Ken Clay, who won World Series rings with the New York Yankees following the first two of his five seasons in Major League Baseball, died March 26. He was 71.
Dr. Jim Warner, executive medical director for the Centra Heart & Vascular Institute in Lynchburg, Virginia, told the Associated Press that Clay died as a result of heart and kidney issues.
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Primarily a reliever, Clay played for the Yankees (1977-79), Texas Rangers (1980) and Seattle Mariners (1981). He retired with a 10-24 record and 4.68 ERA in 111 games (36 starts).
Clay saw action in three World Series games, all with New York. He allowed only one run in 3.2 innings across two appearances against the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1977, a series the Yankees won in six games.
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In the 1978 World Series, Clay allowed four runs (three earned) in 2.1 innings in his only appearance in Game 1, which the Dodgers won 11-5. The Yankees came back to win the series in six games.
After going 1-7 for the Yankees in 1978, Clay was traded to the Rangers along with a minor leaguer for future Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry.
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Clay went 2-3 with a 4.60 ERA in eight starts for the Rangers in his only season in Arlington.
In December 1980, Clay was traded again, part of a 10-player megadeal that saw four-time All-Star Willie Horton go to Texas. Clay finished his career with a 2-7 record in 22 games (14 starts) for the Mariners.
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“We’re saddened by the loss of former Mariners pitcher Ken Clay,” the Mariners wrote March 30 on their official X account. “We send our thoughts and condolences to his loved ones.”
As the Associated Press noted, Clay had a run of legal issues after retiring.
“In 1987, he pleaded guilty in Virginia to stealing more than $16,000 from a ring distributor he worked for after his baseball career ended,” the AP wrote. “In 1992, he was sentenced to one year in a Virginia jail for stealing $550 from the car dealership where he worked. In 2001, he pleaded guilty to forgery and other charges in Florida and agreed to repay more than $40,000 to creditors for using an ex-girlfriend’s personal information to defraud three credit card companies.”
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