Curly Clement

How dedicated was Bob “Curly” Clement to the craft of umpiring? On two occasions, he suffered heart attacks while working games. Both times, after a recovery period off the diamond, he made his way back to umping.1

Clement spent almost all of his lengthy career in amateur circuits, particularly the summer college-age Cape Cod Baseball League in Massachusetts, where his skill, dedication, and humor made him a beloved fixture. He also worked two College World Series championship games, along with countless college, high school, American Legion, and other games in southern New England.

Strikes by unionized major-league umpires in 1978 and 1979 gave “Curly” the chance to work two Boston Red Sox games at Fenway Park, earning this colorful regional figure a place in big-league history. “He’s a book just waiting to be written,” a Cape Cod League official said late in Clement’s life. “He’s done so much in this game. Everybody who has ever worked with him has some type of Curly Clement story to tell.”2

Robert Frederick Joseph Clement3 was born in Manchester, New Hampshire, on July 19, 1919. He was the middle child of Frederick “Fred” and Rosanne (Cormier) Clement, both of French-Canadian descent.4 A photo of young Robert indicates that his nickname stemmed from a healthy head of curly hair.5

At the time of Robert’s birth, Fred was working as a driver. Ten years later, he’d become a Manchester police officer.6 According to family lore, Fred Clement was a good enough ballplayer to draw interest from a big-league team—the Brooklyn Dodgers or the Boston Braves, depending on the person telling the tale—but family obligations prevented him from pursuing the dream. Fred also coached teenage Curly on a local team called the Manchester Cardinals.7

Curly, who played baseball and football at Manchester High School West, similarly saw his professional sports dreams thwarted. Years later, Clement said he turned down several college scholarship opportunities because his father had been injured in a motorcycle crash and Curly needed to work to support his family.8 Census listings confirm that Curly’s education ended after high school.9

Shoemaking was a major industry in Clement’s hometown of Manchester, with more than 70 shoe companies based in the city at one point.10 Aged 21 in 1940, Clement was listed as a “shoe worker” on his certificate of intent to marry. His bride, 24-year-old Adrienne Pinette of Hillsborough, New Hampshire, was also listed as a shoe worker, though the document does not specify whether they worked for the same company.11 The Clements remained together for more than 65 years.12

Clement enlisted in the US Navy during World War II, serving with the Navy Seabees in the Pacific theater and achieving the rank of machinist’s mate third class.13 A draft card from this time period gives his height as 5 feet, 10 inches and his weight as 170 pounds.14 After returning to peacetime life in Manchester, he switched to a new line of work, serving as a claims agent for a trucking company. By 1950, he and Adrienne had been joined by three children, six-year-old son Donald and daughters Gail (two years) and Charlene (one year). The Clements subsequently had a fourth child, son Bruce.15

Clement served as assistant coach of Donald’s Little League team in Manchester in the mid-1950s.16 He made a more formal return to baseball after the family moved to the village of Hyannis, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod in 1956.17 A Hyannis-based umpire named John McGinn, with several years under his belt, gave Clement his first instruction in umpiring.18

McGinn was a tough teacher, Clement recalled: “He used to chew tobacco. And he used to come over after the ballgame and he would chew my butt out, swear at me, spit all over me. I would get home and sit down and cry. I was so downhearted.”19 Still, McGinn thought enough of Clement to arrange his earliest umpiring opportunities, first in Little League, then high school baseball. Years later, Clement remembered McGinn more for his support than his criticism, calling him a “good friend” and saying he owed his life in baseball to McGinn.20

Weathering McGinn’s tough love, Clement stuck with umpiring and improved. He joined the Cape Cod League staff in the early 1960s—1961 in some tellings, 1962 in others.21

Clement arrived at a turning point for the organization. Under the leadership of commissioner Danny Silva, who’d had a cup of coffee with the 1919 Washington Nationals,22 the Cape Cod League began to transform itself during the 1960s from a summer loop for local players to a showcase for major-league prospects from all over the country. In 1962, for instance, the league got rid of its limit on the number of “off-Cape” players each team could sign. Silva formalized a scheduled system to pay umpires, who previously shared money collected from crowds. He also pushed for professionalism, calling on his umps to dress nicely and shine their shoes.23

As the 1960s and ’70s passed, future major leaguers like Carlton Fisk (1966–67), Tom Grieve (1966), Thurman Munson (1967), Mike Flanagan (1972), and Jeff Reardon (1974–76)24  burnished the Cape Cod League’s reputation as a cradle of talent.

