User:RenamedUser jaskldjslak901/David Clyde

David Eugene Clyde (born April 22, 1955 in Kansas City, Kansas) is a former left-handed Major League Baseball pitcher who played for five seasons with the Texas Rangers (1973–1975) and Cleveland Indians (1978–1979). He is best known for his once promising baseball career, which ended at age 26 because of arm and shoulder injuries.

Billed as the next Sandy Koufax, Clyde had a stellar high school career at Westchester High School. He was drafted with the first overall pick in the 1973 MLB Draft. He planned to his first two professional games with the Rangers before moving down to the minor leagues, but Rangers owner Bob Short decided to keep him in the roster for monetary purposes, where he had a 5.01 earned run average in 18 starts. Journalists criticized the Rangers for promoting Clyde too soon, and after an uneventful 1974 campaign, he developed shoulder trouble and was sent down to the minor leagues in 1975, where he pitched three seasons. He was traded to the Cleveland Indians in 1978, and played two seasons before being demoted. Clyde attempted to make a comeback with the Houston Astros but was unsuccessful and he retired from baseball at age 26.

Clyde unsuccessful career made him the poster-boy for bringing up young players prematurely and dealing with arm injuries. He was named by journalist Randy Galloway as among the worst cases of "mishandling" a young player in baseball history. Oddly enough, he is considered by many as a savior of the Texas Rangers franchise because of the significant attendance boost that Clyde's hype brought to the team, preventing it from a possible bankruptcy or American League takeover.

Early life
Clyde was born in Kansas City, Kansas, the son of a telephone executive and moved to Houston, Texas in 1969. He played football and baseball at Westchester High School in Houston where he was known to be a perfectionist and an excellent student. In his senior year, Clyde finished with a stellar record of 18-0 and only three earned runs in 148 innings pitched, five no-hitters and setting 14 national high school records. His dominance attracted the attention of many Major League scouts, some of whom billed Clyde as the "next Sandy Koufax" and the "best pitching prospect they ever seen".

Clyde was being hyped by publications such as Sports Illustrated and Newsweek prior to the 1973 MLB Draft, and was the consensus best player available that year. He was the first person selected in the 1973 draft by the Texas Rangers. He received a $125,000 ($0 today) signing bonus, the highest bonus ever given to a draft pick at the time, and a free college education. When signing his contract, Clyde stated that his career goal was to "become the greatest pitcher ever".

Major League career
Prior to the draft, the Texas Rangers had the second-smallest gate in the American League, ahead of only the Cleveland Indians despite having Hall of Famer Ted Williams as manager. They had moved from Washington, D.C., two years prior, and Short expanded Arlington Stadium an extra 20,000 seats. Owner Bob Short was looking for some sort of spark to boost attendance, and found it using fellow Texas native Clyde. When Clyde agreed to sign his rookie contract, part of the deal was to make his first two professional starts with the Rangers at their home field before heading to the minors to develop.

Twenty days after pitching his last high school game, Clyde won his first ever Major League start before 35,000+ fans in Arlington Stadium, the first sellout in stadium history. After a rusty beginning in which he walked the first two batters he faced, he settled down, pitched five innings, giving up only one hit (a home run to Mike Adams) while striking out eight batters in a 4–3 victory over the Minnesota Twins. Clyde later called it his most memorable game in his Major League career.

Clyde then pitched well in his second start against the Chicago White Sox, pitching six innings before a blister in his finger forced him out of the game. However with his performance in the two starts, the Rangers dropped all plans to send him to the minors. The youngest player to play in a major league game in 1973, Clyde pitched a total of eighteen games (all starts) that season, finishing with a record of 4-8, with a 5.01 ERA. Questioned about the difference between high school or professional baseball, Clyde stated that MLB hitters "see the ball better, thus they make contact more often".

