Welcome to the Baseball History Podcast: Featuring This Week in Baseball History, baseball dictionary and a tour of baseball cities. I’m your game announcer Bob Wright.
This is game 61 of the 2007 baseball season
In the first inning let’s take a look at This Week in Baseball History for the 4 week of August.
August 31
1969 Morganna, a well endowed fan dressed in a mini dress, jumps onto the Atlanta Stadium field and kisses the batter Clete Boyer on the cheek. The Braves’ third baseman then promptly ends a 1-for-17 slump with a Run Batted In single and goes on 8-for-15 tear.
Cletis Leroy “Clete” Boyer was born February 9, 1937 in Cassville, Missouri. One of three Boyer brothers to reach the majors, Clete ranked as a top American League defensive third baseman during his eight years with the Yankees.
A “bonus baby,” Boyer broke into the major leagues in 1955 as a utility infielder at age 18. With no minor league experience, he played a total of 124 games for the Kansas City Athletics until he was traded to the Yankees in February 1957 in a thirteen-player deal, seven players going to Kansas City and six to the Yankees. He spent three seasons in the Yankee farm system until he was called up late in 1959.
Boyer became the Yankees’ regular third baseman in 1960. He batted .242 with 14 home runs and 46 Runs Batted In as the Yankees won the pennant.
Boyer’s offensive numbers improved in 1962 with career bests in batting average at .272, home runs with 18 and runs batted in at 68.
Once again, the Yankees won the World Series, this time in seven games over the San Francisco Giants. Boyer batted .318 in the series, including a home run in the opening game.
In 1963 Boyer batted .251 with 12 home runs and 54 Runs Batted In as the Yankees won another pennant; however, they were swept in the World Series by the Los Angeles Dodgers—the first time this had ever been done to a Yankee team in a Fall Classic. Dodger ace Sandy Koufax won the first and fourth games, striking out a series record 15 batters in the opener. Boyer was the only Yankee regular not to strike out against Koufax.
Early on, the 1964 team slumped under new manager Yogi Berra, especially Boyer who batted .218 on the season. As Berra’s managing improved, the team improved with it and won its fifth straight pennant by one game over the Chicago White Sox
The Yankees faced the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series with Clete playing against his brother Ken. When Clete homered in the seventh game of the two innings after his brother Ken had homered for the Cardinals, it marked the only time that brothers had connected for home runs in the same World Series game. The Yankees lost the Series in seven games
After the 1964 Series, the Yankees unceremoniously fired Berra and replaced him with Johnny Keane, who had managed the Cardinals to the World Series victory over the Yankees. The Yankees hardly responded to Keane from his first day on the job; Boyer in particular entered everyone’s doghouse by getting drunk during spring training and punching out a man in a bar.
During the season, he did bat .251 with a career-tying 18 home runs, but the Yankees slumped to sixth place—their lowest finish in 40 years. In 1966 the Yankees fired Keane two weeks into the season, and Houk returned as manager. His second stint, however, was far less successful—the Yankees finished dead last.
After a season in which he hit .240 with 14 home runs, the Yankees traded Boyer to the Atlanta Braves. General Manager MacPhail claimed Boyer’s drinking prompted the trade.
In 1967 Boyer had his best offensive season ever. Playing in hitter-friendly Fulton County Stadium, he established career highs in home runs with 26 and Runs Batted In with 96.
He also continued his mastery of the glove, leading National League third baseman in fielding both in 1967 and 1969. In 1969 he finally won the Gold Glove Award that had eluded him in his Yankee years.
On August 31, 1969, as he approached the plate locked in a 1-for-17 batting slump, he fell “victim” to Morganna, a buxom blonde who’d earned notoriety by dashing on the field and kissing ballplayers. After the kiss, Clete got an Run Batted In single, two more hits in the game, and racked up eight hits in his next 15 at-bats.
Boyer continued to sparkle at third base until he was released by the Braves on May 28, 1971, after a bitter feud with owner Paul Richards and manager Lum Harris over mismanagement.
Boyer complained that the organization didn’t teach the players the proper fundamentals. Richards countered that Boyer was a troublemaker.
After his release by the Braves in 1971, he played for Hawaii in the Pacific Coast League, where he became the first American professional to be traded to a Japanese league where he played professionally from 1972 to 1975.
Afterwards, Boyer returned to the Major Leagues as a third-base coach with the Yankees and the Athletics, mostly with former teammate Billy Martin as manager.
Boyer coached for the A’s and Yankees in the 1980s, often under his old teammate Billy Martin.
In his 16-year career, Boyer hit 162 home runs with 654 runs batted in and a .242 batting average in 1725 games played. He holds the World Series record for most career assists by a third baseman.
In 2000, Boyer opened a restaurant named “Clete Boyer’s Hamburger Hall of Fame” in Cooperstown, NY just south of the Baseball Hall of Fame. The restaurant features sandwiches and hamburgers named after various Yankees’ immortals.
Boyer could often be found at the restaurant chatting with visitors and graciously signing photos and other memorabilia.
Boyer died on June 4, 2007 from complications of a brain hemorrhage in an Atlanta area hospital.
In this inning we’ll open up the Baseball Dictionary
Under the letter: P
protect the plate
1. To swing at a pitched ball with the intent to foul it off. It usually occurs when, with two strikes in the count, a batter will foul off a pitch that appears headed for the strike zone but not good enough to hit. Writer Jimmy Cannon in the Nov.-Dec. 1956 issue of Baseball Digest, insisted that such protecting was actually “a series of foul tips by a completely fooled batter who intends to hit every one out of the park.”
2. For a catcher to stand fast and effectively block home plate in anticipation of a close play with a runner trying to score.
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TWIBH- Clete
Boyer
Dictionary-
Protect the Plate
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