View source for Clyde Sukeforth

{{Short description|American baseball player, coach, and manager (1901–2000)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox baseball biography
| name = Clyde Sukeforth
| image = Clyde_Sukeforth.jpg
| caption =
| position = [[Catcher]] / [[Manager (baseball)|Manager]]
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1901|11|30}}
| birth_place = [[Washington, Maine]], U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2000|9|3|1901|11|30}}
| death_place = [[Waldoboro, Maine]], U.S.
| bats = Left
| throws = Right
| debutleague = MLB
| debutdate = May 23
| debutyear = 1926
| debutteam = Cincinnati Reds
| finalleague = MLB
| finaldate = June 7
| finalyear = 1945
| finalteam = Brooklyn Dodgers
| statleague = MLB
| stat1label = [[Batting average (baseball)|Batting average]]
| stat1value = .264
| stat2label = [[Home run]]s
| stat2value = 2
| stat3label = [[Run batted in|Runs batted in]]
| stat3value = 96
| teams =
'''As player'''
* [[Cincinnati Reds]] ({{Baseball year|1926}}–{{Baseball year|1931}})
* [[Brooklyn Dodgers]] ({{Baseball year|1932}}–{{Baseball year|1934}}, {{Baseball year|1945}})
'''As coach'''
* [[Brooklyn Dodgers]] ({{Baseball year|1943}}–{{Baseball year|1951}})
* [[Pittsburgh Pirates]] ({{Baseball year|1952}}–{{Baseball year|1957}})
}}

'''Clyde Leroy Sukeforth''' (November 30, 1901 – September 3, 2000), nicknamed "'''Sukey'''", was an American [[baseball]] [[catcher]], [[coach (baseball)|coach]], [[scout (sport)|scout]] and [[manager (baseball)|manager]]. He was best known for scouting and signing [[Jackie Robinson]], the [[baseball color line|first black player]] in the modern era of [[Major League Baseball]] (MLB), to the [[Brooklyn Dodgers]], after Robinson was scouted by [[Tom Greenwade]] in the Negro leagues. He was also instrumental in scouting and acquiring [[Roberto Clemente]] for the [[Pittsburgh Pirates]].

==Early life==
Sukeforth was born in [[Washington, Maine]]. His father Pearle was a dairy farmer who played baseball in his spare time. His mother Sarah "Sadie" Sukeforth ({{nee|Grinnell}}). Sukeforth also had an older sister named Hazel (b. 1899).<ref name=sabr>{{cite web |url=https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/clyde-sukeforth/ |title=Clyde Sukeforth (SABR BioProject) |work=Society for American Baseball Research}}</ref>

He graduated from [[Coburn Classical Institute]], a high school in [[Waterville, Maine]], and later attended [[Georgetown University]] for two years where he starred as catcher and left fielder for the [[Georgetown Hoyas baseball|Georgetown Hoyas baseball team]].<ref name=sabr/>

==Baseball career==
===Eye injury impaired playing career===
After university, Sukeforth joined the [[Nashua Millionaires]] of the [[New England League]] and later played for the [[Manchester Blue Sox]]. He was acquired by the [[Cincinnati Reds]] in {{Baseball year|1926}}.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/sukefcl01.shtml|title= Clyde Sukeforth|publisher= [[Baseball-Reference.com]]}}</ref>

Sukeforth batted left-handed and threw right-handed, and was listed as {{convert|5|ft|10|in}} tall and {{convert|155|lb}} during his active career. He appeared in 486 games over all or parts of ten big-league seasons (1926–34 and 1945), compiling a [[batting average (baseball)|batting average]] of .264 with 326 [[hit (baseball)|hits]], two [[home run]]s and 96 [[runs batted in]].

His best year in the Major Leagues was {{Baseball year|1929}}, when he [[batting average (baseball)|batted]] .354 for the Reds with 84 [[hit (baseball)|hits]] in 84 [[games played]]. Two years later he lost partial sight of his right eye from being hit by a shotgun pellet while bird hunting on November 16.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Sukeforth Certain Vision Not Impaired|magazine=[[The Sporting News]]|date=December 3, 1931}}</ref> He was able to continue his playing career, but his batting suffered, and in {{Baseball year|1932}} Sukeforth was traded to the [[Brooklyn Dodgers]]. In mid-1934, the Dodgers sent Sukeforth to the [[minor leagues]], where he became a [[player-manager]] in 1936.

