Biography
A "bonus baby", Boyer broke into the major leagues in 1955 as an 18-year old utility infielder, playing in 12 games at shortstop, 11 at third and 10 at second. A solid glove man, he didn't display much of a bat and on June 4th, 1957, he was included as a player to be named later as part of a thirteen player deal with the Kansas City Athletics. K.C. would initially receive Irv Noren, Milt Graff, Mickey McDermott, Tom Morgan, Rip Coleman and Billy Hunter with Jack Urban being sent in April as a player to be named later. Meanwhile the Yankees received Bobby Shantz, Wayne Belardi, Art Ditmar and Jack McMahan. Curt Roberts was sent as a player to named later (April 4th, 1957) and Clete, the last player moved in the swap, finished the mega-trade.
An after-thought in the deal with the Yankees already sporting a solid infield rotation under Casey Stengel (who loved the platoon) Boyer wouldn't join the Yankee roster as a regular until August of 1959. (Though he did have a part-time look in late-April through May.) He hardly impressed anyone with his bat, sporting only a .175 average in 47 games, but made an impression with his glove.
Clete became the Yankees' regular third baseman in 1960, beating out three other players for the starting job including Yankee veterans Gil McDougald and Andy Carey. He rewarded the decision with a solid glove and decent .242 with 14 home runs and 46 RBIs as the Yankees won the AL pennant. However, he had a humbling moment in the first game of the World Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates. With two runners on base and the Yankees trailing 3-1 in the second inning, manager Casey Stengel, never confident in Boyer's hitting
and famously unorthodox strategist, replaced him with pinch-hitter Dale Long, who flew out to right. The Yankees didn't score in the inning and
eventually lost 6-4. Boyer didn't play in the Series again until Game Six.
After the Series, the Yankees fired Stengel. Ralph Houk replaced him as manager and restored some of the confidence in Boyer that Stengel had taken away. Whereas Stengel preferred his platoon system, Houk saw something special in Boyer's defensive prowess and gave him the opportunity to play every day.
That gave Clete the opportunity to go down in the annals of history with the legendary 1961 team. While he didn't necessarily make his mark with his offense, with only 11 HR, 55 RBI and a .225 average, he made up for it defensively, leading the AL in assists and finishing second only to Brooks Robinson with a .967 fielding percentage and second to Boston's Frank Malzone by participating in 36 double plays.
Bobby Richardson (Yankees second baseman) said of Boyer, "He made only one bad throw to me...when I made the double play, I could just about close my eyes, put my glove up and the ball would be there."
In the first game of the 1961 World Series, Boyer displayed his defensive
prowess by making two spectacular plays...one on a Gene Freese ground ball in the second inning, where Boyer stopped the ball backhanded and threw Freese out from his knees, and another on a Dick Gernert ground ball in which Boyer dove to his left and threw Gernert out, also from his knees.
In 1962, Boyer once again flashed the leather, leading all major league third basemen in putouts, assists and double plays in another championship season. He also came within nine assists of the third base record of 405 set by Harlond Clift of the 1937 St. Louis Browns. The difference being that he also contributed far more on the offensive end, posting his best totals to date in all categories, HR (18), RBI (68) and career bests in batting average (.272), doubles (24) runs scored (85). Better yet, he hit .318 with a HR and 4 RBI in the World Series win against San Francisco.
In 1963 and 1964, Clete's defense remained solid as a rock (still without a Gold Glove to show for it thanks to rival Brooks Robinson) but his offensive numbers dwindled each year, down to 12 and 8 HR, 54 and 52 RBI, and a .251 and .218 AVG in '63 and '64 respectively. Neither of these years offered the solace of a World Series championsip to fall back on as the Yankees fell to the Dodgers in '63 and in
a classic series against the St. Louis Cardinals in 1964.
In that '64 series, Clete had the pleasure of playing against his brother Ken in which they shared the distinction of becoming the first brothers to hit home runs on opposing teams in a World Series game. In the 7th inning of Game Seven, 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.
Regarding the sibling rivalry in that series, Clete once told a reporter from
the Tulsa World, "When they asked my mother who she was rooting for in the Series, she told the media,
the fellow on third base."
During spring training in 1965, Boyer was involved in a fight in a Fort Lauderdale bar with a male model, Jerome Modzelewski. Apparently, Boyer, Roger Maris, Joe DiMaggio and Hal Reniff were at the bar, sitting at a table next to Modzelewski and his girlfriend. Modzelewski accused one of the players of flirting with the girl and next thing you know, fisticuffs ensued, resulting in a split lip for Modzelewski. Roger Maris was also named in the subsequent warrant, though it was determined he was only trying to break up the fight
and was acquitted of assault and battery charges in criminal court. Boyer plead no contest and received a fine of $175.
