Ken vs. Clete - The Boyers

 

TRIVIA WINNER: The first player in modern major league history to go thru arbitration was Dick Woodson of the Twins. He was 34-32 in five years in the bigs, mainly with Minnesota.  

We will still provide a trivia question each week and we hope you participate even though there is no prize at the end. 

NOTE: First of all thank you to those who "follow" the column and if you would hit the "follow" button if you not done that, it would be appreciated. I do this column for free and I am NOT asking for money. We had a sponsor years ago and if you know of a company who would like to sponsor the column, please have them reach out to me at my email which is brillpro@prodigy.net, or provide theirs to me and I'll follow up. Thanx.

NEW TRIVIA QUESTION: Aside from the Alou brothers, who were three brothers who played in  big leagues in the 1970s ?

There were lots of brother teams in the big leagues and the 1960s were no exception. While the Alou's may have been the most successful, no one can deny the prowess of Ken and Clete Boyer. They both played mainly for legacy franchises. Clete mostly with the Yankees and Ken with St. Louis. They both played 3rd base with Ken moving to first in later years.

In 15 seasons as a major leaguer Ken Boyer hit 282 homers, batted .287 and drove in more than 1100 runs. Clete, less the hitter and more of a defender, lasted 16 seasons with 162 homers, a .242 average and less than 700 RBI. 

While Clete may have been overshadowed by his brother, even as a defender. Clete won a Gold Glove and had a .953 fielding average. Twice he was involved in more than 40 double plays. Ken's FA was .957, once he went over 40 Double plays but he also won five Gold Gloves.

When it came to the post season, Clete was better. He made six appearances including five World Series with the Yankees, winning two. One of those he lost was to Ken's Cardinals in 1964. It was Ken's only post season effort and he was named MVP of the National League that season. He was also an 11 time All-Star. Clete never made the All-Star team. 

In that 1964 World Series Clete hit .208 with a home run and three RBI. Ken hit .222, with a pair of homers and six RBI.  Neither is in the Hall of Fame. Ken was six years older than Clete. Ken also went on to manage the Cardinals and has his best season in 1979 with 86 wins and a third place finish. He managed parts of the following and previous seasons. 

===========================================================

I've written more than a dozen books including at least two sports books. You can find these at my own website www.bobbrillbooks.com. Please take a look at the sports books, the western novel series or the "Tattoo Murder," which is a crime book set in Ventura, CA. The newest book is an international thriller called ":05 Seconds to Die."

Use PayPal to brillpro@prodigy.net or contact us at the same email for other payment.