Excerpt from “Your 1948 Houston Buffs, Dixie Champions: Brief Biographies By Morris Frank and Adie Marks (1948).
One of eleven Boyer children and the oldest of three brothers who grew up to reach the baseball major leagues, Cloyd Boyer started off his pitching career with a hummer of a fastball and a scary quick delivery.
Born in Alba, Missouri on September 1, 1927, the 6’1″, 188 lb. right hander played most of the 1948 Houston Buff season as the still 20-year-old ace of the pitching staff, powering his way to a 16-10, 3.14 ERA record. In a 14-season minor league career (1945-49, 1951, 1953-54, 1956-61) Cloyd registered a career mark of 117-97, 3.50 that included, of course, his two years with the Buffs (1948, 1953).
In four seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals (1947-52) and one with the Kansas City Athletics (1955), Cloyd Boyer finished his big league business with an MLB record of 20-23 and 4.73.
Remember what we said about every player having his level of competitive ascension largely determined by the drag of his personal gravity? Cloyd Boyer is simply another example at a higher level than most. At the MLB level, Boyer’s abilities faded a couple of notches in accomplishment from what they were at the higher minor league levels – and for whatever reason. Boyer’s 1948 “stuff” at Houston looked like the stuff of a future major leaguer of exceptional ability, but it never happened. Whether it was pure ability or some combination of psychological or injury factors that activated Boyer’s resistance to excellence in his higher level performance we cannot now know or recover beyond irresistible speculation.
But speculation is irresistible, indeed.
Younger brothers Ken and Clete Boyer made it big as successful third base men, even meeting each other as third base men for the Cardinals and Yankees in the 1964 World Series. Hmmm. Cloyd Boyer played most of his amateur life as a shortstop. Speculation stop: Maybe Cloyd Boyer should have kept that strong right arm and used it to keep playing shortstop at the professional level. We’ll never know.
According to Baseball Reference.Com, Cloyd Boyer is still alive at 85 – and headed toward 86, come September.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
June 14, 2013 at 7:11 pm |
Then there was another brother, Wayne…who grew up to be my dentist (and assistant coach of my American Legion team) back in Kokomo, Indiana, during my teen years!
November 2, 2018 at 3:52 am |
Of 14 children, Cloyd Boyer was the eldest son, which included Wayne (born 1929), Ken Boyer (1931-1982), Lynn (1935–2016), Clete Boyer (1937–2007), Ronnie (1944) and Lenny (1946–2013) and daughters Juanita Woodmansee (1923–2016), Lela Thelma (1926–1928), Dolores Webb, Pansy Schell, Shirley Lockhart, Bobbi McNary and Marcy Layton.
After his playing career, Cloyd became a scout, minor league pitching instructor and major league pitching coach, spending much of his time in the New York Yankees organization. He was the pitching coach during Bobby Cox’s first term as manager of the Atlanta Braves (1978-1981).