"Look for the sport's best-fielding third baseman to move to shortstop in 1962. That would be Cletis Boyer, brother of Cards' Ken, possessor of baseball's quickest hands when they're stopping a batted ball.
Born in Cassville, Missouri, Boyer became Yankee in 1959, serving at Kansas City as a part-time teenage performer in '54 and '55. Nobody around can match him for amazing agility at third base."
-Don Schiffer, The 1962 Major League Baseball Handbook
"Yankee Stadium fans and those around the league have watched Clete Boyer make 'impossible' stops and still get his man. The newest magician in the game, Boyer is one of five brothers to play professional baseball. Best known, of course, is Ken, the great third baseman of the St. Louis Cardinals. While Ken swings a more potent bat, it is Clete who has become the master glove man at the hot corner.
Boyer, only 25, has shown real power at the plate, despite a lifetime batting average of .226. He has garnered 35 extra-base hits in each of his last two seasons. With the help he received from Joe DiMaggio and Wally Moses this spring and his determination, Boyer is an almost sure bet to hike his batting average this season.
Manager Houk considered moving him to short, to plug the hole left by the Army call to Tony Kubek. And Boyer can play short, too. But the Yankee manager is anxious to keep his defensive star in his normal position. Last year was Clete's first full season as a regular third baseman and his defensive play gave the Yankees their strongest infield in many years. Boyer may well be the anchor man of a great infield for many years to come."
-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook
Cletis Leroy Boyer (IF) #6
Born February 8, 1937, in Cassville, Missouri, resides in Webb City, Missouri. Height: 6-0, Weight: 183. Bats right, throws right.
Married and father of two girls, Valerie (5) and Stephanie (2 1/2).
-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook
Bonus player with Kansas City Athletics.
Brother of Ken Boyer of Cardinals and Cloyd Boyer, former pitcher for Cardinals.
-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide
"Fans around the nation got to see what American League fans had witnessed all season when they saw the 1961 World Series: the finest fielding third baseman in the game today, Clete Boyer.
To Clete, the hard play is routine, the impossible play, just another out. He blocks hard-hit grounders like a hockey goalie, dives through the air for liners and somehow always (or so it seems) manages to make the play.
The 25-year-old native of Cassville, MO, comes from a real baseball family. His brother, Ken, is one of the National League's All-Star performers with the St. Louis Cards, and another brother, Cloyd, hurled for the Athletics not too many seasons back.
Kansas City signed him to a bonus contract in 1955 and because of the then-existing rule, Clete was forced to spend two years with the Athletics when he could have been gaining valuable minor-league experience.
The Yankees acquired Boyer during the winter of 1956-1957 and sent him to Binghamton of the Eastern League. He was with Richmond of the International League in 1958, dividing the '59 campaign between Richmond and the Stadium.
In 1960 Boyer became the Yankees' regular third sacker. During his first full season with the Bombers, Boyer hit .242 and smacked 14 homers. Last year his average dipped to .224, but he drove out 11 four-baggers and upped his RBIs from 46 to 55.
Now a resident of Webb City, MO, Cletis is married and the proud daddy of two. He stands an even six feet and weighs 180 pounds.
Boyer can play shortstop and second base, but the Yankees are happy having him at third where he can turn "sure doubles" into outs.
Coach Wally Moses worked with Boyer on his batting during the Spring and if he can pick up a few points, Clete may soon be an All-Star."
-The 1962 Jay Publishing New York Yankees Yearbook
OH BOY, OH BOYER!
Acrobatic Clete Adds Power To Yankee Role
"In the very first inning of the first World Series game last October, Clete Boyer came out of nowhere to fling himself leftward, slide on a shoulder, glide on an ear and come up with a hot shot that he fired to first while still on one knee. Fans who had been watching Yankee games all season had been boasting that Clete was the best third baseman on defense since Pie Traynor. Now all the world knew they were right.
That is, except for St. Louis Cardinals fans, who could argue that they had a Boyer, Ken, who was just as good on defense and had outbatted Clete by 105 points, .329 to .224.