He began 1974 season with a 3–0 record. However he was embroiled in controversy because of a dispute between new manager Billy Martin and general manager Bobby Brown. They argued about the best way on handling Clyde's future development, which led to Brown's resignation and forced Clyde caused to miss a month before remaining in the Rangers roster for the rest of the year. He played in 28 games (21 starts) and finished with 3-9 record, and a 4.38 ERA. He started one game in 1975 (a loss) before injuring his shoulder and was demoted to the Pittsfield Rangers of the Eastern League. He stayed in the minors for three seasons, having a shoulder operation in 1976. The Rangers organization lost so much faith in Clyde's ability that he was left unprotected in the 1976 Major League Baseball expansion draft, but was not chosen. He played for the Tucson Toros of the Pacific Coast League in 1977 where he had 5–7 record with a 5.84 earned run average. When the season ended, the Rangers traded Clyde and veteran Willie Horton to the Cleveland Indians for Tom Buskey and John Lowenstein on February 28, 1978.

Clyde started for the Indians that year, playing in 28 games and finished with a record of 8-11, with a 4.28 ERA and 83 strikeouts. In his first start with the Indians, he gave up four hits in a 3–2 complete game victory against the Oakland Athletics. Clyde also finished fourth in the American League with 11 wild pitches. He pitched in nine games with the Indians in 1979 (3-4, 5.91 ERA) before tearing his rotator cuff and was demoted to the minors, playing in what would be his last Major League game on August 7, 1979. He was traded back to the Rangers after the 1979 season, but injured his shoulder for the second time, and was released prior to the 1980 season with the Rangers claiming that Clyde was "damaged goods".

Clyde tried to restart his career with the Houston Astros for the 1981 season, but spent the season in the minor leagues splitting time between the Columbus Astros and Tucson Toros. He dominated for Columbus, having a 6–0 record with a 0.76 earned run average, but struggled with the Toros, having a 6.85 earned run average. Clyde retired from professional baseball on February 5, 1982, while participating in an instructional league.

In his five year career, Clyde had an 18-33 win-loss record with a 4.63 earned run average and 228 strikeouts in 84 games pitched.

Legacy
Named a sensation, phenomenon or other hyped up words in his first two years in the league, most of Clyde's troubles were attributed to the rush to get him into the majors before he was ready. This was due in part because of the Rangers weak finances at the time. The Rangers averaged a near-capacity crowd in Clyde's six home starts, but 6,000 fans for the other 75 home dates. Prior to Clyde's debut, the highest crowd in Rangers history was 24,000. At the end of the 1973 season, Clyde drew nearly a third of all fans in attendance for Rangers home games throughout the year. According to journalist Randy Galloway, Clyde put baseball on the map in Dallas, as the city started to get interested on the sport, even after Clyde's inconsistency forced him out of the league. Longtime Rangers coach Jackie Moore agreed with Galloway, stating that Clyde and Corbett buying the team "went a long way toward saving the franchise". Using Clyde success of bringing attendance up as an example, Short sold the Rangers to Brad Corbett in 1974, which prevented the American League from taking over the team, thus potentially saving the franchise.

In his autobiography White Rat his first big league manager, future Baseball Hall of Famer Whitey Herzog stated that he was often forced to leave Clyde in the game much longer than usual because fans wanted to see the 18-year-old "phenom" pitch. It led to Clyde's arm burning out at an early age, Herzog argued. In a 2003 interview with the New York Times, Herzog blasted Bob Short, stating that "(Short) sure wasn't going to send him down without getting some people in the ballpark to see him. The kid should've gone to the minors after two starts." He also said that Clyde "was one of the best young left-handed pitchers I've ever seen." Former teammate Tom Grieve said that keeping Clyde in the roster was the “dumbest thing you could ever do to a high school pitcher.”

Clyde himself is convinced that he was rushed too early in his career, saying in 2003, "If nothing else came out of my career, the things I hear periodically are, 'We're not gonna do what we did to that young man, what we did to David Clyde.'" One week before the thirtieth anniversary of his first career game, Clyde threw the ceremonial first pitch to his ex teammate Ken Suarez during an Rangers-Astros game.

Personal life
The problems Clyde had during the 1974 and 1975 seasons made him dependent on alcohol, which Clyde later called "the lowest point of my life". He had two failed marriages, the first one with his high school sweetheart, before settling down with his third wife, Robin, having two boys Ryan and Reed, and a daughter Robin. He worked on his father in law lumber business in Tomball, Texas for 20 years, which he called one of the best moments of his life, giving him a "peace of mind". He retired in 2003 as vice president of the company, and worked as a coach for a local youth baseball team. He is now a caregiver for his elderly father.