Everything about Fred Clarke totally explained
Fred Clifford Clarke (
October 3,
1872 –
August 14,
1960) was a
Hall of Fame Major League Baseball player from
1894 to and
manager from
1897 to 1915. Clarke played for and managed both the
Louisville Colonels and
Pittsburgh Pirates. He was a
left fielder and left-handed batter.
Of the nine pennants in Pittsburgh franchise history, Clarke was the
player-manager for four of them. He and fellow Hall of Famers,
Honus Wagner and
Vic Willis, led Pittsburgh to a victory over
Ty Cobb and the
Detroit Tigers in the
1909 World Series. Clarke
batted over .300 in 11 different seasons. His 35-game
hitting streak in
1895 was the second-longest in major league history at the time and is still tied for tenth-longest. For six years, Clarke held the major league record for wins by a manager.
Early life and career
Fred Clarke was born on a farm near
Winterset, Iowa. At age two, his family moved as part of a
covered wagon caravan from Iowa to
Kansas before relocating to
Des Moines, Iowa five years later. As a child in Des Moines, Clarke sold newspapers for the
Iowa State Register where his boss was future Baseball Hall of Fame member,
Ed Barrow. Clarke played baseball with local teams in Des Moines and
Hastings, Nebraska. He was in the
Southern League at age 21 and played for teams in
Montgomery, Alabama and
Savannah, Georgia.
Clarke was discovered in the
minor leagues by Louisville part-owner,
Barney Dreyfuss, and joined the Colonels in
1894. In his first game, he collected five
hits in five
at bats which is still a major league record. In his second season, he asserted himself with a batting average of .347, 191 hits and 96
runs which were all best on the team by far. In 1897, Clarke took over managerial duties while only 24 years old. As a player, he hit a career high .390. Only the best average of
Willie Keeler's career stopped Clarke from winning his only batting title. (For many years, Clarke's 1897 average was listed as .406 but further research led most official sources, including
MLB.com, to list it at .390.) Despite Clarke's excellent hitting and the presence of fellow Hall of Famers,
Honus Wagner and
Rube Waddell, the team struggled for several years. While in Louisville, Clarke was teamed up with pitcher,
Chick Fraser. Clarke and Fraser became
brothers-in-law when they married sisters. When the Colonels folded, Barney Dreyfuss became the owner of the Pittsburgh franchise and tapped Clarke, Wagner, Waddell,
Deacon Phillippe, and others to accompany him.
Pittsburgh
In 1900, Clarke joined the
Pittsburgh Pirates as a player and manager, roles he'd embrace until his retirement in 1915. was arguably the best hitting season of Clarke's career as he led the major leagues in
slugging average and
OPS and led the National League in
doubles. He finished second only to his teammate, Honus Wagner, for the National League batting title. In the
first World Series, Clarke hit .265 but
Boston's
Cy Young and
Bill Dinneen outpitched Pittsburgh overall and won the series in eight games.
In the 1909 World Series, Clarke batted only .211 but hit both of Pittsburgh's home runs and had more home runs and RBI than any player on either team.
On
August 23,
1910, Clarke recorded four
assists from the outfield in one game, tying a major league record. The following season, his last as a regular player, 38-year-old Clarke made ten
putouts in left field in one game on
April 25,
1911. Clarke played just 12 more games after 1911, the last three as the oldest active player in the majors.
Clarke finished his career with a .312 batting average and is seventh on the all-time
triples list with 220 (no active major leaguer has more than 124). He led his team to four
National League pennants (1901, 1902, 1903 and 1909) and one
World Series championship (in 1909). The 1902 Pirates lost only 36 games under Clarke's guidance, a modern-era record. In, Clarke passed
Cap Anson and
Frank Selee, giving him the major league record for wins by a manager. Clarke's record, in turn, was broken by
John McGraw in . In addition to the four pennants and one World Series, Clarke managed Pittsburgh to five second-place seasons and three third-place seasons.
After his playing days
After his managing days ended in 1915, Clarke eventually returned to the Pirates, first as a
coach, later as a vice president and assistant manager. As an assistant to Barney Dreyfuss in 1926, he was allowed to sit on the Pirates' bench but, on
August 13, players requested that he be removed. Instead, Pirates ownership responded by releasing veteran players,
Carson Bigbee and
Babe Adams, and
waived slumping veteran (and eventual Hall of Famer),
Max Carey.
Fred Clarke was selected to the
Baseball Hall of Fame in
1945 as one of the first to be elected by the Old-Timers Committee. He was one of 24 original inductees into the
Iowa Sports Hall of Fame in 1951. After his baseball days, Clarke retired to his "Little Pirate Ranch" near
Winfield, Kansas, which he'd purchased with a
down payment during his first year in the majors. Fred Clarke died in Winfield at age 87.
Hall of Fame voting
Further Information
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