Whereupon Clete and his Yankee mentors decided to do something about improving Clete's form with the stick. The result, during this season's first weeks, was astonishing. Clete broke into a rash of home runs, doubles and singles and, as of May 10, was batting exactly .329, his brother Ken's 1961 mark.
All of this means that the baseball-minded Boyer family is about to stage an inter-league competition of its own. And if the Cards win the pennant and the Yanks face them in next October's global setto, it'll be Boyer vs. Boyer at the hot corner, and let the better brother win ...
Not since the DiMaggios- Vince, Joe and Dom- scurried around center field on three big league teams two decades ago has a family demonstrated such aptitude for baseball as the Boyers. There are seven of them, five of whom have already played the game for pay, with two more coming fast. Cloyd, now 34, was a pitcher for the Cardinals and A's (1949-55) and is now a coach with Richmond, the Yankees' farm club in the International League. Wayne, now 32, pitched in A ball before his arm went dead, and is now a dentist in Kokomo, Indiana. Ken, 31, and Clete, 25, are, of course, established big leaguers. Lynn, 29, might have been in the big time, too, if he hadn't broken his wrist in his second professional year; he was an up-and-coming first baseman who recently graduated from the Kansas State Teachers College. Ronnie, 17, plays third base on his high school team in Missouri; Leonard, 16, is its second baseman. Both of these Boyer boys are being scouted, with Lenny, six-one and still growing, rated as a top prospect for a future outfield or first base job in the majors.
It was raining outside Yankee Stadium and the night game with the Red Sox had been called off. Clete, who takes things easy when he isn't on the diamond, felt like talking about the Boyers. He pulled up a stool and tried to explain how the family's seven strapping young men became ball players. 'You see, we grew up in Cassville, Mo., which you won't find on the map because it's so small, about 350 population,' he said. 'My father was a small farmer and in a town like that there was nothing to do but work on the farm- no movies, no TV, no street corners to hang out on. And across the road from our house was a baseball field.
'We were poor. I don't mean we didn't have enough to eat- you always eat enough down on the farm. But we didn't have money to spend dashing around in automobiles. When we had time off from school or farm work we played ball. We'd start playing when we were ten and by 14 or 15 we'd be good enough to get on a team in the Ban Johnson League. And we could stick in that league until we were 21, playing a regular schedule with games every day. That meant that we'd get in five to seven years of steady play- and there's nothing like steady play for making a boy develop rapidly.
'It's no accident that every one of us, including Ronny and Lenny, went out for shortstop first. Every kid wants to be a big wheel on his team and the two most important positions are pitcher and shortstop. Well, you can't have more than one shortstop on a team, so we'd shift around the infield or try the box. Max Buzzard, who was my coach, wanted me to become a pitcher because my arm was strong, but I like infielding better and stuck to it. I was a second baseman when scouts started thinking about me seriously.
'At that time I'd had seven years of Ban Johnson play. Many of the fellows in our league had signed up for the majors. Ralph Houk had gone to the Yankee organization before my time. Ralph Terry also became a Yankee. Most of our coaches had professional experience.
'To us kids along the western border of Missouri, there was only one big league team, the Cardinals; that is, until the Athletics moved to Kansas City. Cliff Marr, who was then a Cardinal scout, signed up Ken in 1949 and had an eye on me. Marr switched jobs to Kansas City, however, and when the scouts got hot after me Joe Bowman of the Kansas City staff came down and looked me over. By then other clubs were making me offers. Bowman's was the best, $35,000. That's how I became a member of the A's.'
The Kansas City A's were suffering the after-effects of the Mack family's long struggle to survive in Philadelphia. They were no longer under a bankrupt ownership but they were desperately player poor. 'I was only 18 and weighed only 165 pounds with the result that I was not much use to a big league team, but I had to stay with the A's for two years because of the bonus rule that was in force then, instead of going to the minors for regular play and development. In 1955 and 1956 I was used mostly at second base, with a few games at third. My manager was Lou Boudreau, and there's no one who can teach a pivot play to a kid better than Lou. Harry Craft was a coach for the A's then. Day after day he'd hit fungoes to me, sharpening my reflexes. But it was pretty frustrating. I'd have been better off if I'd been in the minors playing regularly and learning how to meet game situations instead of bench-warming most of the time.
