This interview with Clyde Sukeforth was conducted by Mike Shatzkin in 1993 but never published. The transcription of Sukeforth's answers that follows over the next sixteen pages is incomplete in parts and more than a bit rough around the edges, but as a service to our readers -- and in memory of the late Mr. Sukeforth -- we have decided to post the unabridged interview at BaseballLibrary.com.

Square brackets indicate summaries of Mike's questions and the transcriber's notes. -- ed.

Sukeforth with the Dodgers in 1944 (AP)

MIKE SHATZKIN: I discovered, I don't remember exactly how, that Clyde was alive and quite compes mentes and living in Maine. I called him and asked if we could meet, just because I thought it would be interesting. It turned out to be totally fascinating; George Gibson went along with me at least one time (I might actually have visited him twice) and we just chatted. Clyde was happy to let me run the tape recorder so I did.

CLYDE SUKEFORTH: At the end of the '57 season I retired. I wasn't there in '58. I was out, let's see, 8, 9, '60, '61, and '62. I was out five years. I went to Florida, bumped into the old crowd and everything, and I'd been a little itchy anyway. So, when I left Pittsburgh, the general manager there, Joe Brown, gave me a TV set and everything and said "if you ever want to come back, contact us."

I bumped into Mr. [Branch] Rickey in St. Petersburg and he offered me a job, so I thought I'm obligated to Joe, I'll call Joe and ask him if he had anything he'd like for me to do.

He said, "Sure, come on over. So that was it."

[Rickey was then back with St. Louis.]

I went down to Columbus with Larry Shepard so I was back there with Shepard in Columbus in '63. I was scouting in '64. In '65 I got stuck managing the club in Gastonia, North Carolina. I enjoyed that. I didn't mind managing in those lower minor leagues. Kids.

I had Al Oliver on the club. And Bob Robertson.

I'm not a writer. Writing is a profession. I'm not skilled at putting words together in the right places. I'm not trained at that.

[Clyde went to college at Georgetown.]

Right after the War [WWI], semi-pro baseball was at its height. All of the industrial plants sponsored a baseball club and I played in [Millinockit?] for the Great Northern Paper Company. East [Millinockit?] had a mill too and they owned a baseball club. This is after I graduated from high school.

East Millinockit had the nucleus of the Georgetown ball club for that year. This is in the 1923 season. [Clyde had made a living strictly playing industrial ball for some years.] They paid more than good ballplayers were making in the minor leagues. They'd made the money during the war and they were competing with each other. They'd go out and get the best talent they could find from colleges, high schools. It just so happened that Georgetown had a catcher by the name of Paul Thorns[?] and he had signed with the Giants. They ended up needing to acquire a catcher. They invited me to go back down there with them. And I did.

[Were academic credentials important at all?]

It wasn't particularly tied to any one thing. I wanted to play ball first. But at the same time, I wanted to acquire a little education, at least. But I didn't really have a career in mind, other than baseball.

[Still played Industrial in the summer. Nothing changed except winters were for education, instead of free.]

I went to school for the school years of '23-'24 and '24-'25. After the '25 school year, I played in Nashua, New Hampshire. The manager there invited the Reds' scout to look at me. Somebody did, anyway. I signed with the Cincinnati club in the Fall of 1925.

I knew there was somebody with interest in me. I had read little notes in the papers. I didn't think that they were going to fight over my services.

They gave me $1500 to sign and $600 a month. [More than Clyde signed Don Newcombe for over 20 years later!]

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