Elwood Robert Clear (December 14, 1927 – April 6, 2010) was an American minor league baseball

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

, and a Major League

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with the

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. He was born in

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, and moved to

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with his family in 1940.Obituary, Elwood Robert "Bob" Clear, ''The Orange County Register'', via Legacy.com
/ref> During his active career, Clear batted and threw right-handed and was listed as tall and . He was the uncle of former MLB

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who enters the game after the starting pitcher is removed because of fatigue (medical), fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection (sports), ejection, or for other strategic ...

Mark Clear Mark Alan Clear (born May 27, 1956) is an American former two-time All Star Major League Baseball relief pitcher who played for the California Angels (1979–80, 1990), Boston Red Sox (1981–85), and Milwaukee Brewers (1986–88). He batted and ...

Playing career

Clear began a long playing career with the 1945 Batavia Clippers of the Class D Pennsylvania–Ontario–New York League (PONY League), hitting .222 at age 17. He returned to

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as a member of the Class C

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in 1946, playing third base and only posting an .838

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putouts and assists, div ...

while batting .266. The next year, he joined the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

' minor-league organization and hit .200 for Lynchburg and .208 for the Decatur, both in Class B leagues. Clear then attempted a pitching career. He posted a 17–12 record with a 3.45

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for the 1948

Willows Cardinals The Willows Cardinals were a minor league baseball team based in Willows, California. From 1948 to 1950, the Cardinals played as exclusively as members of the Class D level Far West League as a St. Louis Cardinals minor league affiliate. Willo ...

in the Class D Far West League; he was second in the league in games won to

Larry Shepard Lawrence William Shepard (April 3, 1919April 5, 2011) was an Americans, American professional baseball Baseball#Players, player, Manager (baseball), manager, and Coach (baseball)#Pitching and bullpen coaches, pitching coach. He managed the Pittsb ...

of Medford, a future colleague as a manager in the

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of the 1960s. He also was 0–1 with Class C

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of the

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. Clear spent most of 1949 with the

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(11–6, 5.84) and also was back in Lynchburg for one loss. By his 21st birthday, he had been with seven teams. The 1950 season brought him to the Class A Western League and he went 16–7 with a 3.38 ERA. He was tied for fourth in the circuit in wins, was fourth with 119 walks and the

Omaha Cardinals The Omaha Cardinals were a minor league baseball team based in Omaha, Nebraska, from 1947 through 1959. They played in the Class A Western League through 1954 and in the Triple-A American Association from 1955 to 1959 as an affiliate of their m ...

pitcher led the league with four

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s. He struggled with the Cardinals' three top minor league affiliates in 1951, going 1–2, 8.13 for the

Houston Buffaloes The Houston Buffaloes, Houston Buffalos, or Buffs were an American minor league baseball team, and were the first minor league team to be affiliated with a Major League Baseball, Major League franchise, which was the St. Louis Cardinals. The clu ...

, 0–4 with a 9.82 ERA for the

Columbus Red Birds The Columbus Red Birds were a top-level minor league baseball team that played in Columbus, Ohio, in the American Association from 1931 through 1954. The Columbus club, a member of the Association continuously since 1902, was previously known as ...

and 0–1 for the

Rochester Red Wings The Rochester Red Wings are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. They are located in Rochester, New York, and play their home games at Innovative Field ...

. After playing on 11 teams by age 24, Clear's career then settled down. He went 9–12, with a 3.44 ERA for Houston in 1952 and 4–6, with a 3.35 ERA for the 1953 Buffaloes. Back in Omaha in 1954, Clear went 20–11 with a 2.93 ERA, led the Western League in wins, was fifth in ERA, tied for second with 22

complete game In baseball, a complete game (CG) is the act of a pitcher pitching an entire game without the benefit of a relief pitcher. A pitcher who meets this criterion will be credited with a complete game regardless of the number of innings played—pitche ...

s, tied for third with five shutouts, first with 267 innings and first with 114 walks. In his 11th pro season, at age 27, he was invited to the big-league Cardinals'

spring training Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for Schedule (workplace), roster and position spo ...

camp, but he wasn't given the opportunity to pitch.Lowery, Steve (14 August 1986): "Clearly, He's an Unsung Angels' Coach,"
''

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'' That season, Omaha joined the Triple-A

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as one of the Cardinals' two top minor league affiliates. Staying with Omaha, but now competing in a higher classification, Clear fell to 1–10, with a 4.42 ERA. He began 1956 in Omaha, but after three games, he was assigned by the parent Cardinals to the Sioux City Soos of the Western League, where on May 15 he became a

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the s ...

at age 27. On the mound, he went 5–4 with a 6.00 ERA for the Soos.