===Witnessed Robinson's historic signing===
Sukeforth managed in the Brooklyn farm system from 1937 to 1942 with the [[Clinton Owls]] of the [[Class B (baseball)|Class B]] [[Three-I League]], the [[Elmira Pioneers]] of the [[Class A (baseball)|Class A]] [[Eastern League (1938–2020)|Eastern League]] and the [[Montreal Royals]] of the [[Triple-A (baseball)|top-level]] [[International League]] before his promotion to the Dodger coaching staff in {{Baseball year|1943}}. He also was activated by Brooklyn at age 43 for 18 games during the first three months of the {{baseball year|1945}} season, the last year of the [[World War II]] manpower shortage, despite not having played competitively since 1939, when he was a player-manager at Elmira. Sukeforth started 13 games as Brooklyn's catcher, and collected 15 [[hit (baseball)|hits]], although only one was for extra bases, a [[double (baseball)|double]] struck against [[Jim Tobin]] of the [[Boston Braves (baseball)|Boston Braves]] on April 24. He batted .288 in 55 at-bats.

Sukeforth soon retired permanently from the playing ranks and resumed his former job as a Brooklyn coach and occasional special-assignment scout. In that capacity, later that season, he would make history. Dodger president [[Branch Rickey]] was making secret plans to break organized baseball's six-decades-long "gentleman's agreement" that enforced racial segregation. In August, Rickey sent Sukeforth to [[Chicago]], where Robinson's team, the [[Kansas City Monarchs]] of the [[Negro leagues]], was slated to play the [[Chicago American Giants]]. Rickey told Sukeforth to urge Robinson to come back with him to Brooklyn for a meeting with Rickey and the Dodgers. Sukeforth met Robinson again in [[Toledo, Ohio]], and the two men traveled by railway to Brooklyn for the historic meeting at the Dodgers' Montague Street offices on August 28. He was the only other person in the room when Rickey told Robinson of his plans to offer him a contract to play in [[Montreal]] in {{Baseball year|1946}}.

Then, in {{baseball year|1947}}, Sukeforth—functioning in the unwanted role of interim manager of the Dodgers after the suspension of [[Leo Durocher]]—wrote Robinson's name into the Dodger lineup on Opening Day on April 15 against the Braves at [[Ebbets Field]].

In addition to serving on Durocher's coaching staff and his scouting assignments for Dodgers president Rickey, he worked behind the scenes in 1946 to help create the new [[Nashua Dodgers]] of the Class B [[New England League]]. Sukeforth helped the [[Nashua Dodgers|Nashua]] team forge ties with the [[New Hampshire]] community, easing the racial integration of the league when [[Roy Campanella]] and [[Don Newcombe]] were assigned to that club.

===Turned down two managerial opportunities===
Sukeforth won his only two games as the Dodgers' manager in 1947, 5–3 and 12–6, both against Boston. Durocher had been suspended for the entire 1947 season by [[Commissioner of Baseball]] [[Happy Chandler]] because of "conduct detrimental to baseball." But Sukeforth and a fellow coach, [[Ray Blades]], both turned down the opportunity to serve as acting manager for the rest of the season; ultimately, Brooklyn scout and longtime Rickey associate [[Burt Shotton]] assumed that role, and Shotton led the Dodgers to the [[1947 World Series|1947 National League pennant]].

In {{Baseball year|1951}}, when Dodger manager [[Chuck Dressen]] needed a reliever to face the [[New York Giants (NL)|New York Giants]]' [[Bobby Thomson]] in the ninth inning of the decisive third game of the National League pennant playoff, Sukeforth, coaching in the Dodger [[bullpen]], passed over [[Carl Erskine]] and sent in [[Ralph Branca]], who gave up Thomson's "[[Shot Heard 'Round the World (baseball)|shot heard 'round the world]]". On January 9, 1952, Sukeforth resigned as a Dodgers coach,<ref>{{cite news|agency=United Press |date=January 9, 1952 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=a0gbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gE0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=4995%2C3106933 |title=Billy Herman Brooklyn Coach; Ex-Manager Succeeds Sukeforth |newspaper=[[The Pittsburgh Press]] |access-date=April 14, 2020}}</ref> then a few weeks later signed to be a coach with the [[Pittsburgh Pirates]],<ref>{{cite news|title=Sukeforth Signed to Coach Pirates|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hFwxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=SwAEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3017,4559081&dq=clyde+sukeforth+pittsburgh+pirates+signed&hl=en|access-date=4 March 2016|newspaper=[[The Blade (Toledo, Ohio)|Toledo Blade]]|date=January 27, 1952}}</ref> where Rickey was executive vice president and [[general manager]].

