Henry Clarke (baseball)
Encyclopedia
Henry Tefft Clarke, Jr. (August 4, 1875 – March 28, 1950) was an American
baseball
player and coach, lawyer and politician. He played Major League Baseball
pitcher
for the Cleveland Spiders
in 1897 and the Chicago Orphans
in 1898. He was also a coach for the Michigan Wolverines baseball
team. He later served as a Nebraska state legislator and railroad commissioner.
, Nebraska
. His father, Henry T. Clarke, Sr.
, was a well-known merchant who served in the Nebraska territorial legislature. Clarke was educated in the public school at Bellevue until 1882. He attended the public schools in Omaha, Nebraska
from 1882 to 1892. He graduated from Omaha High School in 1892 as the class valedictorian.
in Massachusetts and played on the college's varsity baseball team. In 1893, he made his debut in a victory over the Yale Law School. The New York Times
reported: "Williams had a new pitcher, Clarke, '96 during the first half of the game. He did creditably but showed lack of experience." A later article made note of Clarke's pitching skills as a sophomore in 1894: "He will be remembered by Eastern college men for good work in the box his sophomore year at Williams College, when he gave Lewis a close rub for the position of 'Varsity pitcher.'" In May 1894, The New York Times reported that Clarke had been "fairly effective," except in the first inning, and hit a "beautiful home run" in a loss to Harvard.
. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1896 and remained there for a year of post-graduate work. He played for Amos Alonzo Stagg
's Chicago Maroons
football team in 1895 and 1896, and also played for the Stagg's Chicago Maroons baseball team in 1895, 1896 and 1897. He was the captain of Chicago's 1897 baseball team. Chicago's baseball team compiled records of 15-5, 19-11, and 17-4 during the three years Clarke was a player. In a review of the 1897 baseball season, Outing
magazine wrote: "Henry Clarke, their captain, has proved himself an able leader and is head and shoulders above every other pitcher in this section." The Chicago Daily Tribune gave much of the credit for Chicago's 1897 record to Clarke: "The largest element in the success of the institution by the Midway was the phenomenal pitching of Henry Clarke. If victory can be accredited to any one man that man was Clarke last year."
While attending the University of Chicago, Clarke was also president of his class, president of the glee club, and a member of the Lion's Head
and the O. & S. senior honorary society.
reported that, during Clarke's tryout, Boston manager Frank Selee
had been remarked that Clarke had "good speed, an excellent change of pace, combined with curves that kept the Boston men guessing." Clarke signed instead with the Cleveland Spiders
, joining a pitching staff that included Cy Young
. Between June 26 and August 2, 1897, Clarke appeared in five games for Cleveland, compiling a record of 0 wins and 4 losses and an earned run average
of 5.87. Clarke also appeared in two games as an outfielder in 1897 and compiled a batting average
of .280.
Clarke also briefly returned to Major League Baseball as a pitcher for the Chicago Orphans
in 1898. He appeared in only one game as a pitcher for Chicago, a 5-4 victory over the Cleveland Spiders. His 1898 record was 1-0 with a 2.00 earned run average.
in the fall of 1897. He received his law degree from Michigan in June 1899. While attending law school, he served as the assistant coach of the Michigan Wolverines baseball
team in 1898 and the head coach in 1899. In February 1899, The Michigan Alumnus wrote:
In addition to his position as head coach, Clarke also appeared as a player in several of Michigan's games in 1899. In mid-April 1899, the Wolverines played two games against Milwaukee, a professional baseball team from the Western League. After Michigan gave up seven runs in the second game, Clarke came into the game as a pitcher and pitched the final six innings. He held the Milwaukee team scoreless for two innings, but he gave up eight runs in the sixth inning, two in the seventh and one in the eighth. Michigan lost the game 18-1.
Clarke also appeared in two games against the Hamilton Club of Chicago in May 1899. Michigan won both games by scores of 4-3 and 6-1. During Clarke's two seasons as a baseball coach, the team compiled records of 15-6 and 14-5 and finished 2nd and 1st in the Western Conference
.
