Clyde Bateman

Henry Quait Bateman
(Clyde, Sis)

• Bats Right
• Born December 25, 1875 in Melissa, TX USA
• Died January 18, 1937 in Milwaukee, WI USA

BR Minors page

Biographical Information

Clyde Bateman was a minor league two-way star, playing first base and pitcher.

Bateman was 1-0 for the 1902 Fort Worth Panthers. In 1903, he dazzled for the Paris Parisites/Waco Steers. He hit .344/?/.544 with 13 homers in 88 games and went 18-15 on the mound, completing 32 of 34 starts. He hit four homers and a triple on May 13, the second Texas Leaguer with a four-homer game; Nig Clarke had done so previously. On July 11, he threw a no-hitter against Fort Worth, giving him rarely offensive and pitching feats fewer than two months apart. He tied Reeve McKay for third in the TL in wins (behind Rip Ragan and Bert Hise), led in average (.031 ahead of runner-up Pep Clark), led in hits (132, 1 ahead of Clark), tied Dee Poindexter for third in doubles (20), led in triples (9), tied Roland Wolfe for the home run lead, led in slugging (.036 ahead of Wolfe) and led in total bases (209, 21 more than Clark).

He moved to the Milwaukee Brewers in 1904 and would spend most of his career there. He hit .287/?/.405 with 8 triples and 9 home runs his first year, going 4-2 as a pitcher. He tied Tom McCreery and Dan Kerwin for second in the American Association in dingers, behind Jim Jackson's 13. He was 13-11 for Milwaukee in 1905 and batted .314 with 7 triples and a .426 slugging percentage. He made the top 10 in the AA in average (every one else in the top 10 would be in the majors at some point) and tied for 7th in home runs (6, even with Pete Noonan, Bill O'Neill and Jack Thoney). At year's end, he, Charlie Dexter and some others hired a ride to take them around Des Moines, IA; both he and Dexter were drunk. When the ride ended, they feuded over who was to pay; Bateman called Dexter a nasty name and Dexter stabbed him. Early accounts listed Bateman as near death, but later ones said he was not badly hurt and would not file charges.

Bateman hit .267/?/.380 with 38 doubles and 9 triples for the 1906 Brewers. He was second in the AA in doubles (one behind Nig Perrine), tied Monte Beville, Charlie Carr and Bill Hinchman for 8th in home runs (4) and tied Roy Brashear for 10th in total bases (229; everyone else in the top 28 would play in the majors during their careers). He remained in Milwaukee in 1907-1908 but was never as sharp as he had been from 1903-1906. He hit .176/?/.209 in 25 games in 1907 and .243/?/.313 in 1908, going 7-8 as a pitcher that year. Milwaukee sold him to the Vernon Tigers but he did not report. In 1909, he hit just .220 for the Oshkosh Indians. He split 1910 between the Monmouth Browns and Burlington Pathfinders, hitting a combined .229/?/.312 to end his career.

He was inducted into the Texas League Hall of Fame in 2008 as part of their fifth class.

Sources

• Baseball History Daily
• 1905 newspaper account of the Dexter-Bateman stabbing]
• Obituary
• TL Hall of Fame