Jim Perry
Red Borum was a 1945 Tiger.
He
Clyde Manion never hit a home run for the Tigers. He started his professional baseball career
with the Hutchinson Salt Packers/Oklahoma City Indians of the Western League in
1918 at the age of 21. He hit .151 that
year in the A level minors. The next
year he was with the Tulsa Oilers in the same league but drastically improved
to a .292 hitter. The following season
Clyde found himself promoted to the major leagues in Detroit with the Tigers as
a contestant in the search for a catcher to replace aging Oscar Stanage. Stanage was 37 and the Tiges tried out three
other catchers, 30 year old Eddie Ainsmith, and two younger catchers, 25 year
old Larry Woodall and the 23 year old Clyde Manion. Clyde was the best hitter of the three
hitting .275 in 32 games. In fact, he
hit better than Stanage who hit .231. In
his major league debut in only the 16th game of the season Clyde replaced Eddie
Ainsmith is a game against the St. Louis Browns at Detroit’s Navin Field. Eddie had committed his fourth error in the
young season and was 0-2 in the game and only hitting .172 at that point in the
season. Unfortunately, Clyde did not get
a hit but he also did not commit an error.
Clyde then rode the bench until June 25 when he made his next appearance
in the majors. Again, it was against the
Browns but in St. Louis. Clyde again
replaced Eddie who was hitting .206 and had committed his 7th error
of the season. Clyde came in with the
Tiges trailing 6-0. The Tiges rallied
for 6 runs and Clyde scored one of the runs.
But the Browns scored 4 in the 8th to win the game,
10-6. A couple of days later the scene
was repeated in Detroit against the Chicago White Sox. Eddie committed his 8th error and
Clyde came in to replace him. Clyde did
not get a hit but he did commit an error.
It was the first of his major league career as a backstop. Clyde continued to be used as a defensive
replacement. Often Eddie or one of the
other catchers would be pinch hit for and Clyde would come in to catch the next
inning until July 29 when in Detroit Clyde got his first major league start
against the Washington Senators and Jim Shaw.
Clyde got his first hit of his career in the fifth inning and drove in
Tiger right fielder Ira Flagstead for the Tigers only run in a 2-1 loss to the
Nats. A few days later Clyde got another
start against the Red Sox and went 1-3 and started a rare 2-5 double play to
help preserve the Tiges 5-2 win. Clyde
continued to get more starts for the Tiges and showed that he had an arm. He threw out 61% of the runners trying to steal
on him. So at the end of 1920, 1921
looked like a promising year for Clyde as being a possible starter for the
Tiges at catcher. But, instead the
Tigers went out and got Johnny Bassler from the Pacific Coast League where he
had hit .319 in 1920. Johnny became an
immediate success for the Tigers and was their starter for years to come
hitting .308 for the Tigers in 8 years.
Clyde would continue to be a back up with Eddie Ainsmith and Larry
Woodall. Clyde was the one with the
rifle arm and solid behind the plate.
But his bat was always suspect.
He appeared in a Tiger uniform for parts of 7 seasons occasionally
playing in the minors. He was a career
.227 hitter for the Tiges with 40 RBI’s and no homers when he was picked up by
the St. Louis Browns in the Rule 5 draft at the end of the 1927 season. In his first game in a Browns uniform on
Friday the 13th in April of 1928, he got the call to pinch hit in
the ninth against his old team. The
Tigers were up 3-2 at Navin Field. Clyde
came in batting 9th for pitcher George Blaeholder. Clyde faced Tiger pitcher Sam Gibson who had
allowed only 2 runs on 6 hits. Clyde
drove a Gibson pitch out for a home run.
Something he had never done in the seven years he was with the
Tigers. Not even in batting practice. His homer tied the game and sent it to extra
innings where the Browns won in the 11th. Clyde would hit one more homer for the
season for the Browns and would hit one more 2 years later for the Browns in
1930. Those would be his only homers of his
career. In St. Louis, Clyde played back
up to Wally Schang and Rick Farrell. The
Cincinnati Reds then picked up Clyde in the Rule 5 draft in 1931. Clyde would play three more seasons as a back
up to Hall of Famer Ernie Lombardi for the Reds. He was done in baseball as a major league
back up catcher after the 1934 season.
He was a career .218 hitter with a 112 RBI’s and 3 homers. He had one card in famed 1933 Goudey set which
is the first set of bubble gum cards ever made.
After selling insurance for years Clyde died in 1967 at the age of 70
and is buried in Southfield in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. His grand children and great grand children
still live in the area and one just made Eagle Scout.
Charlie Deal
Pete Conway was a member of the great 1887
Detroit Wolverines. Pete never spent a day in the minors. At teh age of 18 he
signed with the Buffalo Bisons of the National League for teh 1885 season.
While Pete was mainly a pitcher the Bisons also experimented with Pete with a
game at short, first and a couple in the outfield. He was third in their
rotation and only one other pitcher on the Bisons won more games than Pete,
Hall of Famer Pud Galvin. At the end of hte season the Bisons were a dismal 49
games back in a season that only played 112 games. The team failed and Pete
became property of the League. Pete then was sent to the Kansas City Cowboys
for the 1886 season. He was 5-15 for the Cowboys who went 30-91 and, like
Buffalo earlier, would fold at the end of the season after finishing 58.5 games
out of first. It was the Cowboys only year in the NL. Before the Cowboys folded
Pete was sold to the Woverines sometime in August. For Detroit that season he
went 6-5 and his ERA dropped almost 2.5 runs from his stint with Kansas City
earlier in the season. In 1887 he fit in the Tigers rotation and led the more
regular starters on the team with a 2.90 ERA. I say "more regular" as
a starting rotation really was not used in baseball at this time. For instance,
on the Wolverines that season the top starter was Pretzels Getzien who pitched
43 games. He started 42 and completed 41. Lady Baldwin was second in starts
with 24 games pitched, all were complete games. Stump Wiedman was third with 21
games, all starts and 20 were complete games. Then came Pete with 17 games at
pitcher, all starts and 16 complete games. Pretzels had almost three times as
many starts as Pete. Pete was also one of the better hitting pitchers on the
Wolverines and was used in the outfield for 8 games. Pete was also in the World
Series, one of only three pitchers the Wolverines used in the post season when
they played the St. Louis Browns in 15 games. He pitched 4 complete games and
went 2-2 for the series that the Wolverines won 10 games to 5. However, Pete
did not fair as well at the plate in the post season. He was 0-12 and was the
only player on either team without a hit for the series. In 1888 Pete became
the number 2 starter. Pretzels was still there and led the staff with 46 starts
and 45 complete games but Pete was right behind him at 45 starts and 43
complete games. Pete won 30 and lsot 14 and led the team in ERA with a 2.26.
After the season he was sold to the Pittsburgh Alleghenys. He played one season
in Pittsburgh but got in only 3 games going 2-1. He was done in May and never
pitched again proffesionally. He returned to Michigan and went to Ann Arbor
where in 1891 he became the Univeristy of Michigan's first baseball coach. He
was at U of M for 2 seasons. According to the 1900 census he was living in a
suburb of Philadelphia near where he was born and worked as a mule skinner. He
died a few years later in 1903 at the age of 36.
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