During the 1965 season, Clete slightly improved at the plate to .251, 18 home runs, and 58 RBI, but the Yankees slumped to sixth place with a 77-85 record, their lowest finish in 40 years.
In 1966, Boyer hit .240 with 14 home runs. With the Yankees in
rebuilding mode following a season which saw them finish in last place for the
first time since 1912, new Yankee GM Lee MacPhail traded Boyer to the Atlanta Braves for
1966 Minor League Player of the Year Bill Robinson.
After the Yankees
In 1967 Boyer arguably had his best offensive season. Playing in hitter-friendly Atlanta Stadium (a.k.a. "The Launching Pad"), he established career highs in home runs (26) and RBIs (96) in a lineup that featured Hank Aaron, Joe Torre, Felipe Alou and Mack Jones. He also continued his mastery of the glove, leading National League third basemen in fielding both in 1967 and 1969. In '69, he finally won the Gold Glove Award that had eluded him in his Yankee years. On August 31 of that year, he 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, Clete 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. That season the Braves won the Western Division title but lost in the playoffs to the eventual World Champion New York Mets.
Going to Japan
Boyer continued to pick it 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. He left Major League Baseball and resurfaced in Japan, playing for the Taiyo Whales from 1972 to 1975 where his roommate was Japanese great Sadaharu Oh. He showed the same abilities as he did in the United States - great defense (two Gold Gloves), some power (14 to 20 homers each year) and a mediocre average and OBP (.257/.300). When the 38-year-old infielder asked for a day off every three games in his last year, the owner expressed anger. This was not a request common to the Japanese culture and as Boyer was being paid $800,000 a year, he felt fans would react poorly to this move. Instead, the owner and trainer had Boyer increase his workouts and provided him with so many vitamin injections that his arms were black and blue. Boyer went along with their regimen and retired after the season. He was one of the more popular foreign players in Japan due to his willingness to follow Japanese training approaches and culture.
Post Playing Days
After retiring in 1975, Boyer stayed in Japan, acting as the defensive coach for the Whales in 1976. Afterwards, Boyer returned to the Major Leagues as a third-base coach with the the Oakland Athletics from 1980-85.
He joined the Yankees staff in 1988 and again from 1992 to 1994. In between stints with the Yankees starting in 1989, he managed the Bradenton Explorers of the short lived Senior Professional Baseball Association; the team moved to become the Daytona Beach Explorers in 1990 and he managed the team until the league ceased operations in December.
In 2000, Boyer opened a restaurant named "Clete Boyer's Hamburger Hall of
Fame" in Cooperstown, NY just a few miles south of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The restaurant, which has now closed, featured sandwiches and hamburgers named
after various Yankee 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", "the Whitey Ford Blue Cheese Burger" and "Tony Kubek Bacon Burger." 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 due to a brain hemorrhage in an Atlanta area hospital. Boyer was survived by six children, ten grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and older brother, former St. Louis Cardinal pitcher, Cloyd Boyer. Brother Ken Boyer (1964 National League MVP), passed away in 1982. That year, Clete remembered to Dave Anderson of the New York Times, "As a kid, I always fantasized about us being on the Cardinals together, him at third base and me at shortstop. The two of us on the same team. But it never worked out."
Memories
Scott C. from Regina, Canada wrote: "I won a baseball autographed by Ken Boyer at a sportsman's dinner. A couple of years later I saw that Clete was signing autographs at a location near my hotel. So I took the ball & asked him to sign it. After he finished he held onto the ball for a moment then asked me if I trusted him. Of course, I said yes and he told me was going to be seeing his brother Cloyd who had also played in the big leagues & if I allowed him he would take the ball & have Cloyd sign it which would give me a ball signed by all 3 Boyer brothers. So I gave him my address and about 3 weeks later the ball arrived as promised along with a nice letter from a real gentleman."
Joe J. from Lake St. Louis, MO wrote: "I sent a 16x20 plaque to Clete that had Clete's debut and final game tickets on it and also Ken Boyer's final game ticket. I also put a photo of both brother's posing together during the 1964 World Series. I also added a nameplate with their names on it. I sent it to Clete in late May of 2007 after getting his address from his agent.
I was shocked when Clete died less than 2 weeks later. I hoped that Clete got to see it before he passed. I found Clete's son in law's email address and asked him if Clete got to see the plaque. He said that Clete did get to see it and he was amazed by it."
Chris B. from Wooster, OH wrote: "In the summer of 1962 or 1963, while driving across the country with my family, we stopped in Alba, MO, and found out where the Boyer parents lived. My father, never being shy about such things, knocked on their door and told them a young fan of Clete's would like to meet them. They were very gracious and invited the whole family in for cookies and milk - while we watched the Cardinals play
on their TV."
