AFL Hall Of Fame Johnson & Clifton Archives

The Alabama – Florida League Hall Of Fame – Ottis Johnson & Jack Clifton

The Question Mark – By Dan Taylor

Big Jack Clifton’s eyes bored through your soul.
Strong
hands deathgripped bat as
cavemen carried clubs.
His personal
Crusade was
to land every ball in intensive care.
Pitching, he was
a nightmarish,
fast, loose, an untamed aborigine;
to him walks and wild
pitches
were weapons of intimidation.
Nobody dug in against Jack Clifton.

His
first full season in 1941
for the Coastal Plain League’s
Goldsboro Gold Bugs
he tattoed tobacco field ballparks for .370,
dragging
the batting crown by its hair.
In ’42 for Richmond in the Piedmont
League
Jack hit .302;
when shunted to Burlington’s Bi Staters
(he
and Richmond’s manager Ben Chapman
were oil and water)
Clifton
was 5 and 0 with a no hitter.
He fried Richmond fences in ’43 for .320.

EIGHT
YEARS LATER, back in OB
with Headland’s Dixie Runners
in
the Ala – Fla League he goes 25 and 7,
with 245 strikeouts,
194 walks,
3
playoff wins,
another no hitter,
the beaning death of Dothan’s Ottis Johnson on his brain,
and
never plays minor league ball again.

Somewhere in the life’s
haze
is a riddle in enigma’s clothing.

Who Was Jack Clifton?

A Conversation With Jack Clifton

Jack Clifton in Goldsboro

A Conversation with Edsel Johnson, Edsel Johnson Jr, and John Beasley