The Local Boys. Joe Heffron

      BILLY CLINGMAN

      NOVEMBER 21, 1869–MAY 14, 1958

      Major League Career

      1890–1903

      Time as a Red

      1890

      Position

      THIRD BASE; SHORTSTOP

      THE FIRST LOCAL RED BORN AFTER THE 1869 RED STOCKINGS PLAYED THEIR FIRST GAME, Billy Clingman also might be the first local Red who grew up dreaming of being one. Years later, he recalled climbing utility poles with his young pals in the early 1880s, in hopes of seeing the games being played at the Bank Street Grounds. Bid McPhee, the team’s star second baseman, was Clingman’s favorite. A gifted athlete, Clingman began playing amateur ball in his teens, making a name for himself as an exceptional fielder, while playing mostly shortstop and third base. In 1889, he starred for one of the top clubs, called the Indians, as well as for an elite, traveling team sponsored by the Enquirer that played teams sponsored by newspapers in other cities.

      The following year, he signed his first professional contract, with Mansfield in the Tri-State League. Noting that Cincinnati has produced many excellent ballplayers, the Enquirer stated on May 31, “Clingman gives promise of being the best of them all. He is undoubtedly the crack amateur of this vicinity.”

      When shortstop Ollie Beard went down with an injury in the first week of September in 1890, the Reds signed Clingman to fill the position. The day before his debut on September 9, the Enquirer crowed, “Every amateur in Cincinnati will ‘pull’ hard for Billy Clingman to make a success this afternoon. It has been charged that enough attention is not given to home talent. Clingman will do his best to put up one of his phenomenal games.” The newspaper also predicted that his many friends and fans would come to the ballpark to cheer him on, adding, “if he fails today it will not be because of lack of proper encouragement.”

      Talk about pressure!

      Twenty-year-old Clingman clearly felt it, making an error in his first game, but he also made a few slick plays and managed a hit in six at-bats. Before the season ended, he played in seven games, at shortstop and second base, hitting .259 in 28 plate appearances.

      However, he picked a bad time to join the Reds, who were in utter chaos. During that off-season, ownership changed three times, each regime planning to play in a different league. Though the Reds ended up staying in the National League, Clingman was released during a short-lived decision to move to the American Association. In 1891, he wound up in the minors but returned to play one game with the city’s other major league team that season, the Cincinnati Kelly’s Killers. He played second base, managing one hit, a double, in five at-bats.

      After bouncing around the minors, he made it back to the majors with Pittsburgh in 1895, then was traded to Louisville the next year in a swap involving fellow Cincinnatian Jack Boyle. Known for his tremendous fielding ability, he led the league in assists and in fielding percentage for third basemen in 1897. But like many a great glove man, Clingman struggled at the plate. He tried switch-hitting for a while, but that didn’t help him much. In fact, in 1898, he led the league in strikeouts. His .246 batting average ranks last among switch hitters with at least 3,000 plate appearances between 1893 and 1960.

      He remained with Louisville until the team folded in 1899, and rumors spread that he would return to the Reds. Instead, he was picked up by the Chicago Orphans (now the Cubs), managed by Tom Loftus, his skipper with the Reds in 1890. After stops in Washington and Cleveland, where he played his final major league game in 1903, he spent a few years in the American Association, by then a minor league, before hanging up his spikes for good.

      Sometime in the early 1890s, the Clingman family moved to Bond Hill, where he made his home for a number of years. During off-seasons, he worked as an engraver, a skill he turned into a successful business after retiring from baseball. In the 1910s, he moved to Louisville and established his own company, which prospered. Instead of using the name “Billy Clingman,” he went by the more distinguished “William F. Clingman,” retiring from Clingman Engraving Company in 1947. He was living at the home of his grandson in Hyde Park when he died at Bethesda Hospital, the last living member of Kelly’s Killers.