#274 Clyde King MG - San Francisco Giants

Clyde Edward King
San Francisco Giants
Manager

Bats:  Both  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'1"  Weight:  175
Born:  May 23, 1924, Goldsboro, NC
Signed:  Signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent before 1944 season
Major League Teams:  Brooklyn Dodgers 1944-1945, 1947-1948, 1951-1952; Cincinnati Redlegs 1953

As a Manager:  San Francisco Giants 1969-1970; Atlanta Braves 1974-1975; New York Yankees 1982
Died:  November 2, 2010, Goldsboro, NC (age 86)

Clyde King was a veteran of 67 baseball seasons, as a pitcher, coach, manager, general manager and front office executive, with 35 of those seasons coming with the New York Yankees.  As a pitcher, King pitched in six different seasons with the Dodgers between 1944 and 1952, and was a member of their pennant-winning teams in 1947 and 1952.  In 1951, he was 14-7 with a 4.15 ERA in 48 games and a career-high 121 1/3 innings pitched.  In 200 major league games, King was 32-25 with a 4.14 ERA.  He was a member of the major league coaching staffs of the Reds (1959) and Pirates (1965-1967), before getting his first major league managerial assignment with the Giants in 1969.  

King guided the Giants to 90 wins in his first season, but he clashed with star Willie Mays (#190) and he'd be dismissed half-way through the 1970 season.  He'd manage the Braves for parts of two seasons in the mid-1970s, and joined the Yankees' front office in 1976.  With the Yankees, King was a super scout, coach (1978, 1981-1982, 1988), general manager and special advisor to owner George Steinbrenner.  He finished out the 1982 season as the Yankees' manager, his last managerial stint, and his lifetime record at the helm was 234-229.

Building the Set / Card #255
March 12, 2023 from The Philly Show (Uncle Dick's Cards)

In mid-March last year, over a year ago at this point, Doug and I attended the Philadelphia Sports Collectors Show, held within the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pennsylvania.  My main focus for this show was accumulating as many 1969 Topps commons as possible, which I did by adding a grand total of 193 cards to our set.  That's almost 30% of the entire set added in one enjoyable afternoon.  I wrote a full summary of the show in a post over at The Phillies Room, found here.

This is the 178th of the 193 commons and semi-stars purchased, pulled and stacked from the first two neon green binders housing 1969 Topps cards at the multi-table spread of Uncle Dick's Cards from Babylon, New York.  My method was simple - I pulled up a chair, found a card I needed, picked the best of the group from the binder page and set it aside.  After each 100 cards, I'd ask the dealer to tell me how much damage I had done so far.  With a budget in mind, I kept going twice, continuing after card #100 and card #200, and stopping at card #298.  The final amount due was 17% off the sticker price for the pile of 193 cards, with this card costing me $1.25.

The Card / Giants Team Set / Accuracy Index -8

This card marks King return to Topps set, as he had last appeared in the 1952 Topps set on a somewhat iconic card that appears to show the pitcher cross-eyed.  King is wearing a Pirates uniform here, as he had been the team's pitching coach through the 1967 season.  The highlight on the back mentions King winning both ends of a double header, which happened on August 22, 1951 against the Cardinals.

Accuracy Index:  King drops to -8 for the Pirates jersey (-5) and blacked out hat (-3).

1969 Season
King managed the Triple-A Phoenix Giants in 1968, and he was named the Giants' manager for the 1969 season following the dismissal of Herman Franks.  The Giants were in first place as late as September 22nd, ultimately falling to the Braves for the National League West pennant over the final week of the season.  The Giants boasted future Hall of Famers Willie McCovey (#440) at first base, Mays in center field and Gaylord Perry (#485) and Juan Marichal (#370) atop their pitching rotation.

McCovey won the team's Triple Crown, batting .320 with 45 home runs and 126 RBIs, and won the league MVP award following the season.  Right fielder Bobby Bonds (#630) was also an offensive force, batting .259 with 32 home runs and 90 RBIs.  Marichael was a 21-game winner with Perry winning 19 games.

Phillies Connection
King was the property of the Dodgers for nine years between 1944 and 1952, with only a five-day period during which he was a member of the Phillies organization.  The Phillies selected King off waivers from the Dodgers on June 9, 1948, with the Dodgers re-acquiring him off waivers from the Phillies on June 14, 1948.  He didn't appear in any games for any of the Phillies' minor league affiliates during that brief time.

1951 Bowman #299

1952 Topps #205

1970 Topps #624

1975 Topps #589

1983 Topps #486

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1951 Bowman #299
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (5):  1952, 1969-1970, 1975, 1983
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  1995 Topps Archives Brooklyn Dodgers #12
Total Non-Parallel Baseball Cards:  31 in the Beckett online database as of 3/3/24.

Update Cards

For my 1965 Topps blog, I used the team card posts to come up with five or six candidates per team for an imaginary update series.  With no team cards in the 1969 Topps set, I'll use each manager card for this exercise, and come up with a list of deserving cards to be included in an 8th/update series.

Like the Reds before them, the Giants are very well-represented in the set and I only came up with five potential update cards.

• Ken Henderson (of) - Fourth outfielder Ken Henderson appeared in 113 games, batting .225.
• Tito Fuentes (inf) - Tito Fuentes made it into 67 games, and was a regular at either third base or shortstop by the end of the season.
• Ron Bryant (lhp) - Ron Bryant appeared in 16 games, including eight starts and was 4-3 with 4.37 ERA.
• Rich Robertson (rhp) - Rich Robertson stars a Rookie Stars card with Cesar Gutierrez (#16), and I'd give him a solo card in my update set.
• George Foster (of) - Future MVP George Foster was a September call-up, appearing in nine games with the Giants.  His rookie card from the 1971 Topps set was still a few years away.
  

Sources:  
Baseball Reference - King / Baseball Reference - 1969 Giants / SABR / Wikipedia

Beckett Database / The Trading Card Database

#273 Ron Willis - St. Louis Cardinals / #275 Vic Davalillo - California Angels