Clyde Sukeforth

Clyde Leroy "Sukey" Sukeforth (November 30, 1901 - September 3, 2000) was a former Major League Baseball catcher, coach, scout and manager who was best known for scouting and signing the major leagues' first black player in the modern era, Jackie Robinson.

Born in Washington, Maine, Sukeforth was the only other person in the room when Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey told Robinson of his plans to sign him to a contract to play in Montreal in 1946. Sukeforth was officially listed as a coach on Brooklyn's major league staff at the time, but also performed scouting duties for the club.

After two years at Georgetown University, followed by a year in the New England League with the Nashua Millionaires and the Manchester Blue Sox, he was signed by the Cincinnati Reds as a catcher in 1926. His best year was 1929 when he batted .354. Two years later he lost an eye from being hit by a shotgun pellet while bird hunting. He continued to play, but not as well, and in 1932 was traded to the Dodgers. Sukeforth, who batted lefthanded and threw righthanded, appeared in 486 games over all or parts of ten seasons (1926-34 and 1945 as a fill-in-during the World War II manpower shortage), compiling a batting average of .264 with two home runs and 96 runs batted in.

Sukeforth managed in the Brooklyn farm system with the Elmira Pioneers of the Class A Eastern League and the Montreal Royals of the AA International League before his promotion to the Brooklyn coaching staff in 1943. In addition to his scouting assignments for Dodgers president Rickey, he worked behind the scenes in 1946 to help create the new Nashua Dodgers of the Class B New England League. Sukeforth helped the Nashua team forge ties with the New Hampshire community, easing the racial integration of the league when Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe were assigned to that club.

Sukeforth managed the Dodgers for two games in 1947, replacing Leo Durocher, who was suspended by the league for the season for "conduct detrimental to baseball." In the process, he managed Jackie Robinson's first major-league game. But Sukeforth and a fellow coach, Ray Blades, each turned down the opportunity to serve as acting manager for the rest of the season; ultimately, Brooklyn scout Burt Shotton assumed that role, and led them to the 1947 National League pennant.

In 1951, when Dodger manager Chuck Dressen needed a reliever to face the New York Giants' Bobby Thomson in the ninth inning of the decisive third game of the National League pennant playoff, Sukeforth, coaching in the Dodger bullpen, passed over Clem Labine and sent in Ralph Branca, who gave up Thomson's "shot heard 'round the world". Fired after the season, Sukeforth moved to the Pittsburgh Pirates, where Rickey was executive vice president and general manager, in 1952. There, as a coach and occasional scout, he played a role in the drafting of Roberto Clemente from the Brooklyn organization in the 1954 Rule V draft. Sukeforth retired as a coach in 1957, but remained in the Pirates organization as a scout and occasional minor league manager through 1962. He then worked as a scout for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves.

Sukeforth died at age 98 in Waldoboro, Maine. By his request, no services were held.

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball Reference
• Charles Francis (2006). "Sixty Years on the Baseball Diamond: Washington's homegrown Clyde Sukeforth". Discover Maine: Maine's History Magazine. 3: 18–21.
• The Deadball Era