After His Playing Days
After his managing days ended in 1915, Clarke eventually returned to the Pirates, first as a coach, later as a vice president and assistant manager. When coaching he had led the Pirates to two, and their only two, seasons of winning 100+ games. As an assistant to Barney Dreyfuss in 1926, he was allowed to sit on the Pirates' bench but, on August 13, players requested that he be removed. Instead, Pirates ownership responded by releasing veteran players, Carson Bigbee and Babe Adams, and waived slumping veteran (and eventual Hall of Famer), Max Carey.
Fred Clarke was selected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1945 as one of the first to be elected by the Old-Timers Committee. He was one of 24 original inductees into the Iowa Sports Hall of Fame in 1951. After his baseball days, Clarke retired to his "Little Pirate Ranch" near Winfield, Kansas, which he had purchased with a down payment during his first year in the majors. He remained active and seemingly indestructible into his 70s. In 1947, while ice fishing in northern Minnesota, he and his wife were thrown into icy northern Minnesota waters by a storm, but he was back out fishing the next day. Soon after, he was nearly shot accidentally while quail hunting. He then survived a gas furnace explosion in his basement. While in Winfield he started the Winfield Country Club that is still in operation to this day. Fred Clarke died in Winfield at age 87.
Read more about this topic: Fred Clarke
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