Clint Hartung

American baseball player (1922 2010)

Clinton Clarence Hartung (August 10, 1922 – July 8, 2010), nicknamed "the Hondo Hurricane", was an American right handed pitcher and right fielder in Major League Baseball who played with the New York Giants from 1947 to 1952.

Clinton Clarence Hartung was born in Hondo, Texas, on August 10, 1922. His high school team won a state baseball championship in 1939. Other reports hailed him as the second coming of Babe Ruth; "he could hit a ball 700 feet and had a bazooka for an arm," James S. Hirsch summed up the exaggerations of Hartung's ability. He was at least present, though passively, as the pinch runner at third base in the 1951 play known as the Shot Heard 'Round the World. By 1953 he was back in the minor leagues, playing for the AAA Minneapolis Millers. In 1954 and 1955, he played mostly for the Cincinnati Redlegs' AAA farm team the Havana Sugar Kings of the International League. In 1955, he also briefly played for the Nashville Volunteers of the Southern Association, and the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League. He played for the Plymouth (Oil Company) Oilers, a nationally known semi pro team in Sinton, Texas, for several years after leaving the minor leagues, including the summer of 1956, the same year Don Larsen pitched his perfect World Series game against the Dodgers. The baseball statistical reference by Bill James commemorates Hartung with its "Clint Hartung Award", for the most overhyped rookie of each decade (and honors him with one for the 1940s), and baseball themed musician Terry Cashman wrote a song called "The Hondo Hurricane". Hartung died at his home in Sinton, Texas July 8, 2010.