Elwood Robert Clear (December 14, 1927 – April 6, 2010) was an American

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and manager, and a Major League coach with the

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. He was born in

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, and moved to

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with his family in 1940.Obituary, Elwood Robert "Bob" Clear, ''The Orange County Register'', via Legacy.com
/ref> During his active career, Clear batted and threw right-handed and was listed as tall and . He was the uncle of former MLB

relief pitcher In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who pitches in the game after the starting pitcher or another relief pitcher has been removed from the game due to fatigue (medical), fatigue, injury, ineffectiveness, ejection ...

Mark Clear.

Playing career

Clear began a long playing career with the 1945 Batavia Clippers of the Class D Pennsylvania–Ontario–New York League (PONY League), hitting .222 at age 17. He returned to

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as a member of the Class C Bakersfield Indians in 1946, playing third base and only posting an .838

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while batting .266. The next year, he joined the St. Louis Cardinals' minor-league organization and hit .200 for Lynchburg and .208 for the Decatur, both in Class B leagues. Clear then attempted a pitching career. He posted a 17–12 record with a 3.45 ERA for the 1948 Willows Cardinals in the Class D Far West League; he was second in the league in games won to Larry Shepard of Medford, a future colleague as a manager in the

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of the 1960s. He also was 0–1 with Class C Fresno of the

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. Clear spent most of 1949 with the Pocatello Cardinals (11–6, 5.84) and also was back in Lynchburg for one loss. By his 21st birthday, he had been with seven teams. The 1950 season brought him to the Class A Western League and he went 16–7 with a 3.38 ERA. He was tied for fourth in the circuit in wins, was fourth with 119 walks and the

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pitcher led the league with four

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s. He struggled with the Cardinals' three top minor league affiliates in 1951, going 1–2, 8.13 for the Houston Buffaloes, 0–4 with a 9.82 ERA for the

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and 0–1 for the

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. After playing on 11 teams by age 24, Clear's career then settled down. He went 9–12, with a 3.44 ERA for Houston in 1952 and 4–6, with a 3.35 ERA for the 1953 Buffaloes. Back in Omaha in 1954, Clear went 20–11 with a 2.93 ERA, led the Western League in wins, was fifth in ERA, tied for second with 22

complete game In baseball, a complete game (CG) is the act of a pitcher pitching an entire game without the benefit of a relief pitcher. A pitcher who meets this criterion will be credited with a complete game regardless of the number of innings played—pitche ...

s, tied for third with five shutouts, first with 267 innings and first with 114 walks. In his 11th pro season, at age 27, he was invited to the big-league Cardinals'

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camp, but he wasn't given the opportunity to pitch.Lowery, Steve (14 August 1986): "Clearly, He's an Unsung Angels' Coach,"
''

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'' That season, Omaha joined the Triple-A American Association as one of the Cardinals' two top minor league affiliates. Staying with Omaha, but now competing in a higher classification, Clear fell to 1–10, with a 4.42 ERA. He began 1956 in Omaha, but after three games, he was assigned by the parent Cardinals to the Sioux City Soos of the Western League, where on May 15 he became a player-manager at age 27. On the mound, he went 5–4 with a 6.00 ERA for the Soos.

Managing career

Clear finally left the Cardinals' chain in 1957, joining the Pirates as the player-manager of the Douglas Copper Kings of the Class C Arizona–Mexico League. He batted .313 and, on the mound, went 20–11 with a 3.63 ERA. He was second in the league in ERA behind Don Bruns, tied Candido Andrade for the win lead, and led with 28 complete games (in 31 starts). Still just 29 years old, he had now played for 13 clubs. He won 18 of 26 decisions, with a 4.42 ERA, for Douglas in 1958, and helped make history on August 19 when he was hitting fifth for Douglas in a game in which all nine starters homered against the Chihuahua Dorados in a 22–6 rout. It was Clear's fourth 1958 home run as a hitter; he batted .303 that season and led the Copper Kings to the A–ML championship.Czerwinski, Kevin T. (28 May 2008): "Copper Kings Delivered Unmatched Clout,"
MLB.com He went 13–8, with a 2.81 ERA for the Idaho Falls Russets the next year. He then had arguably his best year yet, going 21–6, with a 2.50 ERA for the Grand Forks Chiefs, leading the Northern League in wins and finishing in the top three in ERA. In 1961, he fell to 4–5, with a 5.05 ERA for Grand Forks. Retiring more or less from pitching, he appeared briefly for the 1965 Kinston Eagles and 1967 Clinton Pirates (1–0, 1.64), wrapping up his pitching career with a 144–117 record for 17 teams. He continued to manage in the Pirates'

until 1969, making stops at Batavia in 1962, Gastonia in 1963–1964, Asheville in 1964, Kinston in 1965, back to Gastonia in 1966, Clinton in 1967–1968, and

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in 1969.

With the California Angels

Clear moved to the California Angels' system in 1970, and would remain a member of the organization for the rest of his career. He managed the Idaho Falls Angels of the Rookie-level Pioneer League from 1970 to 1973, winning the league championship in his first season. Then he became a

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and minor-league instructor for 2 seasons, until July 1976, when he officially donned a

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uniform for the first time as the Angels' bullpen coach under newly-named manager Norm Sherry. He held that role for the next 11 full seasons, through , working under Sherry, Dave Garcia, Jim Fregosi, Gene Mauch and John McNamara. The Angels won three American League West Division championships (1979, and ) during his coaching tenure. In and , he was joined on the Angels' roster by his nephew Mark, who worked out of Bob Clear's bullpen for his first two seasons in MLB before being traded to the

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. After 1987, Clear continued in the Angel system as a special-assignments scout and instructor through , his 56th year in professional baseball. He died in

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, at the age of 82.

References

External links

*
Coach's page
from Retrosheet {{DEFAULTSORT:Clear, Bob 1927 births 2010 deaths Asheville Tourists managers Bakersfield Indians players Baseball coaches from Colorado Baseball players from Denver Batavia Clippers players California Angels coaches California Angels scouts Clinton Pirates players Columbus Red Birds players Decatur Commodores players Douglas Copper Kings players Fresno Cardinals players Grand Forks Chiefs players Houston Buffaloes players Idaho Falls Russets players Kinston Eagles players Lynchburg Cardinals players Major League Baseball bullpen coaches Omaha Cardinals players Pocatello Cardinals players Rochester Red Wings players Sioux City Soos players Willows Cardinals players 20th-century American sportsmen