'The A's were perpetually battling for the cellar championship. They had no big farm system to draw on for recruits. Parke Carroll, the general manager, adopted the policy of trading for quantity, hoping he'd come up with winners. I didn't know that the Yankees had their eyes on me, especially Lee MacPhail, who supervised the Yankee farm system then. They concocted a five-for-seven deal. It was made in February 1957, but Commissioner Ford Frick voided it as far as I was concerned because I hadn't finished my two-year bonus term. So I sat on the bench from the opening of the season until June 4, when my bonus term ended. I headed East but never put on a Yankee uniform. I was shipped out to Binghamton of the Eastern League for the rest of the season and went up to Richmond the following year.'
Clete's prospects of becoming a Yankee regular were dim. 'The Yankees decided to convert me into a shortstop. I'd had some good experience in Kansas City, teaming with shortstop Joe DeMaestri. But I had trouble going to my right from the shortstop position. The Yankees gave me an accelerated course, sending Jerry Coleman down to Richmond for a full week just to tutor me.'
Finally, in 1959, Clete put on a Yankee uniform for the first time. 'But I had no place to play except as a late-inning substitute for Gil McDougald at shortstop. Tony Kubek was standing by, ready to take Gil's place when he retired. I'd had a little experience around third in Richmond but when Kubek went to short McDougald moved to third, and there was I, waiting around with nothing to do.
'But although my chances of becoming a Yankee regular were poor I had that good Yankee feeling.'
That 'good Yankee feeling' is there, in the air, in that Pin-striped uniform, in the hectic atmosphere of New York. Clete explains it this way: 'In Kansas City the boys would go to the ballpark, and they'd play to the best of their ability. In New York the Yankees to the ballpark to WIN a ball game. The Yankees have been winning for so many years that they can't stand the idea of losing. You feel the uplift as soon as you open the clubhouse door. You know you've got to do better than your best in every game, every inning, every time you go to bat. And when the team's behind, you're expected to come through in late innings.
'Well, there I was, a fifth or sixth wheel in the Yankee infield as the 1960 season opened. I'd get into a few games now and then when Casey Stengel juggled the lineup. Late in May Casey got sick and went to the hospital for ten days. Ralph Houk managed during his absence and put me on third base. I'd worked out at third at camp that spring. I'd talked about third base play with Ken at home, and, since the Cards also trained at St. Petersburg, Ken would drop and watch me play in our games with the Cards, and give me pointers afterwards.
'Then Stengel retired and Houk became our manager. In camp last year he called me aside and told me I was the regular third baseman whether I hit .220 or .320. Now it's okay for a manager to tell you that. But you've got to prove to yourself that you're good enough to stick, and you've also got to be sure the manager means what he says when he tells you what Ralph told me.
'My big day, the day I was confident I could stick and knew Ralph meant what he said, came in May. Los Angeles was leading by run one in the seventh. It was my turn to bat. Let's face it- in a situation like that the previous year, Stengel would have taken me out for a pinch hitter. Ralph left me in. I singled, tying the score. Then in the ninth-
'The A's were leading in the ninth- 4-3. We had two on base. Again it was my turn to bat. I looked around. Houk said, 'Get in there and knock those guys in.' I did, with a double. We won, 5-4. I was the hero.
'Look at it any other way- a fellow plays better when he knows he's won a regular job. I knew it that day. It was Ralph's way of telling me so, letting me bat in a clutch, me and my .224 average.'