Summer after summer, Clement was there, building a reputation for both conscientiousness and amiability. He credited Silva with teaching him the importance of respect for the game and players. Clement made it a practice not to swear on the diamond and to call game participants by their title—either “Coach” or “Mr. Catcher,” “Mr. Batter,” and the like. “You treat players and coaches the way you would like to have been treated when you were playing ball,” he said. Clement and fellow Cape League ump Cal Burlingame also broadened their formal knowledge by attending an umpiring school in Florida in 1967.25

Clement’s reservoir of respect, experience, and goodwill positioned him well for an unforeseen opportunity in August 1978. The major leagues’ 52 unionized umpires, with more than three years remaining on their contract, wanted better pay, higher cost of living increases, and more in-season vacation time. On August 23, the umpires’ attorney, Richie Phillips, hinted at a strike if the American and National Leagues did not negotiate in good faith.26 Talks failed to resolve the impasse. Two days later, NL umpire and union president Bob Engel estimated the chance of an umpires’ strike at 90 percent.27

Major-league teams received orders to make arrangements with local replacement umpires. These subs were needed the same day as Engel’s remarks, as the unionized umps struck MLB’s full schedule of games on Friday, August 25.28 The Red Sox reached out to Boston-area baseball figures to recommend amateur umpires, hiring five umps—a crew of four, plus a spare—for the August 25–27 weekend home series against the California Angels. Clement and Cape Cod League colleague Clarence Merritt were part of the replacement crew.29

Clement, a department store manager by day, made his big-league debut at age 59 that Friday night, umpiring at third base. A wire-service photo captured him wearing a shirt with a Cape Cod League logo.30

The Red Sox won, 6–0, behind a four-hit shutout by Dennis Eckersley. The game passed without controversy, and the replacement umpires received positive reviews. “These guys did every bit as good a job as we get from the regular umpires,” Angels veteran Ron Fairly told reporters.31 Clement described the game as “a great thrill,” adding that he’d thought it was a joke at first when Red Sox general manager Haywood Sullivan called him.32

In a news story headlined “Curly’s Dream Comes True,” Clement said he’d chatted on the field with former Cape Cod League players, including Fisk, now on the Red Sox, and the Angels’ Danny Goodwin. As an added bonus, Clement’s daughters, living on the West Coast, were able to watch their father’s big night on television.33

Curly’s dream turned out to be a one-night-only affair. A US District Court judge in Philadelphia ordered the unionized umps back to work on August 26, and Clement returned to King’s department store.34 “For one night there was a wondrous hiccup from normal time-clock living,” Leigh Montville of the Boston Globe wrote about Clement and his partners. “They were umpires, big-league umpires. They were something special to see.”35

The truce was only temporary. In a protest over salaries, unionized major-league umps refused to report for the start of 1979 spring training games. As Opening Day drew near, most of them remained off the job.36

Clement had been scheduled to work a game between Bentley College and the University of Rhode Island on Thursday, April 5, Opening Day at Fenway Park. When the Red Sox called again, he shifted his schedule and reported for duty, this time at second base.37 The Red Sox won in another walkover, this time by a 7–1 score over the Cleveland Indians.38 Aside from a few grumbles about home-plate ump Dick Nelson’s strike zone, the game again passed uneventfully. “Their performance, generally, was just fine,” the Boston Globe’s John Powers summarized.39

In the seventh inning, Clement called Carl Yastrzemski out on an attempted steal of second. Clement said the Boston legend and future Hall of Famer simply told him, “Nice call,” before walking away. A shopper at King’s disagreed. By Clement’s telling, a female customer made repeat visits to the store to criticize him for the call.40 According to news reports, Clement and his colleagues made $108 apiece for the day’s work.41

The regular umps didn’t return in Boston until May 19, but Opening Day was Clement’s last big-league game. The Eastern College Athletic Conference, in which he umpired, forbade its officials to work professionally. The conference’s umpiring supervisor, Hank Morgenweck—himself a former replacement ump42—offered a compromise to four ECAC umps serving as fill-ins: They would be allowed to work one weekend in the major leagues, then would have to choose between colleges and the pros. All four stayed with the ECAC.43 In Clement’s case, the “decision” between college and pro ball was no real choice. Pushing 60 years of age, he would have had scant prospects as a full-time professional umpire.

