Clete Boyer
| Clete Boyer | |||
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Boyer in 1962.
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| Third baseman | |||
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Born: February 9, 1937 Cassville, Missouri |
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Died: June 4, 2007 (aged 70) Lawrenceville, Georgia |
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| MLB debut | |||
| June 5, 1955, for the Kansas City Athletics | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| May 23, 1971, for the Atlanta Braves | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .242 | ||
| Home runs | 162 | ||
| Runs batted in | 654 | ||
| Teams | |||
| Career highlights and awards | |||
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Cletis Leroy "Clete" Boyer (February 9, 1937 – June 4, 2007) was a Major League Baseball player. A third baseman who also played shortstop and second base occasionally, Boyer played for the Kansas City Athletics (1955–57), New York Yankees (1959–66), and Atlanta Braves (1967–71). Boyer also spent 4 seasons in the Central League in Japanese baseball with the Taiyo Whales (now the Yokohama BayStars). In his 16-year career, Boyer hit 162 home runs with 654 runs batted in and a .242 batting average in 1,725 games played.
Born in Cassville, Missouri, Boyer grew up in Alba, Missouri as one of fourteen children, and fifth oldest son, of marble cutter Chester Vern Boyer (1903–1981) and his wife, the former Mabel Agnes Means (1907–1971), including sons Cloyd (born 1927), Wayne (born 1929), Ken (1931–1982), Lynn (born c.1935), Clete, Ronnie (born 1944) and Lenny (1946–2013) and daughters Juanita Woodmansee, Leila, Dolores Webb, Pansy Schell, Shirley Lockhart, Bobbi McNary and Marcy Layton. All seven boys played professional baseball, with two of his older brothers also reaching the major leagues: Cloyd was a pitcher for the Cardinals in the early 1950s, and Ken became a third baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals.
Boyer was originally scouted by the New York Yankees from high school. But because the Yankees signed two other "bonus babies", prior to scouting Boyer; Frank Leja and Tommy Carroll, the Yankees decided that they couldn't sign Boyer due to the rules in which highly touted "bonus babies" have to be in a Major League roster for two 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 who the Yankees had a friendly relationship with, to sign Boyer with the final intention of getting Boyer eventually. 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 from 1955 to 1957.
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