A Fine Team Man by Joe Cox

Author:Joe Cox
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781493039050
Publisher: Lyons Press

Parting ways with the Dodgers did not render Sukeforth a home-body. He followed Branch Rickey to Pittsburgh, where he scouted and coached for the Pirates. Demonstrating that his scouting eye remained sharp, Sukeforth was a champion of Roberto Clemente, then a forgotten minor leaguer in the Dodger system.

Watching Clemente warm up before the game, Sukeforth was wowed by his legendary throwing arm. During that evening’s game, Clemente pinch hit, and Sukeforth saw him run out a routine ground ball so quickly that the humdrum play became close. Clemente may have been under the radar of most of baseball, but Sukeforth recalled, “I said to myself, there’s a boy who can do two things as well as any man who ever lived.”

As the Dodgers prepared for the minor-league draft, other scouts spoke against Clemente, but Sukeforth ended the conversation by noting, “[T]here’s a question in my mind as to whether or not [Clemente’s throwing arm] is better than Furillo’s. It’s right in the same class as Furillo’s and it may even be a little bit better.” Rickey was intrigued, followed up on the tip, and drafted Clemente. Once again, Clyde Sukeforth had been the seer, finding qualities in a talented young player that others hadn’t observed.

Sukeforth stayed on with the Pirates first as a coach, and later as a scout and eventual minor-league manager. He turned down the opportunity to manage in the major leagues again in 1957, when the Pirates asked him to follow former Dodger Bobby Bragan as their big-league skipper. Meanwhile, unlike Rickey, who had been forced out, he was in the organization during Pittsburgh’s thrilling 1960 World Series victory. In fact, in 1965, Sukeforth was coaxed back to managing for a single season, when he managed the Gastonia Pirates, the Western Carolinas League affiliate of the Pirates. He was chosen to manage in the league’s All-Star Game, and his 70-54 mark led the Pirates, who included Al Oliver and Bob Robertson, to near the top of the league.

After his days in Pittsburgh, he scouted for the Braves, both in Milwaukee and in Atlanta. In early 1971, he had been around long enough as a scout to see the beginning of network scouting, as he worked for a group that combined efforts for the Braves, Yankees, Angels, and Cubs. Eventually, gradually, Sukeforth pulled away from baseball.

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