After April 5, 1979, Clement went back to building his legend in the Cape Cod League, which welcomed future stars such as Jeff Bagwell, Tim Salmon, J.T. Snow, Terry Steinbach, Frank Thomas, Mo Vaughn, and Robin Ventura during the 1980s.44

Clement remained active on other amateur circuits as well, umpiring the championship games of the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1979 and 1980 and heading south to work spring college games in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.45 (He’d previously umpired at least one Massachusetts high school championship game, in 1976.46)

In 1983, he umpired behind the plate for the longest playoff game in ECAC history, an 18-inning, almost six-hour battle between Providence College and the University of Maine that ended just past 3 AM. Future big-leaguer Bill Swift pitched 13 innings and threw 197 pitches for Maine, while Providence coach Don Mezzanotte got himself ejected by bumping Clement during a 10th-inning argument.47 True to form, Clement found humor in even the most challenging ordeal. “When a German shepherd came running onto the field, in the 14th [inning] I think, someone yelled, ‘Curly, your seeing-eye dog is here,’” the umpire joked.48

Clement’s warm personality also earned him another nickname during the 1980s: “the Candy Man.” In 1982, he began to hand out sugar-free licorice candy, hoping to help wean players and coaches off chewing tobacco.49 He later said that one early recipient of the candy was Will Clark, then playing for Cotuit in the Cape Cod League, who became a six-time major-league All-Star and a Gold Glove winner. Curly’s candy stash became so well-known that, in his later years, players he’d never met came up and asked for a piece.50 Clement also liked to offer candy to angry coaches or players who argued his calls. More often than not, his puckish offer defused the dispute.51

“I’m God in this league,” a smiling Clement told an interviewer in 1994, but even legends get old.52 The 75-year-old had survived four heart attacks, including two on the field in 1982 and 1988. He’d also had triple bypass surgery and was working a reduced Cape Cod League schedule. The league, citing his age, chose not to bring him back for the 1995 season. As if determined to prove his fitness, Clement claimed that—despite his dismissal from the Cape Cod League—he umpired 50 more games in 1995 than he had the prior year, increasing his workload at college, high school, American Legion, and other amateur levels. “Does that sound like a man that’s too old?” he asked.53

Clement continued to work a busy schedule through his 80th birthday season in 1999 but retired not long afterward.54 It must have been a difficult decision. During a heart attack scare in the mid-1980s—the cause of his discomfort turned out to be stress—Clement wept for two hours at the thought of possibly having to leave baseball. “It would kill me,” he said. (“Money can never buy the friends I have found in baseball,” he added in the same conversation.55)

Clement made a final appearance on his old Cape Cod League stomping grounds in 2000, when he umpired at home plate for the league’s All-Star Game. Honors poured in for the reluctant retiree: Clement was inducted into the Amateur Baseball Umpires Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame two years later, alongside big-league notables Ron Darling, Nomar Garciaparra, Buck Showalter, and Jason Varitek.56 In 2004, the Cape Cod League launched the Curly Clement Award, given each year to an outstanding umpire.57

Curly and Adrienne Clement moved back to New Hampshire in their final years to be closer to family. Curly died there on June 29, 2006, a few weeks shy of his 87th birthday. He was survived by Adrienne, three children, seven grandchildren, one great-grandchild, a sister, and a brother. Following services at St. Michael’s Church in Exeter, New Hampshire, Clement was laid to rest at the New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen.58

An obituary website set up for Clement drew a range of warm recollections. Dave McKay, president of the Thomas Yawkey League—an amateur wood-bat league in Boston in which Clement umpired—wrote: “Our … players and coaches mourn the death of our brother in baseball – The Candy Man! Curly was a leader in his field. He touched many souls with his kind and considerate persona.” Former major-league scout Bill Enos, like Clement an inductee of the Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame, called Clement “an icon for young umpires in this country,” adding, “We in baseball will miss a great friend and umpire.”59

Acknowledgments and author’s note

This story was reviewed by Rory Costello and Abigail Miskowiec and checked for accuuracy by members of SABR’s fact-checking team.

The author thanks the Giamatti Research Center at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum for research assistance, and Boston sports journalist Chris Price for responding to an email inquiry.

This article draws on research conducted for the author’s previous SABR biography of Hank Morgenweck, as well as research for a story about several umpires with Cape Cod Baseball League connections who substituted in the major leagues during the strikes of 1978-79. The latter story was published in Cape Cod Baseball League: From College Stars to Big League Futures (Phoenix, Arizona: Society for American Baseball Research, 2026), Bill Nowlin and Mike Richard, editors.

Photo credit: Bob “Curly” Clement, Cape Cod Baseball League.

Sources

In addition to the sources credited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball Reference and Retrosheet for background information on games, players, and seasons.

Notes

1 Chris Price, Baseball by the Beach: A History of America’s National Pastime on Cape Cod (Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts: On Cape Publications, 1998): 119, https://archive.org/details/baseballbybeachh0000pric/page/118/mode/2up; Tom Meade, “Ump Curly Clement: A Cape League Tradition: The Man Players and Coaches Love to Love,”  The Register (Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts), July 18, 1985: 25.

2 Bob Sylva, “The Correct Call,” Cape Cod Times, updated January 4, 2011: https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/1999/12/06/the-correct-call/51019520007/.

3 Most sources give Clement’s name as Robert Frederick Clement. The additional name “Joseph” is specified on his 1940 certificate of intent to marry, accessed in November 2025 via FamilySearch.org, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FLDJ-7MF?lang=en.

4 Clement had an older sister, Jeanette, and a younger brother, Armand. 1920 US Census listing for the Clement family, accessed November 2025 via FamilySearch.org, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MH82-N8P?lang=en; 1930 US Census listing for the Clement family, also accessed via FamilySearch.org, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X7NF-1MN?lang=en; “Robert F. ‘Curly’ Clement” (obituary), Legacy.com, accessed November 2025, https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/robert-clement-obituary?id=25982375. Cape Cod League sources report that Curly’s last name was pronounced in the Anglicized fashion—“CLEM-ent”—rather than the French fashion, “cle-MONT.”

5 Janice Brown, “Manchester New Hampshire’s Premier Baseball Family: Fred and Robert ‘Curly’ Clement,” New Hampshire’s History Blog, posted August 2, 2015, https://www.cowhampshireblog.com/2015/08/02/manchester-new-hampshires-baseball-family-fred-and-robert-curly-clement/.

6 1920 and 1930 US Census listings for the Clement family, cited above. Frederick Clement died in the summer of 1972 while visiting his son on Cape Cod, and his newspaper obituary identified him as a retired police officer, suggesting he’d spent some time on the job: “Ex-Queen City Police Officer F.L. Clement Dies,” Manchester (New Hampshire) Union Leader, August 9, 1972: 10.

7 Clement said his father could have signed with the Dodgers, but Fred’s mother stopped him because she considered ballplayers to be “a bunch of drunks.” More recently, Clement’s daughter, Gail Wiley, said Fred drew interest from the Braves, but he was married with children and had a steady job as a police officer, and his wife refused to let him sign. Meade, “Ump Curly Clement.”; Brown, “Manchester New Hampshire’s Premier Baseball Family.”

8 Meade, “Ump Curly Clement.”

9 1940 US Census listing for the Clement family, accessed via FamilySearch.org in November 2025, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VT9Q-2X6?lang=en. When this census was taken, Clement was not yet married and was still living with his parents, working in a shoe factory.

10 Todd Bookman, “Made in New Hampshire: Manufacturing’s Rise and Fall in Manchester,” New Hampshire Public Radio, accessed November 2025, https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2017-03-27/made-in-new-hampshire-manufacturings-rise-and-fall-in-manchester; Kelly Kilcrease and Yvette Lazdowski, Manchester’s Shoe Industry (Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing: 2019), https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/products/manchesters-shoe-industry-9781467141420?srsltid=AfmBOor1168p6RIf0gvESw2WnqJae2vgr13HI1bnbIsW1y6iomrrrtPQ.

11 Clement’s certificate of intent to marry, cited above.

12 Robert F. ‘Curly’ Clement” (obituary).

13 Robert F. ‘Curly’ Clement” (obituary). Clement’s rank is given on his military-issued gravestone, a photo of which was available on his FindaGrave.com entry as of December 2025: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/50167954/robert-fred-clement. The Navy Seabees specialize in construction and engineering.

14 October 1940 draft card for Robert F. Clement, accessed December 2025 via FamilySearch.org, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP8J-ZH5V?lang=en.

15 1950 US Census entry for Robert F. Clement and family, accessed via FamilySearch.org in December 2025, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6X54-92Z6?lang=en; “Bruce G. Clement” (obituary), (West Lebanon, New Hampshire) Valley News, May 18, 2002: A4.

16 “West Little League to Open on Sunday,” Manchester (New Hampshire) Union Leader, June 17, 1955: 19; “Little Leaguers” (photo and caption), Manchester Union Leader, July 16, 1955: 35.

17 The Cape Cod peninsula is divided into 15 towns; each town includes villages that, in some cases, are equally well-known. The village of Hyannis is part of the town of Barnstable.

18 An August 1969 news story described McGinn as a 20-year veteran of umpiring. George Patzer, “Cape Cod Loop Urgently Needs Financial Support,” New Bedford (Massachusetts) Standard-Times, August 31, 1969: 14; Meade, “Ump Curly Clement.” As of December 2025, the library of Sporting News umpire cards available on Retrosheet.org did not include one for McGinn, suggesting that he never worked as a full-time professional ump.

19 Price, Baseball by the Beach: A History of America’s National Pastime on Cape Cod: 64.

20 Meade, “Ump Curly Clement.”

21 Price, who interviewed Clement, said 1961 in Baseball by the Beach: A History of America’s National Pastime on Cape Cod: 64, as did Sylva in “The Correct Call.” Two news items from 1985 list his tenure as 23 years, which suggests 1962: Meade, “Ump Curly Clement: A Cape League Tradition: The Man Players and Coaches Love to Love,” and Mike Stanton, “Beach Blanket Baseball,” Providence Journal-Bulletin, July 13, 1985: B1.

22 Washington’s American League franchise was formally known as the Nationals from 1905 to 1955, though many fans continued to call the team by its prior name, the Senators.

23 Price: 54–64.

24 Years of participation for all players except Fisk taken from the Cape Cod Baseball League’s Hall of Fame website, accessed December 2025, https://www.capecodleague.com/hall-of-fame/. Fisk’s years of participation taken from Jeff Blanchard, “Boys of Summer,” Boston Globe Calendar magazine, June 21, 1990: 15.

25 Meade, “Ump Curly Clement.” Sylva, in “The Correct Call,” placed Clement’s trip to umpiring school in 1963 and specified his destination as former NL umpire George Barr’s long-established umping academy.

26 Associated Press, “Second Umpire Strike in Major League History Under Way,” Salem (Oregon) Capital Journal, August 25, 1978: 17A; Associated Press, “Meeting Set for Today on Umpire Strike,” Daily American Republic (Poplar Bluff, Missouri), August 24, 1978: 13.

27 “Second Umpire Strike in Major League History Under Way.”

28 “Second Umpire Strike in Major League History Under Way.”

29 Francis Rosa, “Sub Umpires Keep Show Going,” Boston Globe, August 26, 1978: 17; Associated Press, “Five Fill-Ins at Fenway,” Daily Hampshire Gazette (Northampton, Massachusetts), August 26, 1978: 13.

30 United Press International, “Now Look, Guys … That’s Third Base Over That Way, OK?,” Lynn (Massachusetts) Daily Item, August 26, 1978: 31.

31 Red Hoffman, “Umps Steal Sox Spotlight,” Lynn Daily Item, August 26, 1978: 31.

32 Rosa, “Sub Umpires Keep Show Going.”

33 Mark Chapman, “Curly’s Dream Comes True,” Cape Cod Times, August 27, 1978: 29.

34  Dan Berger, “Major League Umps’ Strike Ends After Amateur Night,” San Diego Union, August 26, 1978: D1.

35 Leigh Montville, “Big-League for a Day,” Boston Globe, August 27, 1978: 90.

36 Associated Press, “Sub Umps Behind Plate,” North Adams (Massachusetts) Transcript, March 8, 1979: 20; Jack Craig, “Who Will Be The Umpires?,” Boston Globe, April 5, 1979: 51. The Globe reported that rookie AL ump Ted Hendry was “ignoring” his colleagues’ labor action, while the Associated Press reported that National League ump Paul Pryor signed a contract individually and went back to work for personal and financial reasons. “Umpires Are Upset at Lone Non-Striker,” Daily Hampshire Gazette, April 5, 1979: 40.

37 John Powers, “They Were Good Enough to Go Unnoticed,” Boston Globe, April 6, 1979: 30.

38 Clement’s Cape Cod League colleague Merritt, the unused alternate on August 25, 1978, made his delayed major-league debut on Opening Day 1979, working at third base. Merritt umpired 15 Red Sox games that April and May, including one behind the plate.

39 Powers, “They Were Good Enough to Go Unnoticed.”

40 “At 81, Curly’s Called ‘Em All,” New Bedford (Massachusetts) Standard-Times, updated January 11, 2011, https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/sports/2000/07/29/at-81-curly-s-called/50473494007/?.

41 Dave Markowitz, “Opening Day,” Concord (New Hampshire) Monitor, April 6, 1979: 1. According to an inflation calculator made available by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, $108 in April 1979 had the same buying power as $495.82 in November 2025.

42 Morgenweck made his major-league debut as a fill-in during a one-day umpires’ strike on October 3, 1970, working the first game of the National League Championship Series between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds. He was subsequently hired as a full-time American League umpire from 1972 through 1975.

43 Morgenweck discussed this in a 1993 oral history interview with SABR member Thomas Harris, archived on SABR’s website and accessed in 2024: https://sabr.org/interview/hank-morgenweck-1993/. Two of the other ECAC umps who substituted in the major leagues were identified as Al Forman and Jim Dunne in E.M. Swift, “They’re Out!,” Sports Illustrated, April 16, 1979: 18, https://archive.org/details/Sports-Illustrated-1979-04-16/page/n23/mode/2up.

44 Dan Crowley, Baseball on Cape Cod (Charleston, South Carolina; Arcadia Publishing, 2004): 82-92, https://archive.org/details/baseballoncapeco0000crow/mode/2up.

45 College World Series 2009 guide, accessed online December 2025: 151, http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/baseball_cws_RB/2009CWSfull.pdf; Meade, “Ump Curly Clement.”

46 Bill Mahan, “Two-Time Runner-Up Norwell Beats St. Joseph’s 5-3 for State Crown,” Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), June 21, 1976: 12.

47 Larry Mahoney, “After 18 Innings, Maine’s a Winner,” Bangor (Maine) Daily News, May 14, 1983: 1.

48 Steven Krasner, “PC’s Loss Tempers Thrill of Long Game,” Providence Journal-Bulletin, May 14, 1983: B3.

49 Price, Baseball by the Beach: A History of America’s National Pastime on Cape Cod: 64; Meade, “Ump Curly Clement.” The latter story mentions that Clement quit smoking after his first heart attack in 1982. While Clement said he wanted to give away the candy to help others, it seems likely that the candy also provided him with something to put in his mouth instead of a cigarette.

50 Sylva, “The Correct Call.”

51 Meade, “Ump Curly Clement.”

52 Ross Newhan (Los Angeles Times), “Cape Cod League Boasts Slew of Present Talent,” Concord Monitor, August 14, 1994: C3. While this comment could be interpreted as boastful, little else in the public record suggests that Clement was given to that kind of hubris.

53 Price, Baseball by the Beach: A History of America’s National Pastime on Cape Cod: 119-120; Newhan, “Cape Cod League Boasts Slew of Present Talent.”

54 Sylva, “The Correct Call.” Clement’s obituary, cited above, says he was an umpire for 44 years. If Clement’s career began with McGinn in 1956, that would place his retirement in 2000.

55 Meade, “Ump Curly Clement.”

56 “2002 Hall of Fame Class,” Cape Cod Baseball League website, accessed December 2025, https://www.capecodleague.com/hall-of-fame/2002-class#clement.

57 “Awards & Records,” Cape Cod Baseball League website, accessed December 2025, https://www.capecodleague.com/history/awards.

58 “Robert F. ‘Curly’ Clement” (obituary).

59 Brewitt Funeral Home obituary page for Robert Clement, accessed December 2025, https://www.brewittfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Robert-Clement?obId=2404136.