Cloyd Victor Boyer, Jr. was the eldest of three brothers who all played professional baseball up through the major league level. Born in Alba, MO on September 1, 1930, Cloyd pitched in parts of 14 minor league and 5 major league seasons from 1945 to 1961. Two of those seasons for the 6’1″, 188 lb. right hander included service with the 1948 (16-10, 3.15 ERA) and 1953 (4-2, 2.73) Houston Buff clubs. Boyer was a pitcher with a good variety of variable speed options and fair control. He gave up a lot of hits per game (8.6 per innings, career), but he also was effective in getting batters to put playable outs on the field. Over the course of his entire career, he won 137 games and lost 120, recording a minor league career ERA of 3.52. After his active career concluded, Cloyd managed in the minors on five scattered year occasions from 1963 through 1989. He then retired from baseball to his native area of southwestern Missouri.
Two others among the several rural Boyer brothers also followed older sibling Cloyd down the pro ball trail, and the second of those also passed through Houston on his way to becoming one of the top 3rd basemen in the National League for several years. Ken Boyer (born 5/20/1937 in Liberty, MO) played 15 seasons in the big leagues, mainly for the St. Louis Cardinals, from 1955 through 1969. He batted .287 with 282 career home runs over the major league haul. He also led the 1954 Buffs to the Texas League crown with a pretty good minor league stick (.319 BA, 21 HR, 116 RBI). As a big leaguer, Ken appeared in 11 all star games and also played a critical hiting role in the 1964 Cardinals World Series victory over the New York Yankees. Sadly, we lost Ken Boyer o cancer on 9/07/1982 at the age of 51.
The youngest of these three ballplaying brothers was Clete Boyer, who was born on 2/08/1937 in Cassville, MO. Clete was also a right handed hitting third baseman with superior defensive skills. When Clete and Ken faced off against each other in the 1964 World Series as rival third basemen for the Yankees and Cardinals, it was a mighty big day back in southwestern Missouri. – Clete played most of his career for the Yankees and Braves, finishing his major league career with a .242 BA and 162 HR (1955-71.) He never made it to Houston as a player for the Buffs, Colt .45s, or Astros, but we would have loved having him on our resume too.
Somewhere out there, there must be a few other families with kids who are good enough to do as well as the Boyers. All we baseball fans can hope for is that they aren’t already lined up to pursue careers in football or basketball first. 
Tags: Baseball, History, Houston Buffs, St. Louis Cardinals
The Pecan Park Eagle 
November 14, 2009 at 6:56 pm |
There were four other Boyer brothers who played in the minors, but none of them were on Houston.