Clarke was also the coach of Michigan's all-freshman football team in 1898.
Clarke returned to Nebraska in 1900 and established a law partnership with Frank Crawford
, a classmate from the University of Michigan
who also served as Michigan's first football coach in 1891. They practiced law together as Crawford & Clarke from 1900 to 1905.
In 1904, Clarke was elected as a Republican to the Nebraska House of Representatives. He was reelected to the same office in 1906. Clarke was the sponsor of a child labor bill that passed the Nebraska legislature and was signed into law in 1907. He was also active in the passage of a pure food law.
In March 1907, Clarke was appointed as a Nebraska railroad commissioner by Governor George L. Sheldon
, following a vacancy on the commission. He was elected to the position in a special election in the fall of 1907. He was elected to a full six-year term in 1910.
Clarke worked from at least 1918 to 1920 as a traffic manager and attorney for the Omaha Grain Exchange.
Clarke was a member of the Masons, the Elks, the Royal Arcanum, the Omaha Club, the Fontanelle Club, the Omaha Commercial Club, the Lincoln Commercial Club, the Lincoln Country Club and the Episcopal church.
Clarke spent the last year of his life at the Emory John Brady Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Colorado Springs, Colorado
. He reportedly suffered from Alzheimer's disease
. He died in Colorado Springs in March 1950 at age 74.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
player and coach, lawyer and politician. He played Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
pitcher
Pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe 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 a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...
for the Cleveland Spiders
Cleveland Spiders
The Cleveland Spiders were a Major League Baseball team which played between 1887 and 1899 in Cleveland, Ohio. The team played at National League Park from 1889 to 1890 and at League Park from 1891 to 1899.- 1887-1891 :...
in 1897 and the Chicago Orphans
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
in 1898. He was also a coach for the Michigan Wolverines baseball
Michigan Wolverines baseball
The Michigan Wolverines baseball team represents the University of Michigan in NCAA Division I college baseball. Along with most other Michigan athletic teams, the baseball team participates in the Big Ten Conference...
team. He later served as a Nebraska state legislator and railroad commissioner.
Early years
Clarke was born in August 1875 at BellevueBellevue, Nebraska
Bellevue is a city in Sarpy County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 50,137 at the 2010 census. Eight miles south of Omaha, Bellevue is part of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area. Originally settled in the 1830s, It was the first state capitol. Bellevue was incorporated in...
, Nebraska
Nebraska
Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....
. His father, Henry T. Clarke, Sr.
Henry T. Clarke, Sr.
Henry Tefft Clarke, Sr. was an American businessman, pioneer, and politician from Nebraska.Born in Greenwich, New York, he was educated in the local schools. He moved to Cleveland, Ohio and eventually to Nebraska Territory, where he built railroads and bridges. Eventually, he opened a retail drug...
, was a well-known merchant who served in the Nebraska territorial legislature. Clarke was educated in the public school at Bellevue until 1882. He attended the public schools in Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
from 1882 to 1892. He graduated from Omaha High School in 1892 as the class valedictorian.
Williams College
In 1892, Clarke enrolled at Williams CollegeWilliams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams. Originally a men's college, Williams became co-educational in 1970. Fraternities were also phased out during this...
in Massachusetts and played on the college's varsity baseball team. In 1893, he made his debut in a victory over the Yale Law School. The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reported: "Williams had a new pitcher, Clarke, '96 during the first half of the game. He did creditably but showed lack of experience." A later article made note of Clarke's pitching skills as a sophomore in 1894: "He will be remembered by Eastern college men for good work in the box his sophomore year at Williams College, when he gave Lewis a close rub for the position of 'Varsity pitcher.'" In May 1894, The New York Times reported that Clarke had been "fairly effective," except in the first inning, and hit a "beautiful home run" in a loss to Harvard.
