Favorite Pre-1960 Obscure Player(s)

[Archive]

Posted By: Dan Bretta

Clarence G. Steen - he only played minor league ball, but I've been fascinated that I've been able to turn up so much about this turn of the century ball player - I've been surprised how much he shows up in my collection and for a time I never realized it.

Sometime in 2007 I ran across a cabinet photo of a University of Nebraska baseball player on ebay. The seller of the photo is an occasional poster here (Bert Wright). When I received the photo I asked Bert if he knew who was pictured in the photo and he told me it was Clarence Steen and he thought it was about 1904.



At the same time I also won a 1900 Wahoo baseball team cabinet from Bert and he believed that Clarence was pictured on that photo as well...sure enough he was. He is seated in the middle row second from right.



I later discovered that Clarence also played minor league baseball and that I already had a postcard of the Lincoln team that he played on in 1906. He is seated in the front row second from left...this is corroborated by the 1907 Spalding Guide which lists the players by name under this exact photo.



Here is a picture of the 1904 U of Nebraska team with Steen that I found when I purchased the 1905 Husker annual.



Last March I went to a postcard show and as I was looking through a stack of baseball postcards I ran across this one and Steen is the first thing that jumped out at me...I was astounded. I still have no idea what team this is as nothing matches in the SABR minor league database, but many of these players have minor league records.



Then just about a week ago I got a surprise in the mail from Bert - it was a document with Clarence's signature.




Clarence had a short professional career - he played minor league ball in Ottumwa, Iowa in 1905, Lincoln in 1906 and 1907 and I have found articles from South Dakota newspapers that he played on a Semipro team and worked in a bank in Belle Fourche in 1906 before joining the Lincoln team. After Clarence gave baseball a shot he went on to become a dentist in Scottsbluff, Nebraska. He died in the early 1960s and was buried in his hometown of Wahoo.

If you look closely here on this postcard you can see a sign that says "Dr Steen Dentist" next door to the Egyptian theater...(postcard is Bert's)