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David Eugene Clyde (born April 22, 1955 in Kansas City, Kansas) is a former left-handed Major League Baseball pitcher who played for five seasons with the Texas Rangers (1973–1975) and Cleveland Indians (1978–1979). He is noted for his once promising baseball career, which ended at age 26 because of arm and shoulder injuries. Billed as the next Sandy Koufax, Clyde had a stellar high school career at Westchester High School. He was drafted with the first overall pick in the 1973 MLB Draft. The Rangers planned to have Clyde pitch his first two professional games in the major leagues before moving him down to the minor leagues, but Rangers owner Bob Short decided to keep him in the roster for monetary purposes, where he had a 5.01 earned run average in 18 starts. Journalists criticized the Rangers for promoting Clyde too soon, and after an uneventful 1974 campaign, he developed shoulder trouble and was sent down to the minor leagues in 1975, where he pitched three seasons. He was traded to the Cleveland Indians in 1978, and played two seasons before being demoted. Clyde attempted to make a comeback with the Houston Astros but was unsuccessful. Clyde's career made him the "poster-boy" for bringing up young players prematurely and dealing with arm injuries. He was named by journalist Randy Galloway as among the worst cases of "mishandling" a young player in baseball history. He is considered by many as a savior of the Texas Rangers franchise because of the significant attendance boost that Clyde's hype brought to the team, preventing it from a possible bankruptcy or American League takeover. == Early life == The son of a telephone executive, Clyde was born in Kansas City, Kansas, the oldest of four brothers. After living for a time in New Jersey, his family moved to Houston, Texas in 1969.〔 He played football and baseball at Westchester High School in Houston where he became known as a perfectionist and was an excellent student. During his senior year at Westchester, Clyde had a stellar record of 18–0, giving up only three earned runs in 148 innings pitched, while pitching five no-hitters and setting 14 national high school records.〔 His dominance at the high school level attracted the attention of many MLB team scouts, many of whom billed Clyde as the "next Sandy Koufax" and others called him the "best pitching prospect they had ever seen".〔 Clyde was praised by national publications such as ''Sports Illustrated'' and ''Newsweek'' prior to the 1973 MLB Draft, and was the consensus among scouts as the best player available in the draft. That year the Texas Rangers held the first overall pick, having the worst record in baseball the previous year at 54–100. He was the first player selected in the 1973 draft by the Rangers. He received a $125,000 ($ today) signing bonus, the highest bonus ever given to a draft pick at the time, and a free college education.〔 After signing his contract, Clyde stated that his career goal was to "become the greatest pitcher ever".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「David Clyde」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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