There was never any doubt in Houk's mind about Clete's ability to cover third brilliantly. Third base used to be an old man's home for aging shortstops and second basemen. Clete was young, agile and gifted with a strong enough throwing arm to hold down the shortstop post in any company. As for his acrobatics: 'If you play like me from the time you're 14, you acquire an instinct for knowing what to do. One way of saying it is the old crack about your reflexes being sharper. That's true but it's only part of the truth. After ten years' infielding you learn how to play the hitters and after two or three months in the same set lineup, you know what kind of stuff your pitchers are throwing and can set yourself for an upcoming play accordingly.
'I don't keep book on opposing batters like some infielders do. After I've watched them a few times I file away the information about their batting habits somewhere inside my head. As a result, I have a mental jump on them. Fielding hot shots, line drives, balls off to my left or along the foul lines, coming for bare-hand pickups of bunts becomes a matter of routine. I've read that I have quick hands. Maybe so, but it's the quickness of all your faculties that makes hard chances seem easy. I remember when I'd play in too close for the double play or play the ball instead of handling it naturally. Steady work during games, playing regularly, cures such bad habits. And playing beside the same infielders every day helps a man know what to expect from his teammates. He becomes part of a smooth-running machine. He's no longer an individualist.
'As for those so-called acrobatics of mine, that's a matter of keeping in prime physical shape all the time. I think I'm that limber because every day before a game I put myself through calisthenics. That's like oiling up a machine before you put it to use.'
Until this season Clete's only serious problem was that puny batting average. He had the bad habit of fishing for outside pitches which smart boxmen knew and kept flinging at him. 'This spring Wally Moses, our batting coach, sold me on the idea of using the same method at bat that I use in the field. I mean, getting the jump on the pitcher. Wally's great on making an explanation sound clear. He pointed out that if I could gain a second in watching the ball as it leaves a pitcher's hand I'd have just that much more time to follow the ball and get set for it. A second doesn't seem much, but it's meant a lot to me thus far this season. I see the ball quicker, know whether it's going to be in the strike zone or not that much sooner. And I have more time to shift and place the ball in right on outside pitches, all of which adds points to my batting average.
'And I'm no longer a kid growing up. I've hit my right weight, about 185 pounds. My power has increased. I don't commit myself at bat as quickly as I once did. I have that much more advantage on pitchers. Maybe if I don't forget Wally's lessons I'll catch up to Ken in the averages.'
Then there's the added incentive that comes from being a Yankee. 'It's a funny thing,' Clete says. 'Here's Ken, the best third baseman in the game, five times a .300 hitter, third in the National League last year and everybody's All-Star third baseman. But he's in St. Louis and I'm in New York, and I get more press notices and magazine stories than he does. And, by the way, more of those nice little sideline emoluments that come your way when you're a Yankee.'
So at 25 Boyer is apparently set for a long, successful and profitable Yankee career. Tall, exceptionally good-looking, with black hair and dark eyes, he's the baseball hero type. But-
'I'm a farm boy,' he says. 'I have no desire to live it up in a big city. There's too much traffic, too much noise. I don't want a big house in Jersey or on Long Island. And I'm not looking for an outside business here in New York or any place else. I got married to Marilyn Sue King, a hometown girl, when I was 18. We have two little daughters, Valerie, who's six, and Stephanie, who's three. I'm in partnership with Marilyn's brother, who runs a grocery store in Webb City, Missouri, five miles from Mickey Mantle's motel in Joplin. Wintertimes I work in the store. Summertimes Marilyn and the girls come East, where we live across the Hudson River in River's Edge, New Jersey. That's enough for me.'
That ... and being the best third baseman the Yankees have had since Red Rolfe covered the hot corner 20 years ago ... "
-Charles Dexter, Baseball Digest, July 1962
"Probably the most spectacular fielding third baseman in the American League this year was the Yanks' Clete Boyer. Anchoring the Yankees' classy defensive infield, Boyer also showed great improvement at bat this season, raising his average some 50 points over 1961 and over his lifetime batting mark. The younger brother of the Cards' Ken set personal highs in batting, homers and RBIs in 1962."
-Official Souvenir Program of the 1962 World Series (Yankee Stadium)
