OBIT: Local big league baseball icon Cloninger dies at age of 77

By CHRIS HOBBS

THE SERVICE
The family will receive on Sunday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Denver United Methodist Church near the old high school and burial in the church cemetery will follow a celebration of his life on Monday at 11 a.m. at Denver United.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the East Lincoln Optimist Club, P.O. Box 30, Denver, N.C., 28037.

HobbsDailyReport.com

DENVER, N.C. – Tony Cloninger was the pride of old Rock Springs High, and his accomplishments in major league baseball made him a player that local fans will always remember.

Growing up in the era before there was a major league baseball amateur draft, Cloninger was a “bonus baby” signee by the Milwaukee Braves for $100,000 in the spring of 1958.

TONY CLONINGER

He eventually became a regional baseball icon probably best remembered as the opening day pitcher for the Braves when they played their first season in Atlanta (1966 in old Fulton County Stadium) and for a July day in 1966 on the West Coast.

In a July 3, 1966 start against the Giants in San Francisco, he hit two grand slams. He remains the only pitcher in MLB history to hit two grand slams in the same game (he drove in nine runs that day).

Cloninger — 77 and a Cherryville native — died on Tuesday in Denver, N.C.

After his 12-year career in the majors with the Braves (1961-68), Cincinnati Reds (1968-71)and St. Louis Cardinals (1972), Cloninger remained tied to baseball as a pitching coach for the New York Yankees (1992-2001, five American League titles, four World Series championships) and Boston Red Sox (2002-03).

The Yankees won World Series titles in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000) with Cloninger as their pitching coach. He left New York to battle bladder cancer, which he beat, and also later spent 15 years in player development for the Red Sox after leaving coaching.

A 6-foot, 210-pound hard-throwing right-hander in high school, Cloninger was nicknamed “The Rock Springs Rifle” by the late Dwight Frady, at that time a sportswriter for The Gastonia Gazette in Cloninger’s native Gaston County.

Cloninger also pitched for Cherryville in American Legion baseball, and his game often drew two dozen or more scouts from big league teams.

He reportedly chose to sign with the Braves – he could have signed with any team – after considering the Chicago Cubs, the Reds and the Giants.

Cloninger was actually a catcher first and was then moved to the mound by the Braves. He started his minor league career at Midland, Tex., and reached the majors as a 20-year old.

He debuted for the Braves on June 15, 1961 against the Giants, allowing six earned runs over four innings, and he went 7-2 that season.

By the Braves’ last season in Milwaukee, Cloninger had established himself as one of the game’s top pitchers – his 1965 statistics included 24 wins, an ERA of 3.29, 211 strikeouts and 16 complete games in 40 starts.

His career changed notably after he made the first Braves start on April 12, 1966, pitching all 13 innings in a 3-2 loss to Pittsburgh in the first official game ever played in Fulton County Stadium. As the story goes, Cloninger pitched in the rain, and later said in interviews that he felt that game impacted on his career.

Cloninger pitched in his final major league game on July 22, 1972 for the Cardinals, against the Braves in Atlanta. He had a short stint after that with the Braves, pitching at Class AAA Richmond (Va.) before retiring.

Cloninger finished with a major league record of 113-97 with 1,120 strikeouts over 1,767 2/3 innings and an ERA of 4.07.

He has two sons, Darin and Michael, who were each drafted – by San Diego and Minnesota, respectively – out of East Lincoln High, and they each pitched three years in the minor leagues.

Darin Cloninger — a hard-throwing right-hander whose intensity level was so high that he rarely sat down between innings when pitching (instead pacing back and forth) — got as high as Class AA. He was an 11th-round pick of the 1983 June draft by the Padres.

He went 8-10, making 16 minor league starts, and was the player to be named later that the Yankees received in a 1984 trade that sent Dennis Rasmussen to the Padres for Graig Nettles.

Michael Cloninger, a right-hander with impressive control and strong mechanics, was drafted in 1983 by the Minnesota Twins, going 18-19 over three years in the minors. He was taken in the 21st round.

Statistics in this story on Tony Cloninger, Darin Cloninger and Michael Cloninger are as detailed by Baseball Reference.com (https://www.baseball-reference.com/)

MORE ON TONY CLONINGER

HIS OBIT: http://www.warlickfuneralhome.net/obits.php?subaction=showfull&id=1532638900&archive=&start_from=&ucat=&

HIS MAJOR LEAGUE STATISTICS: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/clonito01.shtml

HIS BIO: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/76a4cb2f

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