Former All-Star Jim Clancy has passed away, the Blue Jays announced. He was 69.
Clancy was drafted by the Rangers in the fourth round of the 1974 draft out of a Chicago high school. The 6’4″ right-hander pitched three seasons in the minors. The Blue Jays selected him in the expansion draft in advance of their inaugural season in ’77. Clancy made his big league debut against his former club that July. He started 13 games as a rookie and would remain a fixture in Toronto’s rotation for the next decade.
He won 10 games with a 4.09 earned run average over 31 outings during his first full MLB season. He struggled through an injury-plagued ’79 season before breaking out the following year. Clancy turned in a career-low 3.30 ERA across 250 2/3 innings in 1980. After a down season in ’81, he was one of the top pitchers in the sport in 1982. Clancy led MLB with 40 starts and tossed a career-high 266 2/3 innings. He won 16 games and earned an All-Star nod.
That kicked off a six-year run in which he posted five seasons with a sub-4.00 ERA. Clancy surpassed 30 starts and 200 innings in all but one of those years. While injuries limited him in 1985, he managed a 3.78 ERA across 23 starts and helped the Jays to the first playoff berth in franchise history.
Clancy pitched in Toronto through the end of the ’88 campaign. He finished his Jays tenure with a 4.10 earned run average and 128 wins. Longtime teammate Dave Stieb is the only pitcher in franchise history to top Clancy’s 2204 2/3 innings pitched. He trails only Stieb and Roy Halladay on the franchise leaderboard in strikeouts and wins. After leaving Toronto in free agency, he finished his career as a swingman with the Astros and Braves.
At age 35, Clancy was part of Atlanta’s pennant-winning ’91 team and made three appearances in that year’s classic World Series against Minnesota. He was the winning pitcher in Game 3, recording one out in the top of the 12th inning before Atlanta walked it off in the bottom half. He made his final major league appearance two nights later, tossing two innings of one-run ball to record a hold in an eventual blowout win. That pulled Atlanta ahead in the series by a 3-2 margin, but Minnesota won the final two games in extras (capped by Jack Morris’ 10-inning shutout in Game 7) to win the title.
MLBTR joins others throughout the game in sending our condolences to Clancy’s family, friends, loved ones and former teammates.
He was a very good player. Sad day for our sport. Condolences to his family and friends
R.IP.Jim Clancy.
Saw him pitch in Oakland in 1980. Pitched well as I remember.
I had to dig out my graded card of him from the 1979 Topps set. How young!
RIP, JC…
Lots of fond memories watching Jim and Dave Stieb pitch for the Jays throughout the 80s. They used to give Steinbrenner fits because they always seemed to pitch well against the Yankees. I remember reading once that Steinbrenner complained the Umps favored them when playing New York. Jim was a classic work horse and always battled hard.
Jim Clancy is the only Toronto Blue Jays player to have played at least one major league game for the club in each of their first 12 seasons, from 1977 to 1988.
I saw Jim Clancy and Jeff Byrd pitch as members of the Blue Jays organization for the horrible Jersey City Indians in the Eastern League in 1977. In those days, the expansion teams didn’t have to field a full slate of minor league teams at each level (AAA, AA A, etc ) so the Blue Jays assigned those 2 to the Clevelend Indians AA team. Clancy was in Toronto by year’s end. Always followed him from that point forward. Sad to hear. REST IN PEACE!