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86 Chapter 18. Clay Carroll Derek Norin and Mark Armour Clay Carroll was a popular relief star in the heyday of the fireman, a bullpen workhorse who could be used in a variety of difficult situations. From the end of June 1968 through the 1975 season, he saved a then Cincinnati Reds record 119 games and compiled a 1.39 earned run average in twentytwo postseason games. Carroll was named to the 1971 and 1972 National League All-Star teams and was named the Sporting News Fireman of the Year in 1972 after saving what was then a Major League record of thirty-seven games. He recorded victories in Game Four of the 1970 World Series and in Game Seven of the 1975 World Series, the game that brought the Reds their first world championship in thirty-five years. Carroll got the nickname Hawk from teammates.1 He was known as a fierce competitor who at the same time kept the Cincinnati bullpen entertained and loose. “Did you ever hit anybody on the head with a ripe tomato?” he once asked in the bullpen. “It sure makes a funny noise and there’s a way it flattens out to really mess up a guy’s hair.”2 He became the leader of the relief corps—with Carroll, Pedro Borbon, Tom Hall, and later Will McEnaney and Rawly Eastwick, it was the excellent but unsung facet of the great Big Red Machine teams. Clay Palmer Carroll was born on May 2, 1941, in Clanton, Alabama, a textile-mill town about midway between Birmingham and Montgomery. He was one of nine children. “When I was a kid, most of the people worked in the cotton mill,” he recalled of his struggling hometown. “My father worked there 40 years, and when I grew up I worked there a couple years too.”3 Carroll later recalled his father making forty-five dollars per week but putting aside enough for each of his kids to get a weekly Popsicle.4 It was the only world the boy knew, as Carroll never left the town until he was a teenager. “I was working for a cafe as a curb service boy in Clanton. The owners took me with them to Tallahassee, Florida, for a few days when I was 15. That was the first time I was ever away from home.”5 “Lucky, I had this arm and I liked playing baseball ,” said Carroll. “Did it every chance I got when I wasn’t working in that mill, or loading watermelons age w l pct. era g gs gf cg sho sv ip h bb so hbp wp 34 7 5 .583 2.62 56 2 27 0 0 7 96.1 93 32 44 3 3 The Hawk, Clay Carroll, was one of the best relief pitchers in baseball for several years and the leader of a deep Cincinnati bullpen. clay carroll 87 onto trucks, or whatever job came around. I went to school and I was good at sports.”6 He played well enough to draw the attention of at least one club. Former Major Leaguer Dixie Walker signed Carroll for the Milwaukee Braves as an amateur free agent in 1961 for $1,000. Carroll said, “I was anxious to sign and get to playing ball. So when Mr. Walker offered me the $1,000, I took it. All I want to do now is get the experience I need and get to the major leagues. I know if I make good the money will come.”7 Walker invited Carroll and Braves pitching coach Whitlow Wyatt to his home shortly after Carroll signed. “I knew only one thing about pitching then,” Carroll remembered a few years later. “I just threw the ball as hard as I could although I knew how to throw a good curveball. Mr. Wyatt showed me how to throw a changeup and slider. And he taught me my motion and follow-through. Now I feel experience is my big need. I’m shy and quiet by nature, but I’m gaining confidence.”8 Carroll began his professional career with Davenport (Iowa) of the Class D Midwest League, where he finished 7-10 with a 4.20 era. The next year he led the Class C Pioneer League in victories, sporting a 14-7 record for Boise, striking out 223 hitters in 181 innings while pitching sixteen complete games. He split both the 1963 and 1964 seasons with Austin...

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