Earl Clark (baseball)
American baseball player (1907-1938)

Bailey Earl Clark (November 6, 1907 – January 16, 1938) was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball who played from 1927 through 1934, for the Boston Braves (1927–33) and St. Louis Browns (1934). Listed at 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m), 160 pounds (73 kg), Clark batted and threw right handed. He was born in Washington, D.C.
Clark set the major league record for putouts by an outfielder in a 9-inning game, with twelve on May 10, 1929. The feat has only been equalled twice; by Lyman Bostock in 1977, and by Jacoby Ellsbury in 2009.
In an eight-year career, Clark posted an average of .291 (240-for-826) with four home runs and 81 runs batted in in 293 games, including 122 runs scored and a .324 on-base percentage.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Earl Clark (baseball)” is american baseball player (1907-1938). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Earl, Clark and baseball, not as a finished interpretation.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5325790. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1907, 1938, 1927 and 1934.
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This entry incorporates text from “Earl Clark (baseball)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.