Managing career

Clear finally left the Cardinals' chain in 1957, joining the Pirates as the player-manager of the

Douglas Copper Kings Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals * Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking *Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil ...

of the Class C

Arizona–Mexico League The Arizona–Mexico League was a Minor League Baseball league in the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico, that operated as an affiliated Class C league that existed from 1955–58, and then again in 2003 as an independent baseball league ...

. He batted .313 and, on the mound, went 20–11 with a 3.63 ERA. He was second in the league in ERA behind Don Bruns, tied Candido Andrade for the win lead, and led with 28 complete games (in 31 starts). Still just 29 years old, he had now played for 13 clubs. He won 18 of 26 decisions, with a 4.42 ERA, for Douglas in 1958, and helped make history on August 19 when he was hitting fifth for Douglas in a game in which all nine starters homered against the Chihuahua Dorados in a 22–6 rout. It was Clear's fourth 1958 home run as a hitter; he batted .303 that season and led the Copper Kings to the A–ML championship.Czerwinski, Kevin T. (28 May 2008): "Copper Kings Delivered Unmatched Clout,"

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He went 13–8, with a 2.81 ERA for the

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the next year. He then had arguably his best year yet, going 21–6, with a 2.50 ERA for the

Grand Forks Chiefs The Grand Forks Chiefs were a minor league baseball team from Grand Forks, North Dakota. They played in the Northern League from 1934 to 1964, with a couple breaks in between. History Minor league baseball first began in Grand Forks when the 18 ...

, leading the Northern League in wins and finishing in the top three in ERA. In 1961, he fell to 4–5, with a 5.05 ERA for Grand Forks. Retiring more or less from pitching, he appeared briefly for the 1965 Kinston Eagles and 1967 Clinton Pirates (1–0, 1.64), wrapping up his pitching career with a 144–117 record for 17 teams. He continued to manage in the Pirates'

until 1969, making stops at Batavia in 1962, Gastonia in 1963–1964,

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in 1964, Kinston in 1965, back to Gastonia in 1966, Clinton in 1967–1968, and

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in 1969.

With the California Angels

Clear moved to the California Angels' system in 1970, and would remain a member of the organization for the rest of his career. He managed the

Idaho Falls Angels Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyomi ...

of the Rookie-level Pioneer League from 1970 to 1973, winning the league championship in his first season. Then he became a

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and minor-league instructor for 2 seasons, until July 1976, when he officially donned a

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

uniform for the first time as the Angels' bullpen coach under newly-named manager

Norm Sherry Norman Burt Sherry (July 16, 1931 – March 8, 2021) was an American baseball catcher, manager, and coach who played five seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets from 1959 to 1963. He bat ...

. He held that role for the next 11 full seasons, through , working under Sherry,

Dave Garcia David Garcia (September 15, 1920 – May 21, 2018) was an American coach, scout and manager in Major League Baseball who spent over 65 years in professional baseball. He served as manager of the California Angels (1977–78) and Cleveland Indians ...

Jim Fregosi James Louis Fregosi (April 4, 1942 – February 14, 2014) was an American professional baseball shortstop and manager, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from to , primarily for the Los Angeles / California Angels. He also played for the ...

, Gene Mauch and John McNamara. The Angels won three

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championships (1979, and ) during his coaching tenure. In and , he was joined on the Angels' roster by his nephew

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, who worked out of Bob Clear's bullpen for his first two seasons in

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

before being traded to the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

. After 1987, Clear continued in the Angel system as a special-assignments scout and instructor through , his 56th year in professional baseball. He died in

Carson, California Carson is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, in the South Bay region of Los Angeles, located south of downtown Los Angeles and approximately away from Los Angeles International Airport. Incorporated on February 20, 1968, ...

, at the age of 82.

References

External links

*
Coach's page
from

Retrosheet Retrosheet is a nonprofit organization whose website features box scores of Major League Baseball (MLB) games from 1906 to the present, and play-by-play narratives for almost every contest since the 1930s. It also includes scores from every major ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clear, Bob 1927 births 2010 deaths Asheville Tourists managers Bakersfield Indians players Baseball coaches from Colorado Baseball players from Denver Batavia Clippers players California Angels coaches California Angels scouts Clinton Pirates players Columbus Red Birds players Decatur Commodores players Douglas Copper Kings players Fresno Cardinals players Grand Forks Chiefs players Houston Buffaloes players Idaho Falls Russets players Kinston Eagles players Lynchburg Cardinals players Major League Baseball bullpen coaches Omaha Cardinals players Pocatello Cardinals players Rochester Red Wings players Sioux City Soos players Sportspeople from Denver Willows Cardinals players