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Post by Toy-Cannon on Aug 6, 2020 22:19:04 GMT
No obits in English yet so I will borrow from Wikipedia.
Horace Clarke Passes Away

Horace Meredith Clarke (June 2, 1939 – August 5, 2020) was a Major League Baseball player. A second baseman, he played for the New York Yankees and the San Diego Padres from 1965 to 1974.
He was signed by the Yankees as an amateur free agent in 1958. He made his Major League Baseball debut on May 13, 1965 against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park; he singled off Dave Morehead in his first major league at bat. In his rookie season of 1966, Clarke, sharing shortstop duties with Tom Tresh after Tony Kubek's retirement before the start of the season, batted .266 with six home runs and 28 runs batted in. In 1967, he became the Yankees' regular second baseman upon the retirement of longtime veteran Bobby Richardson. In 10 seasons, he hit .256, with 27 home runs and 304 RBIs. In the space of one month in 1970, he broke up three possible no-hitters in the ninth inning (Jim Rooker[1] on June 4, Sonny Siebert[2] on June 19 and, Joe Niekro[3] on July 2). That season, Clarke made 732 plate appearances (batting 686 times officially). As a fielder, though, the knock on Clarke was that he would not turn the double play with runners barreling in. Few ever took him out with a slide, but Clarke would hold the ball after leaping.
Clarke was sold to the San Diego Padres on May 31, 1974, for $25,000. He retired at the end of the 1974 season. After his retirement, he worked as a baseball instructor for the Virgin Islands Department of Recreation and as an assistant scout for the Kansas City Royals.
Clarke and Joe Mauer are the only hitters to break up three no-hit bids in the ninth inning.


MLB statistics Batting average .256 Home runs 27 Runs batted in 304
Teams New York Yankees (1965–1974) San Diego Padres (1974)
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Post by Rufus-T on Aug 7, 2020 0:07:47 GMT
He was kind of like Don Mattingly who was the bridge between two Yankees championship runs. Of course he was no as good as Mattingly, though I never saw him played. It is too bad that those bad Yankees years in the late 60s were known as the "Horace Clarke" years. He came up the same time as Roy White. If he had stayed around the Yankees a few years longer like Roy White did, he may get a taste of winning. Then, again, the Yankees may not have gotten Willie Randolph. RIP to a longtime Yankees.
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Post by Toy-Cannon on Aug 7, 2020 3:37:26 GMT
From the NY Post:
The voice on the telephone had a pleasing lilt to it, a melodic “Hellooooo!” dripping out of the receiver. One thing Horace Clarke wanted you to know before you ever asked the only question he ever seemed to hear was this:
“I am happy, my friend,” he said that afternoon, winter of 2004. “I played major league baseball for parts of 10 years, and I played in the magnificent city of New York, and as a child in St. Croix that was beyond dreams. Yes. I am a happy man.”
Clarke died Wednesday at 81, and for as long as there are Yankees fans who remember the dog-day era spanning 1965-75 his name will, fairly or no, be attached to it. And this wasn’t just a product of time, either. On the day after Clarke was traded to the Padres on May 31, 1974, the back page of The Post announced it thusly:
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Post by TheGoodMan19 on Aug 7, 2020 6:23:31 GMT
He was kind of like Don Mattingly who was the bridge between two Yankees championship runs. Of course he was no as good as Mattingly, though I never saw him played. It is too bad that those bad Yankees years in the late 60s were known as the "Horace Clarke" years. He came up the same time as Roy White. If he had stayed around the Yankees a few years longer like Roy White did, he may get a taste of winning. Then, again, the Yankees may not have gotten Willie Randolph. RIP to a longtime Yankees. The Horace Clarke Yankees fascinate me. The Yankees were the real Evil Empire from 1921 to 1964. Then the wheels fell off. The 1965-1975 teams had talent. Mel Stottlemyre, Roy White, Bobby Murcer, Fritz Petersen, Stan Bahnsen, Thurman Munson (1971). But they didn't have the superstar. No Ruth, no Gehrig, no DiMaggio, no Mantle. And the AL stopped being a pushover. No more automatic wins in Baltimore, Boston, Minnesota, Oakland. The couldn't get back to the top until Steinbrenner. These players signed as amateur free agents (before the draft) with the expectation of playing wiht the Yankees and many World Series.
Very entertaining book about the Horace Clarke Yanks
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