Family of late baseball prospect gives to McDonald County baseball team

Sep. 7—ANDERSON, Mo. — The family of a McDonald County native and a onetime Major League Baseball prospect is leaving a lasting legacy in his name a few months after he died at the age of 94.

Raylene Clark Appleby, daughter of the former Anderson High School baseball standout Ray Clark, was in Anderson with other family members on Thursday to present a $10,000 gift to the McDonald County School District Foundation for the Mustangs baseball team.

"Today is honoring my father with a legacy," Appleby said. "He loved baseball, and to be here in McDonald County and carry this legacy on means so much to me. We want this memorial fund to assist students in the baseball program. It may be for equipment, it may be for travel expenses, but it can be very expensive, and I believe my father would be thrilled that we would continue his memory with a baseball theme."

Clark, a 1946 graduate of what was then Anderson High School, spent five years playing baseball in the minor leagues in the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees systems.

Appleby said Clark was thought of so highly that the Yankees purchased his contract from the Red Sox and paid him a signing bonus as large or larger than that of baseball legend Mickey Mantle. He played his final season with Mantle's former team, the Joplin Miners, in 1952 before a severe injury to his ankle put an end to his baseball dreams.

Appleby said her father went on to be a successful businessman, starting Excel Manufacturing with two partners and working there until his retirement.

Clark died June 3, but he was an avid baseball fan and attended reunions at McDonald County High School until the end.

"He enjoyed seeing all the people in McDonald County during class reunions," Appleby said. "He never missed one when they had them at the high school. It got down to the last time he came to a reunion there was only Daddy and another lady left from the class of 1946. When he'd come back from these reunions, that was all he could talk about, was seeing all the people at the McDonald County High School reunions."

Baseball prospect

Appleby said her father loved baseball.

The Baseball Reference website shows Clark playing in Georgia in the Boston Reds Sox system from 1948-1950, then moving to the Joplin Miners when the New York Yankees bought his contract.

Dick Clark, a cousin, said Ray Clark was invited to the Yankees spring training in either 1951 or 1952.

His last year in professional baseball was with the Miners in 1952, when he played in 122 games with a batting average of .248 in 459 at-bats. He had 112 hits, including 16 doubles, five triples, six home runs and 41 RBIs.

"He had an amazing career until he had an injury to his leg," Appleby said. "He had a severe break in his ankle, and that was that. It was a shame because now they probably could have done something to help him nowadays."

Appleby said her dad maintained a close relationship with a number of people from his playing days, including the Hall of Fame manager and player Whitey Herzog.

"He and Whitey always stayed in touch, and we went to ballgames with him and his family," Appleby said. "During COVID, which was not long ago, Whitey was in Springfield as a speaker for the Cardinals, and they had a special dinner and we were attending. Daddy and Whitey wanted to visit before it started, so we set it up and everybody had to have their masks on. We took Daddy to the back so he and Whitey could visit, and the first thing they did, they see each other and they bear hug each other and rip their masks off."

A legacy to students

McDonald County baseball coach Heath Alumbaugh said the team was grateful for the Clarks' donation.

"It is very humbling," Alumbaugh said. "One of the things we want to be able to preserve is Ray's legacy. We talk to our kids about what kind of a legacy you leave, and this is a perfect example of that. As a program, we want to honor Ray's legacy, but it also gives us a chance to provide opportunities for our student-athletes within our program that maybe we wouldn't get to do."

Alumbaugh said the money will allow "us to be able to purchase a Hack Attack pitching machine. That gives opportunities for our kids to be able to get more swings that maybe we couldn't provide for them."

Randy Smith, former McDonald County superintendent and now a leader in the McDonald County Schools Foundation, said the gift will give the baseball team a chance to meet more of its needs than would otherwise be possible.

"It enhances the baseball program and can give individual students an opportunity to build memories, build dreams," Smith said. "Baseball is that sport that everybody loves and gives kids an opportunity to build on that, and hopefully they'll become professional players someday, you never know. The opportunity is there, and this is a vehicle to get them there."