Henry Clarke (baseball)
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. Early years Clarke was born in August 1875 at Bellevue, 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. He was brother to fellow player, coach Maurice Gordon Clarke. Williams College In 1892, Clarke enrolled at Williams College 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. University of Chicago In the fall of 1894, he transferred to the University of Chicago. 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. Major League Baseball In May 1897, Clarke won a tryout with the Boston Beaneaters. The Chicago Daily Tribune reported that, during Clarke's