Clarence Edward Heise (August 7, 1907 – May 30, 1999), was a
Major League Baseball pitcher who played in with the
St. Louis Cardinals.
Heise was originally in the Middle Atlantic League organization, playing for the Scottdale, PA, Class C team. In August 1933, Cardinals general manager
Branch Rickey
Wesley Branch Rickey (December 20, 1881 – December 9, 1965) was an American baseball player and sports executive. Rickey was instrumental in breaking Major League Baseball's color barrier by signing black player Jackie Robinson. He also creat ...
called his counterpart with the Cubs,
William Veeck, Sr. William Louis Veeck Sr. (January 20, 1876 – October 5, 1933) was an American sportswriter and baseball executive. He was president of the Chicago Cubs from 1919 to his death in October, 1933. Under Veeck's leadership, the Cubs won two pennants, i ...
and offered him two pitchers—Heise and
Bill Lee. According to
Bill Veeck
William Louis Veeck Jr. ( ; February 9, 1914 – January 2, 1986), also known as "Sport Shirt Bill", was an American Major League Baseball franchise owner and promoter. Veeck was at various times the owner of the Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Br ...
, one of Rickey's favorite tricks was to offer another team two players and trust that the other team would take the wrong one. In the case of Lee and Heise, Rickey knew that all but one Cubs pitcher was right-handed, and expected the Cubs to take Heise, a left-hander. However, on the advice of chief scout
Jack Doyle, the Cubs took Lee.
The trade proved to be one of the most lopsided trades of the 1930s, and one of the few instances where Rickey, well known for fleecing other
National League teams, got fleeced himself. Heise appeared in only one game during the 1934 season, allowing three hits and three runs in two innings of relief in what would be his only major league action. He was sent back to the minors after the season, and spent the next three years in the Cardinals,
Chicago White Sox and
Washington Senators organizations before retiring. Meanwhile, Lee won 169 games in 14 years, 139 of them with the Cubs.
Heise was born in
Topeka, Kansas, and died in
Winter Park, Florida. His son,
Jim, played for the
Washington Senators in 1957.
See also
*
List of second-generation Major League Baseball players
References
External links
1907 births
1999 deaths
Major League Baseball pitchers
St. Louis Cardinals players
Baseball players from Kansas
Sportspeople from Topeka, Kansas
Laurel Cardinals players
{{US-baseball-pitcher-1900s-stub