As a youngster growing up on the east coast of Canada in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia in the early 1950’s, I cut my baseball teeth on Dodger games coming out of Brooklyn. The voice of Vin Scully on radio and the best line up in Dodgers history was more than enough to keep me up late – even on school nights – recording every play on my homemade score sheets. How I wish I still had those sheets that were neatly lined off in a scribbler.

Duke Snider was my first baseball hero but I had many others in those days with so many options from which to choose. My favorite starting pitcher was right-hander Carl Erskine and I can still recall his then record breaking 14 strikeouts against the hated Yankees on October 2, 1953 in Game-3 of the World Series.

Even as a youngster I came to understand the important contributions of role players, whether they were pinch hitters, defensive replacements or relief pitchers. When starting pitchers got into trouble, I would anxiously wait for Vin to advise me that Jim Hughes or Clem Labine were warming up in the bullpen. In due course. Clem Labine became my favorite Dodger relief pitcher and has remained so to this day because of the roles he played with the Dodgers, not pigeon-holed into a single inning or against a sole right-handed batter.

Clem Labine
(AP photo)

Labine was born in Lincoln, Rhode Island and grew up in nearby Woonsocket, where he attended high school. The son of French-Canadian parents, he was blessed with a mentality to play football and hockey but baseball was his true love.

The Boston Braves had pursued the 17-year-old Labine in the summer of 1944 but somehow the tryout fell through, leaving an opening for Branch Rickey and Chuck Dressen to swoop in and sign the youngster. He began his professional career with the Newport News Dodgers of the Piedmont League but shortly after turning 18 and with World War II not yet concluded he volunteered for the paratroopers.

Because of his military service, Labine missed the 1945 season as well as most of 1946, in which he pitched only 14 innings with the Newport News Dodgers.

Over the next five years he worked his way through the Dodgers minor league system making stops with the Asheville Tourists, Greenville Spinners, Pueblo Dodgers and two years with the AAA St. Paul Saints of the American Association.

After making 20 appearances with the Saints in 1951, Labine graduated to MLB beginning an 11-year career with the Dodgers. During his career with the Dodgers – in Brooklyn and Los Angeles – he made 425 appearances, starting 37 games, finishing 242 and pitching in 146 games in some other capacity.

Labine may well have been the precursor to the role that has evolved into the modern day closer. During his time there were no signature songs that drummed the closer into the game, saves were not recorded as a pitching statistic, the slider had not yet come into its own and big contracts were not awarded to relievers as pitching in relief often simply meant the pitcher was thought not to be good enough to start.

Robert Creamer in Sports Illustrated went so far as to describe Labine as the “King of the Bullpen.” He was baseball’s premier ‘closer’ two decades before the term ‘closer’ was ever used. He led the League in ‘saves’ for years – a decade before ‘saves’ were even tallied. He was twice an All Star and three times a World Series Champion. As a Brooklyn Dodger, he ended with a remarkable career World Series ERA of 1.65 and is a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers Baseball Hall of Fame.

In his day relievers were not valued as they are today, as starters were expected to pitch long into the game and pitch a complete game as often as possible, maybe every four days. However, that was not the case with Labine. He was valued by his teammates and especially by his Hall of Fame manager Walter Alston.

But unlike the ace closers of today, Labine was used by manager Walter Alston when the game was at a crucial stage. In 1956, for example, the righty was summoned in the 7th inning 16 times, and he pitched five innings of relief three times that season. For six consecutive years he pitched 104 or more innings in each season topping out at 144 in 1955.

So what was special about Clem Labine? He didn’t have an over-powering fastball but he most certainly was not without weapons.

While in high school Labine was said to have had a curve like a left-hander and speculation was that it came about as the result of having his right index finger broken as a youngster, thus affecting the way in which he gripped the ball. He was a master at inducing ground balls using a sinker that forced batters to pound the ball into the dirt. He had, in the words of his former Brooklyn Dodgers teammate Ralph Branca, “the right equipment to be a reliever. His sinker induced many a double play and he possessed a sharp overhand curve that he could throw to righties and lefties.”

The 6’0” – 180 lb right-hander was only too happy to have batters hit ground balls, regardless of how sharply, and what pitcher wouldn’t be under those circumstances as underlined by Labine? “So you’re not gonna hit a lot of line drives off of me, just a lot of ground balls. And don’t forget who we had scooping them up – Gilly (Gil Hodges), (Jackie) Robinson, (Pee Wee) Reese, and (Billy) Cox.”

Labine, not only pitched in relief when it was not popular to do so, he preferred that role. On occasion he picked up Carl Erskine on a day when “Oisk” needed some help, which was not too often. Erskine thought Labine could easily have started in his place if need be.

“I always thought Clem would’ve had a great career as a starting pitcher,” said Erskine. “But he told me ‘I don’t want to start. I liked the pressure of coming into the game with everything on the line. I could also do it more often as a reliever.'”

Perhaps Labine’s greatest gift was that mentality. There was no challenge he was not willingly tackle. Teammate Ralph Branca called him one of the game’s first great closers because of his mentality.

“He also had courage,” said Branca of Labine. “He really welcomed the challenge of being a reliever. He was a tough bird who loved to be in a crucial spot.”

The 1955 World Series in which the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees four games to three to win their first World Championship is a classic example of the contribution Labine made to the team in an almost unnoticed fashion and in a high pressure situation.

He appeared in four games – closing all four – in the 1955 World Series, winning one and saving one on back-to-back days. In Game-4 he pitched four innings retiring 11 of the final 12 batters and got the victory, as the Dodgers came from behind to top the Yankees 8-5 and tie the Series at two victories apiece. That was on one of those rare occasions when he did have to pick up Erskine. In Game-5 he pitched three innings in relief of Roger Craig, allowing a homer to Yogi Berra but inducing two double plays to preserve the 5-3 Dodgers win.

Labine picked up a save in Game-5 of the 1955 World Series long before saves were even a thing.
(New York Daily News archive photo)

Not much gets by Vin Scully and Labine’s 1955 World Series was no exception.

“Clem Labine was one of the main reasons the Dodgers won it all in 1955,” said the Hall of Fame broadcaster. “He had the heart of a lion and the intelligence of a wily fox … and he was a nice guy, too.”

Dodgers fans will remember the 1951 loss by the Dodgers to the rival New York Giants when Bobby Thompson hit the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” that eliminated the Dodgers from further playoff contention. Perhaps many will not remember that on the day prior to that fateful day, Labine threw a six-hit complete game at the Polo Grounds in the Dodgers’ 10-0 victory over the Giants in Game-2.

Dodger fans will also remember, or perhaps have tried to forget, the perfect game defeat the Dodgers suffered at the hands of Don Larson and the New York Yankees on October 8,1956 in the fifth game of the World Series. Again, most likely not so many remember that the Dodgers staved off elimination in Game-6 of the series the next day by defeating Bob Turley and the Yankees 1-0 in ten innings. The Dodgers starter that day was none other than Clem Labine, who pitched the complete game 10-inning shutout.

Clement Walter Labine died on March 2, 2007 in Vero Beach Florida. His former teammates and fans remember him, his constant smile and his ever-present crew cut well and with fondness.

“He was not recognized the way he should have been. He was a great pitcher, but he was surrounded by too many stars,” said Tommy Lasorda, the former Dodgers manager who was Labine’s teammate. “He played the game the way it was supposed to be played. He gave it everything he had, he got along with everyone and everyone loved him.”