Clete Boyer - Post-Yankee Days

Post-Yankee Days

In 1967 Boyer had his best offensive season. Playing in hitter-friendly Atlanta Stadium, he established career highs in home runs (26) and RBIs (96) in a lineup that featured the likes of Hank Aaron, Joe Torre, Felipe Alou and Mack Jones; Boyer batted cleanup behind Aaron. He also continued his mastery of the glove, leading National League third baseman in fielding both in 1967 and 1969. In the latter year, he finally won the Gold Glove Award that had eluded him in his Yankee years; with brother Ken having won the award five times, the Boyers became the first brothers to win a Gold Glove. On August 31 of that year, he fell victim to Morganna, the famed buxom “Kissing Bandit.” Prior to the kiss, he had been mired in a 1-for-17 slump; in that very at-bat, Clete drove in a run with a single. He got two more hits later in the game, then eight more hits in his next 15 at-bats. In the 1969 season the Braves won the Western Division title (both leagues now had Eastern and Western Divisions after each expanding from 10 teams to 12) for their first post-season berth since losing to the Yankees in the 1958 World Series as the Milwaukee Braves. However, they lost in the playoffs to the eventual World Champion New York Mets.

Boyer continued to sparkle at third base until he was released by the Braves on May 28, 1971, after a bitter feud with General Manager Paul Richards and manager Lum Harris over mismanagement. Boyer complained that the organization didn’t teach the players the proper fundamentals. Richards countered that Boyer was a troublemaker. He left Major League Baseball and resurfaced in Japan, where he played professionally for the Taiyō Whales from 1972 to 1975. His roommate was Sadaharu Oh. After retiring in 1975, he was the defensive coach for the Whales in 1976. Afterwards, Boyer returned to the Major Leagues as a third-base coach with the Yankees and the Oakland Athletics, mostly with former teammate Billy Martin as manager.

In 2000, Boyer opened a restaurant named "Clete Boyer’s Hamburger Hall of Fame" in Cooperstown, NY just a few miles south of the Baseball Hall of Fame. The restaurant features sandwiches and hamburgers named after various Yankees' immortals such as: "Yogi's Special meatball sub", "the Mickey Mantle Cheeseburger Deluxe", "the Reggie Veggie Burger", "the Bobby Richardson Cheeseburger", "the Roger Maris Hamburger Deluxe", and "the Whitey Ford Blue Cheese Burger". Boyer could often be found at the restaurant chatting with visitors and graciously signing photos and other memorabilia.

Boyer died on June 4, 2007 from complications of a brain hemorrhage in an Atlanta area hospital. Boyer was survived by six children, ten grandchildren and older brother, Cloyd. Brother Ken Boyer (1964 National League MVP), another former St. Louis Cardinal, predeceased Clete in 1982.

Boyer is the first professional athlete to be interred in an Eternal Image MLB-branded urn. His family had his cremated remains placed in a New York Yankees urn.