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Cletis Leroy Boyer
New York Yankees
Third Base
Born: February 9, 1937, Cossville, MO
Signed: Signed by the Kansas City Athletics as an amateur free agent, May 31, 1955
Major League Teams: Kansas City Athletics 1955-1957; New York Yankees 1959-1966; Atlanta Braves 1967-1971
Died: June 4, 2007, Lawrenceville, GA (age 70)
One of 14 children born to the Boyer family, seven boys and seven girls, Clete Boyer was one of three of the Boyer boys to play baseball in the majors. Older brother Cloyd Boyer pitched for the Cardinals and Athletics in the early 1950s, and Ken Boyer (#100) was an 11-time All-Star and the 1964 National League MVP. Clete Boyer was a steady-fielding third baseman who played for parts of 16 seasons in the major leagues and another four seasons in Japan.
Originally signed by the Athletics, Boyer didn't come into his own until the early 1960s with the Yankees. In an infield including Bobby Richardson (#115) at second base and Tony Kubek (#65) at shortstop, Boyer provided steady defense with some occasional pop at the plate. He'd win World Series rings with the Yankees in 1961 and 1962, batting a career-high .272 in 1962. Boyer would hit at least 10 home runs in six of his eight seasons with the Yankees, including 18 home runs in both 1962 and 1965. He was dealt to the Braves before the 1967 season, and he'd slug a career best 26 home runs with 96 RBIs in 1967. Boyer, long in the shadow of Brooks Robinson (#150) in the American League, won his only Gold Glove in 1969 with the Braves. He'd play four seasons for the Taiyo Whales between 1972 and 1975 and serve as the team's coach in 1976. Boyer would return to the majors as a coach with the Athletics (1980-1985) and Yankees (1988, 1992-1994), working with his former teammate Billy Martin.
Building the Set
March 6, 2022 from The Philly Show (Sports Cards Plus - Cooper City, FL) - Card #583
This is the 99th of 102 cards acquired for our set from the Baseball Card Sports Memorabilia Show, affectionately known as The Philly Show, held in the basement of the Valley Forge Casino Resort in King of Prussia in early March. We went nuts and left the show needing only 12 more cards to complete our 1965 Topps set, and I wrote about the show in detail over at The Phillies Room. After our 51 card haul from Uncle Dick's, and with more card spending budget still in place, I set out to find another dealer with a binder of 1965 Topps cards with reasonable prices. I had purchased cards from Sports Cards Plus before, finding the last few cards needed for our 1971 Topps set from this dealer back in December 2019.
Settling in, we found 37 cards needed for our set with an average price per card working out to around $6. The lot, including this Boyer card, consisted mostly of semi-stars and team cards. After paying for this mini haul, we were officially 13 cards away from a complete set, with one more purchase coming to end the day.
The Card / Yankees Team Set
A veteran at this point, there's not much room on the back of the card for anything other than his career statistics. The one career highlight mentioned is his Game 7 home run in the 1964 World Series, and the Topps cartoonist even gave the drawing a #6, Boyer's number with the Yankees. His home run came in the top of the ninth inning off Bob Gibson (#320) with his team trailing 7-3. Boyer and Phil Linz (#369) would both homer off Gibson, but the future Hall of Famer would get Richardson to pop out to second, ending the game and giving the World Championship to the Cardinals.
1965 Season
Boyer stuck around with the Yankees for two seasons following their last World Series appearance until 1976. He appeared in 148 games, making 140 starts at third base. Boyer batted .251 with 18 home runs and 58 RBIs, third on the club behind Tom Tresh's (#440) 74 and Joe Pepitone's (#245) 62.
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First Mainstream Card: 1957 Topps #121
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (14): 1957, 1959-1971
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2008 Upper Deck Yankee Stadium Legacy #3460
258 - Boyer non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 10/8/22.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
Wikipedia
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