University of Chicago
In the fall of 1894, he transferred to the University of ChicagoUniversity of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1896 and remained there for a year of post-graduate work. He played for Amos Alonzo Stagg
Amos Alonzo Stagg
Amos Alonzo Stagg was an American athlete and pioneering college coach in multiple sports, primarily American football...
's Chicago Maroons
Chicago Maroons
The Maroons are the intercollegiate sports teams of the University of Chicago. They are named after the color maroon, one of the school's colors. They compete in the NCAA's Division III. They are primarily members of the University Athletic Association and were co-founders of the Big Ten...
football team in 1895 and 1896, and also played for the Stagg's Chicago Maroons baseball team in 1895, 1896 and 1897. He was the captain of Chicago's 1897 baseball team. Chicago's baseball team compiled records of 15-5, 19-11, and 17-4 during the three years Clarke was a player. In a review of the 1897 baseball season, Outing
Outing (magazine)
Outing was a late-nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American magazine covering a variety of sporting activities. It began publication in 1882 as the Wheelman and had four title changes before ceasing publication in 1923....
magazine wrote: "Henry Clarke, their captain, has proved himself an able leader and is head and shoulders above every other pitcher in this section." The Chicago Daily Tribune gave much of the credit for Chicago's 1897 record to Clarke: "The largest element in the success of the institution by the Midway was the phenomenal pitching of Henry Clarke. If victory can be accredited to any one man that man was Clarke last year."
While attending the University of Chicago, Clarke was also president of his class, president of the glee club, and a member of the Lion's Head
Lion's Head
Lion's Head may refer to:* Lion's Head , South African mountain*Lion's Head, Ontario*Lion's Head Provincial Park, a provincial park near Lion's Head, Ontario* Lion's head , a meatball and cabbage dish in Chinese Huaiyang cuisine...
and the O. & S. senior honorary society.
Major League Baseball
In May 1897, Clarke won a tryout with the Boston Beaneaters. The Chicago Daily TribuneChicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
reported that, during Clarke's tryout, Boston manager Frank Selee
Frank Selee
Frank Gibson Selee was an American Major League Baseball manager in the National League . In his 16 year Major League career, he managed the Boston Beaneaters for 12 seasons, and the Chicago Orphans for four.He was noted for his ability to assess and utilize talent, which gave his teams a great...
had been remarked that Clarke had "good speed, an excellent change of pace, combined with curves that kept the Boston men guessing." Clarke signed instead with the Cleveland Spiders
Cleveland Spiders
The Cleveland Spiders were a Major League Baseball team which played between 1887 and 1899 in Cleveland, Ohio. The team played at National League Park from 1889 to 1890 and at League Park from 1891 to 1899.- 1887-1891 :...
, joining a pitching staff that included Cy Young
Cy Young
Denton True "Cy" Young was an American Major League Baseball pitcher. During his 22-year baseball career , he pitched for five different teams. Young was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937...
. Between June 26 and August 2, 1897, Clarke appeared in five games for Cleveland, compiling a record of 0 wins and 4 losses and an earned run average
Earned run average
In baseball statistics, earned run average is the mean of earned runs given up by a pitcher per nine innings pitched. It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number of innings pitched and multiplying by nine...
of 5.87. Clarke also appeared in two games as an outfielder in 1897 and compiled a batting average
Batting average
Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...
of .280.
Clarke also briefly returned to Major League Baseball as a pitcher for the Chicago Orphans
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
in 1898. He appeared in only one game as a pitcher for Chicago, a 5-4 victory over the Cleveland Spiders. His 1898 record was 1-0 with a 2.00 earned run average.
