Ken Clay - New York Yankees

New York Yankees

He joined a team that was tied for first place in the American League East, and eventually won the division by 2.5 games over the Baltimore Orioles. Clay went 0-2 with a 7.73 as a starter, but was far more effective out of the bullpen. He was 2-1 with a 3.40 ERA and one save as a relief pitcher. Oddly, the one loss may have been his best pitching performance of the season. On June 17, Catfish Hunter gave up four first inning home runs against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. He handed the ball to Clay down 4-0 with two outs in the first. Clay held them scoreless through the fourth, allowing the Yankees to tie the score. The BoSox scored a run in the fifth to hang the L on Clay.

After not making an appearance in the 1977 American League Championship Series, he made appearances in both games the Yankees lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series, pitching very effectively in game two.

Heading into Spring training 1978, Clay was one of the top young pitching prospects in the Yankees' organization, along with Jim Beattie and Gil Patterson, hoping to earn a spot on the opening day roster. Each vocalized frustration with the organization when they acquired pitchers Rich Gossage, Andy Messersmith and Rawly Eastwick after the 1977 season believing that it hindered their chances of making the club. In return, Clay received his fair share of criticism from some of the veteran pitchers with the Yankees. Hunter surmised that Clay had a "great arm, great slider, bad brains," and felt that the advice he offered to the young pitcher often went unheeded. Likewise, Sparky Lyle, who won a Cy Young Award in relief, also offered advice to Clay about his tendency to wear his arm out in practice, thus not being 100% for the day's game. George Steinbrenner simply described Clay as a "morning glory," a horse racing term for a horse that performs best in the morning workouts prior to the actual race.

Regardless, with the exception of a 21 day trip to the disabled list, Clay remained on the major league roster the entire season. Clay went 3-4 with a 4.28 ERA during the regular season, but his most memorable performance came in the post-season. The Yankees were leading 4-0 when Clay was called into the first game of the 1978 American League Championship Series against the Kansas City Royals in the sixth inning with one out and the bases loaded. The Royals scored one run on a sacrifice fly by Hal McRae. Clay then retired Al Cowens on a groundout to get out of the inning with just one run scored. He held the Royals hitless the rest of the way to earn the save.

Unfortunately, his success did not carry into the 1979 season. We went 1-7 with a 5.70 ERA, and was relegated to "mop-up duty" by the end of the season (26 of his 32 appearances were in losses). He began the 1980 season assigned to the Yankees' triple A affiliate, the Columbus Clippers. On August 14, he was traded to the Texas Rangers for future Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry.