Diunte: Clint Conatser recalls how he almost changed the course of 1948 World Series
From SABR member Nick Diunte at Baseball Happenings on October 24, 2016:
Clint Conatser was just 17 years old when he started in the depths of the Cleveland Indians organization in 1939. Some 77 years later, he is only one of two living participants from the last Cleveland World Series championship in 1948; however, Conatser didn’t enjoy the fruits of the Indians victory, but the labors of defeat as a member of the National League Champion Boston Braves.
Conatser almost never got to the big stage, as he asked to be put on the voluntarily retired list in 1941 so that he could enlist in World War II. They obliged.
“I wrote Cleveland and I asked them to go to the voluntary retired list,” Conatser said during a 2008 interview from his home in California. “If you went in the service, they had to pay $150 to pick you up. They didn’t pick me up and I’m in the South Pacific getting letters from little towns in Georgia and South Carolina that wanted to give me a contract.”
Read the full article here: http://www.baseballhappenings.net/2016/10/clint-conatser-recalls-how-he-almost.html
Originally published: October 24, 2016. Last Updated: October 24, 2016.