Biography
Former Yankees pitcher Kenny Clay sentenced to five years in prison
Sarasota Herald Tribune
Lynchburg News & Advance
December 1, 2007
A former New York Yankees pitcher who grew up in Lynchburg is in trouble again.
A circuit judge sentenced Kenny Clay, who now lives in Florida, to five years in prison Wednesday, a longer sentence than the prosecutor recommended.
A jury convicted Clay, 53, of grand theft for creating a fake sales order at the Sarasota copy machine office where he worked in 2005 that would have netted him a $7,500 commission check.
Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of three years, but Circuit Judge Rick De Furia cited the former major league pitcher�s criminal history in giving him the maximum sentence for the charge.
Clay has been caught stealing several times since his career as a ballplayer ended, and he was on probation for a similar crime when he tried to steal from the copy machine office in 2005.
In that previous case, Clay had pleaded guilty in Manatee County to stealing identification information about his girlfriend and using it to falsify credit card applications to forge checks and lease a 1998 Nissan Pathfinder.
Clay was also convicted in 1988 in Campbell County of stealing $16,000 from a class ring distributor that employed him.
That sentence was originally suspended, but in 1992 a judge convicted him of violating his probation and he was ordered to serve three years in prison. Earlier in 1992, he was convicted of grand larceny in Bedford County and sentenced to 12 months in jail.
Clay played on the E.C. Glass baseball team and was drafted by the Yankees in 1972. He pitched in 21 games for the Yankees in 1977, and in two World Series games that year.
He was grand marshal of the Lynchburg Christmas Parade in 1978.
His last major league baseball season was in 1981.