There, as a coach and occasional scout, he played a pivotal role in the drafting of [[Roberto Clemente]] from the Brooklyn organization in the {{Baseball year|1954}} [[Rule 5 draft]].<ref>{{cite news |author= Biederman, Les |date=July 29, 1956 |url=http://www.mediafire.com/view/t1rmnke6tg5g1dt |title=Bob Clemente Discovered by Clyde Sukeforth |newspaper=[[The Pittsburgh Press]] |access-date=April 14, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Hernon, Jack |date=September 16, 1956 |url=http://www.mediafire.com/view/7urnziulnextyme |title=Roamin' Around: Potentially a Great One! |newspaper=[[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]] |access-date=April 14, 2020}}</ref> Rickey initially sent Sukeforth to scout former major league pitcher [[Joe Black]], who was toiling for Brooklyn's [[Montreal Royals]] [[Triple-A (baseball)|Triple-A]] affiliate. Instead, Sukeforth became interested in a 20-year-old Dodger prospect: Clemente. Sukeforth told Pirates' beat writer Les Biederman, "I knew then he'd be our first draft choice." Before leaving, he recalled, "I told Montreal manager [[Max Macon]] to take good care of 'our boy' and see that he didn't get hurt."  Good to his word, the Pirates drafted Clemente on November 22, 1954.<ref>{{cite news |title=How the Pirates stole Roberto Clemente from the Dodgers. |url=https://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/62869/how-the-pirates-stole-roberto-clemente-from-the-dodgers |author=Schoenfield, David |work=[[ESPN]] |date=September 16, 2015}}</ref> Clemente forged an 18-year Hall of Fame career with the Pirates, leading them to the [[1960 World Series|1960]] and [[1971 World Series|1971]] world championships, compiling an even 3,000 [[hit (baseball)|hits]], and earning an immediate elevation to Cooperstown after his untimely death in a plane crash while on a humanitarian mission to [[1972 Nicaragua earthquake|earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua]] on December 31, 1972.<ref>{{cite book |author=O'Toole, Andrew |year=2000 |url=https://archive.org/details/branchrickeyinpi0000otoo/mode/2up |title=Branch Rickey in Pittsburgh: Baseball's Trailblazing General Manager for the Pirates |pages= 140–142 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=0786408391}}</ref>

Once again passing up a Major League managing assignment after turning down the chance to succeed Pirate skipper [[Bobby Bragan]]<ref>{{cite news|title=Bragan Ousted|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_eVkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=XnkNAAAAIBAJ&pg=5795,399814&dq=bragan+sukeforth+pirates+manager&hl=en|access-date=4 March 2016|agency=Associated Press|publisher=[[Saskatoon StarPhoenix|Sasakatoon Star-Phoenix]]|date=August 3, 1957}}</ref> on August 3, {{Baseball year|1957}}, Sukeforth retired as a coach at the end of the 1957 season.<ref>{{cite news|title=Firing Coaches From Big Leagues Will Continue|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mclHAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7_4MAAAAIBAJ&pg=903,6011769&dq=sukeforth+retired+pirates+coach&hl=en|access-date=4 March 2016|agency=Associated Press|newspaper=[[Record-Journal|Meriden Record]]|date=October 31, 1957}}</ref>

===Later career===
Sukeforth remained in the Pirates organization as a scout and occasional [[Minor League Baseball|minor league]] manager through {{Baseball year|1965}}. Later, he worked as a scout for the [[Atlanta Braves]].

