Kid Baldwin

Catcher
  • Card series: Beginnings: 1880's
  • City: Cincinnati
  • Team: Red Stockings (AA)
  • League: American Association

Clarence G. Baldwin (1864-1897)

“Clarence Baldwin, known in the baseball world as ‘Kid’ Baldwin, once a famous catcher, has been taken to the Cincinnati Hospital as a charity patient, a hopeless wreck from dissipation. He cannot live long.”  New York Times, June 3, 1897.

Baldwin died five weeks later, on July 10, 1897. It was a sad coda to the short, tumultuous life of an infamously strong-armed and strong-willed player.

  • Kid’s best offensive year was 1887, but stats never captured his prowess behind the plate
  • Many in and out of the game tried to help Baldwin’s sobriety, but he evaded all aid

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