Clarence Waldo Blethen (July 11, 1893 – April 11, 1973) was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

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 ...

with 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 eigh ...

and Brooklyn Robins of

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), ...

as well as 18 seasons in minor league baseball. Blethen batted left-handed and threw right-handed. Blethen attended the

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine or UMO) is a public land-grant research university in Orono, Maine. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the flagship university of the University of Maine System. It is classifie ...

, where he played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional p ...

for the Black Bears from 1912 to 1915. Blethen spent 18 years in organized baseball, almost all of it in the

minor leagues Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in No ...

. He pitched briefly for the Boston Red Sox in 1923 and did not earn another opportunity until 1929, when he played with the Brooklyn Robins. In seven major league games, Blethen had no decisions and posted a 7.32

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

, with two strikeouts in 19-2⁄3 innings pitched. Blethen suffered an unusual injury while playing for the Knoxville Smokies of the Southern Association in 1933. In a game on June 6, the pitcher, who had false teeth and would put them in his hip pocket when he was running the bases, slid into second base, and the false teeth took a bite out of him in what one news account called "a tender spot." Following his major league career, Blethen spent seven years with the

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

minor league club, winning 20 or more games in two seasons. He also played for several teams and managed Leaksville and Savannah in the late 1930s. After that, Blethen took an active part in coaching

little league Little League Baseball and Softball (officially, Little League Baseball Inc) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in and the county seat of Frederick County, Maryland. It is part of the Baltimore–Washington Metropolitan Area. Frederick has long been an important crossroads, located at the intersection of a major north–south Native ...

at age 79.

References

External links

Retrosheet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blethen, Clarence 1893 births 1973 deaths Maine Black Bears baseball players Baseball players from Maine Boston Red Sox players Brooklyn Robins players Major League Baseball pitchers Minor league baseball managers Atlanta Crackers players Frederick Hustlers players Greenville Spinners players Knoxville Smokies players Leaksville-Draper-Spray Triplets players Little Rock Travelers players Macon Peaches players Mobile Bears players San Antonio Bears players Savannah Indians players Wilkes-Barre Barons (baseball) players People from Dover-Foxcroft, Maine