==Personal life==
Sukeforth was married twice. His first wife Helen ({{nee|Miller}}), whom he married in 1933, died from complications after childbirth, two weeks after the birth of their daughter Helen (1938-2024) who was named so in honor of her mother. Sukeforth remarried in December 1951, to Grethel Winchenbach ({{nee|Pitcher}}), a widow from [[Waldoboro, Maine]], and they remained together until her death in 1999.<ref name=sabr/>

Sukeforth died at the age of ninety-eight at his home in Waldoboro; he was buried in Brookland Cemetery, next to his first wife.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Anderson|first1=Dave|title=Clyde Sukeforth, 98, Is Dead; Steered Robinson to Majors|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/06/sports/clyde-sukeforth-98-is-dead-steered-robinson-to-majors.html|access-date=4 March 2016|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=September 6, 2000}}</ref> Through his daughter, Sukeforth had four grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.

==In popular culture==
Sukeforth appears in the [[Norman Rockwell]] painting ''[[Tough Call]]''.

In ''[[42 (film)|42]]'', the 2013 [[sports film]] about Robinson's breaking of the [[baseball color line]], Sukeforth is played by actor [[Toby Huss]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2018797/42#overview |title=42 (2013) |work=[[Turner Classic Movies]]}}</ref>

The Northern New England chapter of the [[Society of American Baseball Research]], located in [[New London, New Hampshire]], is named in honor of Sukeforth.<ref>{{cite web |title=Clyde Sukeforth Chapter (Northern New England) |url=https://sabr.org/chapter/northern-new-england-chapter/ |website=Society for American Baseball Research}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
===Books===
* {{cite book |last=Honig |first=Donald |date=1975 |url=https://archive.org/details/baseballwhengras00honi/page/178 |title=Baseball When the Grass Was Real: Baseball from the Twenties to the Forties Told by the Men Who Played It |location=New York City |publisher=Coward, McGann & Geoghegan |pages=178–191 |isbn=978-1511-3187-30}}

===Articles===
* {{cite magazine |author=Coffey, Alex |title=Clyde Sukeforth: The man who scouted Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente |date=April 15, 2020 |magazine=[[The Athletic]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1746905/2020/04/15/clyde-sukeforth-the-man-who-scouted-jackie-robinson-and-roberto-clemente/}}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30555113/the-enduring-bond-jackie-robinson-man-guided-majors |title=How Clyde Sukeforth played a pivotal role in baseball's biggest moments |first=Steve |last=Wulf |work=[[ESPN]] |date=December 30, 2020}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography|Baseball}}
{{baseballstats|br=s/sukefcl01|fangraphs=1012675|brm=sukefo001cly}}
{{baseball-reference manager|sukefcl01}}
*{{sabrbio|clyde-sukeforth}}
*{{find a Grave|48710349}}

{{Jackie Robinson}}
{{Roberto Clemente}}
{{Los Angeles Dodgers managers}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sukeforth, Clyde}}
[[Category:1901 births]]
[[Category:2000 deaths]]
[[Category:Albany Senators players]]
[[Category:Atlanta Braves scouts]]
[[Category:Baseball coaches from Maine]]
[[Category:Baseball players from Maine]]
[[Category:Brooklyn Dodgers coaches]]
[[Category:Brooklyn Dodgers managers]]
[[Category:Brooklyn Dodgers players]]
[[Category:Brooklyn Dodgers scouts]]
[[Category:Cincinnati Reds players]]
[[Category:Clinton Owls players]]
[[Category:Elmira Pioneers players]]
[[Category:Georgetown Hoyas baseball players]]
[[Category:Jackie Robinson]]
[[Category:Leaksville-Draper-Spray Triplets players]]
[[Category:Major League Baseball catchers]]
[[Category:Major League Baseball bullpen coaches]]
[[Category:Major League Baseball first base coaches]]
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[[Category:Minneapolis Millers (baseball) players]]
[[Category:Minor league baseball managers]]
[[Category:Montreal Royals managers]]
[[Category:Nashua Millionaires players]]
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[[Category:Pittsburgh Pirates scouts]]
[[Category:People from Waldoboro, Maine]]
[[Category:People from Washington, Maine]]
[[Category:20th-century American sportsmen]]
[[Category:Coburn Classical Institute alumni]]