Clyde Eugene "Jersey" Beck (January 6, 1900 – July 15, 1988) was a right-handed

infielder An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field, between first base and third base. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns pla ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

for the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...

and

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Divisi ...

from 1926 to 1931. Beck spent the first five seasons of his career with the Cubs. After making his major league debut on May 19, 1926, Beck was used as a reserve

second baseman In baseball and softball, second baseman, abbreviated 2B, is a fielding position in the Infielder, infield, between Baseball field#Second base, second and Baseball field#First base, first base. The second baseman often possesses quick hands and f ...

for the Cubs, playing in 30 games and finishing with a .198

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

, only one extra-base hit (a

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

), and 4 RBI. The next season, he was in the Cubs' lineup more often than not, playing in 117 games. He saw some time at third base and shortstop as well as his familiar second base position. His .258 average would prove to be the best of his career, as would his tally of doubles (20) and triples (5). During the 1928 campaign, Beck saw considerably more time at third base (87 games) and shortstop (47 games) than second base (1 game). Freddie Maguire had become the everyday second sacker, but Beck had certainly become an infield fixture for the Cubs. He posted career highs in at-bats, runs, hits, and RBI, batting a solid .257 as Chicago fell just four wins short of first place and a trip to the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB). It has been contested since between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winning team, determined through a best- ...

. In 1929,

Rogers Hornsby Rogers Hornsby (April 27, 1896 – January 5, 1963), nicknamed "the Rajah", was an American baseball infielder, manager (baseball), manager, and coach (baseball), coach who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the St. ...

Norm McMillan Norman Alexis "Bub" McMillan (October 5, 1895 – September 28, 1969) was an American Major League Baseball shortstop, third baseman and second baseman with the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Browns and the Chicago Cubs between 1922 ...

and

Woody English Elwood George English (March 2, 1906 – September 26, 1997) was an American professional baseball shortstop and third baseman. He played twelve seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1927 and 1938 for the Chicago Cubs and Brooklyn Dodger ...

proved to be a dependable trio of infielders for the club and Beck was again relegated to backup status. He played in just 54 games and batted only .211, collecting a mere seven extra-base hits all year, all of them doubles. Though the Cubs made the World Series after the season, Beck did not appear in any of the Series' five games as the

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, they became the Oakland ...

won four games to one. Beck saw some increased playing time in 1930; in fact, he played more games at shortstop than any Cub except English, who split his time almost evenly between shortstop and third base. He also saw somewhat of a power surge, hitting a career-high six home runs in 244 at-bats. In fact, that matched the total number of home runs he'd hit in 1,145 at-bats over his first four seasons. However, his batting average was again low at .213, and the Cubs put Beck on waivers after the season ended. Claimed by the Cincinnati Reds for 1931, Beck found himself as a backup third baseman and occasional shortstop, and his numbers plummeted. He managed to hit just .154 in 53 games and played his last game in the majors on September 11, 1931. Beck died on July 15, 1988, in

Temple City, California Temple City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California located northeast of downtown Los Angeles and at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. Temple City is part of a cluster of cities, along with Pasadena, Cal ...

. He was 88 years old.

References

Baseball-reference page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beck, Clyde 1900 births 1988 deaths Baseball players from Los Angeles County, California Chicago Cubs players Cincinnati Reds players Major League Baseball infielders Gardena High School alumni Los Angeles Angels (minor league) players Milwaukee Brewers (minor league) players Mission Reds players Oakland Oaks (baseball) players Seattle Indians players St. Paul Saints (AA) players Wichita Izzies players 20th-century American sportsmen