University of Michigan
Clarke enrolled at the University of Michigan Law SchoolUniversity of Michigan Law School
The University of Michigan Law School is the law school of the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor. Founded in 1859, the school has an enrollment of about 1,200 students, most of whom are seeking Juris Doctor or Master of Laws degrees, although the school also offers a Doctor of Juridical...
in the fall of 1897. He received his law degree from Michigan in June 1899. While attending law school, he served as the assistant coach of the Michigan Wolverines baseball
Michigan Wolverines baseball
The Michigan Wolverines baseball team represents the University of Michigan in NCAA Division I college baseball. Along with most other Michigan athletic teams, the baseball team participates in the Big Ten Conference...
team in 1898 and the head coach in 1899. In February 1899, The Michigan Alumnus wrote:
"Next to the presence of a lot of new player the question of having a good all round coach is important. There will be no doubt on that score this year ad the management has hired Henry Clarke, the famous ex-Chicago pitcher, who for the past two years has been a student in the law department here and was last year assistant coach of the baseball team. .... He brings to the duties of his advanced position a knowledge of the game in all its departments, a long schooling on the best college teams, and a valuable experience in National LeagueNational LeagueThe National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...
company. His aid to the battery candidates will be invaluable and as he was regarded as Chicago's crack batsman for two years his development of Michigan's comparatively weak stick work will be watched with interest."
In addition to his position as head coach, Clarke also appeared as a player in several of Michigan's games in 1899. In mid-April 1899, the Wolverines played two games against Milwaukee, a professional baseball team from the Western League. After Michigan gave up seven runs in the second game, Clarke came into the game as a pitcher and pitched the final six innings. He held the Milwaukee team scoreless for two innings, but he gave up eight runs in the sixth inning, two in the seventh and one in the eighth. Michigan lost the game 18-1.
Clarke also appeared in two games against the Hamilton Club of Chicago in May 1899. Michigan won both games by scores of 4-3 and 6-1. During Clarke's two seasons as a baseball coach, the team compiled records of 15-6 and 14-5 and finished 2nd and 1st in the Western Conference
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference is the United States' oldest Division I college athletic conference. Its twelve member institutions are located primarily in the Midwestern United States, stretching from Nebraska in the west to Pennsylvania in the east...
.
Clarke was also the coach of Michigan's all-freshman football team in 1898.
Legal and political career
In the fall of 1899, Clarke was admitted to the Illinois bar and joined the Chicago law firm of Church, McMurdy & Sherman.Clarke returned to Nebraska in 1900 and established a law partnership with Frank Crawford
Frank Crawford
Frank Crawford was a college football player and coach, lawyer and law professor. He played college football at Yale University and served as the first head football coach at the University of Michigan in 1891...
, a classmate from the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
who also served as Michigan's first football coach in 1891. They practiced law together as Crawford & Clarke from 1900 to 1905.
In 1904, Clarke was elected as a Republican to the Nebraska House of Representatives. He was reelected to the same office in 1906. Clarke was the sponsor of a child labor bill that passed the Nebraska legislature and was signed into law in 1907. He was also active in the passage of a pure food law.
In March 1907, Clarke was appointed as a Nebraska railroad commissioner by Governor George L. Sheldon
George L. Sheldon
George Lawson Sheldon was the 14th Governor of Nebraska from 1907 until 1909. He was a Republican from the progressive wing of that party, identified nationally with Theodore Roosevelt.-Early years:...
, following a vacancy on the commission. He was elected to the position in a special election in the fall of 1907. He was elected to a full six-year term in 1910.
Clarke worked from at least 1918 to 1920 as a traffic manager and attorney for the Omaha Grain Exchange.
Clarke was a member of the Masons, the Elks, the Royal Arcanum, the Omaha Club, the Fontanelle Club, the Omaha Commercial Club, the Lincoln Commercial Club, the Lincoln Country Club and the Episcopal church.
Family and later years
Clarke was married in September 1901 to Grace Louise Allen. They had three children, Allen Gordon Clarke, William Cleveland Clarke and Henry T. Clarke III.Clarke spent the last year of his life at the Emory John Brady Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...
. He reportedly suffered from Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
. He died in Colorado Springs in March 1950 at age 74.