 |
 |
Luciean Louis Clinton
Los Angeles Angels
Outfield
Born: October 13, 1937, Ponca City, OK
Signed: Signed by the Boston Red Sox as an amateur free agent before 1955 season
Major League Teams: Boston Red Sox 1960-1964; Los Angeles Angels 1964; California Angels 1965; Kansas City Athletics 1965; Cleveland Indians 1965; New York Yankees 1966-1967
Died: December 6, 1997, Wichita, KS (age 60)
A veteran of eight big league seasons, Lou Clinton found his most success with the Red Sox in the early 1960s as their regular right fielder. In 1961, Clinton was in the outfield for the Red Sox on the final day of the season when Roger Maris (#155) hit his record breaking 61st home run over his head and into the right field stands of Yankee Stadium. Clinton batted a career high .294 in 1962 with the Red Sox and a year later he hit career highs in both home runs with 22 and RBIs with 77. He hit for the cycle in 1962 in a 15-inning game.
Traded to the Angels in June 1964, Clinton went on to spend time with the Angels, Athletics (for 1 game), Indians and Yankees seeing his final Major League action in 1967. He retired with a career average of .247 with 65 home runs and 269 RBIs.
July 8, 2020 from Cincinnati, OH - Card #121
In need of some cardboard therapy as we approached the four month anniversary of the start of our social distancing, I went on a mini eBay binge the first week of July. We had a vacation planned for the last week of June, first week of July, and that vacation had been unceremoniously cancelled at some point in April. Major League Baseball was showing signs of coming back, the Black Lives Matter movement was finally gaining momentum, the pandemic showed no signs of going away any time soon and a complete lack of intelligent national leadership wasn't helping anything or anybody. I needed some old baseball cards.
17 cards arrived on July 8th, including this Clinton card purchased from Dean's Cards for $1. I browsed the Dean's Cards eBay store, setting a reasonable budget and determined to click Buy It Now on 10 cards. Another group of 7 cards were won in eBay auctions from Greg Morris Cards on the same day. The 17 cards added put us just over the 20% completion point for our 1965 Topps set.
It was around this time Major League baseball announced it would hold an abbreviated 60-game season, with the delayed opening day taking place in empty ballparks on June 23rd. As I'm composing these posts, I still have mixed emotions about all of this. While I'm hungry for baseball and curious about how this abbreviated season will play out, there's still a raging pandemic flaring across our country and it seems as if playing baseball shouldn't be the focus right now.
The Card / Angels Team Set
It's somewhat impressive Topps was able to get a photo of Clinton in an Angels uniform since he wouldn't have even been with the club for a year at the time this card was issued. The trade that sent him from the Red Sox for Lee Thomas (#111) is written up on the back. For what it's worth, Thomas' Red Sox card from this set features him in a hatless photo wearing an Angels jersey.
Clinton's sole professional pitching appearance came in 1957 when he was a member of the Albany Senators in the Eastern League. He threw three innings, allowing a run on three hits while walking three.
1965 Season
On January 14, 1966, the Indians traded him to the Yankees for Doc Edwards (#239).
Phillies Connection
After spending all of 1966 and the first month of the 1967 season with the Yankees, Clinton was sold to the Phillies on May 11, 1967. He reported to their top farm team, the San Diego Padres, where he'd play his last professional baseball without a call-up to the Phillies. As one of manager Bob Skinner's (#591) regular outfielders, Clinton played in 110 games and hit .250 with 13 home runs and 36 RBIs. Future Phillie Rick Joseph led the Padres that season with 24 home runs and 96 RBIs.
He officially retired in January 1968 to focus on his family's Oklahoma oil business.
|
|
|
|
|
First Mainstream Card: 1960 Topps #533
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (6): 1960, 1962-1965, 1967
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1967 Topps #426
19 - Clinton non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 7/16/20.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
Previous Card: #228 Jack Sanford - San Francisco Giants
Next Card: #230 Ray Sadecki - St. Louis Cardinals
Other 1967 San Diego Padres trivia:
ReplyDeleteBesides Lou Clinton, Billy Cowan (and I think Marty Keough) was on the team. Cowan was the one who got the call-up in late June or July, when the Phils traded Dick Groat to the Giants.
Rick Joseph led the team in homers? That's impressive, since he was called up in late-August to take Dick Allen's roster spot following his season-ending injury.