Award that had eluded him in his Yankee years; with brother Ken having won the award five times, the Boyers became the first brothers to win a Gold Glove. On August 31 of that year, Clete fell victim to Morganna, the famed buxom "Kissing Bandit." Prior to the kiss, he had been mired in a 1-for-17 slump; in that very at-bat, Boyer drove in a run with a single. He got two more hits later in the game, then eight more hits in his next 15 at-bats. In the 1969 season the Braves won the Western Division title (both leagues now had Eastern and Western Divisions, after each expanded from 10 teams to 12) for their first post-season berth since losing to the Yankees in the 1958 World Series as the Milwaukee Braves. However, the team lost in the playoffs to the eventual World Champion New York Mets.

Boyer continued to sparkle at third base until he was released by the Braves on May 28, 1971, after a bitter feud with General Manager Paul Richards and manager Lum Harris over mismanagement. Boyer has complained that the organization did not teach the players the proper fundamentals. Richards countered that Boyer was a troublemaker. Pitcher and Player's Representative Steve Hamilton suggested in an interview with Studs Terkel that Boyer was blacklisted by the MLB for criticizing team management.

Boyer left Major League Baseball and resurfaced in Japan, where he played professionally for the Taiyō Whales, from to . While playing in Japan, Boyer’ s roommate was Sadaharu Oh. After retiring following the 1975 season, he was the defensive coach for the Whales in 1976. Afterwards, Boyer returned to the Major Leagues as a third-base coach with the Yankees and the Oakland Athletics, mostly with former teammate Billy Martin as manager.

Legacy Boyer's teammates recognized his defensive ability. "When I think of Clete, I think of the outstanding defensive third basemen in baseball," Richardson said. "I know Brooks Robinson got all the Gold Gloves, and he's every bit deserving of the Hall of Fame, but Clete was as good as anyone who ever played the game." Richardson and Boyer remained friends after their careers ended. Kubek, also a lifelong friend of Boyer, thought he was as good at playing third base as Graig Nettles, Brooks Robinson, and Mike Schmidt.

In 2000, Boyer opened a restaurant named "Clete Boyer's Hamburger Hall of Fame" in Cooperstown, New York, just a few miles south of the Baseball Hall of Fame. The restaurant features sandwiches and hamburgers named after various Yankees' immortals such as: "Yogi's Special meatball sub", "the Mickey Mantle Cheeseburger Deluxe", "the Reggie Veggie Burger", "the Bobby Richardson Cheeseburger", "the Roger Maris Hamburger Deluxe", and "the Whitey Ford Blue Cheese Burger". Boyer could often be found at the restaurant chatting with visitors and graciously signing photos and other memorabilia.

Death Boyer died on June 4, 2007, in an Atlanta area hospital from complications following a brain hemorrhage. Brother Ken Boyer (1964 National League MVP), former St. Louis Cardinal, predeceased Clete in 1982. Boyer's family had his cremated remains placed in a New York Yankees urn.