The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-10-02
Fred Clarke, Pirate Pilot, Quits Game on
 43rd Birthday

Fred Clarke, the veteran pilot of the Pirate craft, will celebrate his fefty-third. birthday tomorrow, coin
 cident with his retirement from the great game to which he has devoted the greater part of his life. For 16 years Clarke has been general man ager of the famous firm of John Henry Wagner & Company, a concern which has had few equals in its parti- cuIar line During that period he has gained a fame that will ensure for him a permanent niche in the baseball hall of fame 7eC3arke's resignation did not come as a surprise to the fans, as it has been runored for years that he. desired to quit the game and spend the remainder of his life as a gentle
 man farmer in Kansas, where he owns za rich and productive farm of 20,000 acres. There is woman in the case, too, for Mrs. Clarke objects to the long absences from home necessitated by his baseball carere. This speaks mighty we'll for Fred as a family man, for one or two managers could be named whose better halves are only sorry because baseball isn't played the year round. Mrs. Clarke prefers Kan sas to the Smoky City as a place of residence, and she is also very fond of her stalwart hubby. So there you are -cherchez Ia femme, as the French say
 ,In retiring from baseball at the end of his sixteenth season as pilot of the Buccaneers, Clarke can claim the long distance managership of one team record Connie Mack didn't take charge of the Athletics until 1901, a year after Clarke become the skipper of the sRulI-and- -crossbones boys. k Clarke is a Hawkeye by birth, if a Jayhawk by adoption, as he was born in Madison county, Iowa, Oct. 8, 1872. He started his career driving a de- livery wagon for O. H. Thomas, a Des Moines grocer, at $30 per month. He landed the job on the strength of his baseball talent, for the grocer was a fan, and his son, Orvil1e, was the pitcher of a kid nine called the Mas cots. The club needed a good second baseman who could hit, and Fred qualified for the place. He had his Saturday afternoons off to play ball. He made his first money from base ball with the semi-pro club of Carroll Ia., which paid him $3O per monta. In 1892 he landed a @better job with Hastings, in the Nebraska League where he made his professional debut as a backstop at $50 per month. From there he went to St. Joseph at $125 per. month. He next played in> the South, with Memphis, Montgomery and Savannah, and in 1894 he was purchased by Louisville, then in the National League. It was just about twenty-one years ago that he made his start in the main show, and he has been there ever since.
 When he took charge of the Pirates in 1900 the. club finished second, and it won the pennant three consecutive years thereafter, and again in 1909. Clarke's first pendant winning club was ycomposed of Sam Leever, Jack Chesbro, J. Tannehill, efDeacon'' Philippe, pitchers; zinmer, O'connor and Yeager, catchers; Bransf1eld, first base; Ritchey, second base; Leach third base; Fred Ely, shortstop: Honus Wagner, shortstop and left field; and Beaumont, Davis and Clarke himself in the outer garden. When the Pirates copped their last pennant in 1909, only L<eveer, Philippe, Wagner, Clarke nd Leach were left of the old Iine-uD, Clarke had built up what was practi- cally a new team, although, like the old, it had it's enduring foundation the great Flying Dutchman, almost a Ina Ina 1IJh in 1f SolF