One of the league's most colourful characters, Clifford "Red" Pemberton made his Canadian debut in 1954.  But, in the beginning, nobody wanted him very much!  He had brought his family to Moose Jaw in July of '54 following a request from a friend that he join the team.  However, when he arrived the manager made it clear he had no where to play 'ol Red..  

He got into just two games for the Mallards.  On July 2nd he played third for a few innings.  Of course he got a hit -- a triple -- in his first at bat.  His only other action for Moose Jaw was on the hill.  In a blowout against Indian Head, Pemberton threw three innings in relief. 

Left - Pemberton in 1953 playing with the Springfield Tigers of the Western Minny League. Photo courtesy of Armand Peterson. Below - With Saskatoon Gems in 1955

Saskatoon came to the rescue.  Ralph Mabee, the Gems' general manager, got Pemberton on loan on a look-see basis.  Mabee asked, "Where do you play?"  Pemberton's reply, "Where do you need me?"  

Over his first two weeks in the league he'd play first, second, centre field, left field, third and pitch.

Three hits (including a triple) marked his first game with Saskatoon and he'd keep it up for eight years.  Pemberton won his first batting title the following year as he batted .360.  He'd win again in 1956 with a .349 average.  He followed with .306 in 1957, .364 in 1958, .309 in 1959.  Pemberton won his third batting crown in 1960 with a blistering .398.  He hit .351 in his final season.

Hitting was never a problem for the Oklahoma kid. 

A headline from The Daily Oklahoman, August, 27,1939
Pemberton, still a high school junior, is the leading hitter with the Stillwater Boomers, a semi-pro team.  He'd also be All-State in basketball.   

"Many old-timers regard him as one of the swiftest runners and the best pure hitter ever to play the game of baseball in Oklahoma."  Glory Days of Summer, the history of baseball in Oklahoma by Burke, Franks and Parr

"Living at the Tulsa YMCA, Pemberton regularly took a street car to the end of the ... line, then hitch-hiked to play baseball for the Stillwater Bombers.  Pemberton hit an amazing .481 during the Northern League season, a fast semi-pro league ... Playing for Elk City in 1951 ... he hit .434."

Signed by the Dodgers, Pemberton began his pro career in 1941. But, it would be abruptly interrupted by service in the U.S. Navy.  He'd lose four crucial years and return to the pros in 1946 at age 26, considered too old to be a prime prospect.  With the semi-pro action more lucrative than professional ball, Pemberton signed on with the Golden Coors of Denver.  Before a brief return to pro ball, he'd come back home for a couple of seasons with the semi-pro Elk City Elks, and a half season in the Western Minnesota circuit, before heading north in 1954.

                           AVE  G   AB  R   H  2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
1939  Stillwater           n/a
      Oklahoma
1940  Stillwater           n/a
      Oklahoma
1941  Newport             .301  96 329  88  99  2 10  2  21 42 38 28
      N.E. Arkansas
1942  Dayton              .500
      Middle Atlantic
1942  Military Service
1943  Military Service
1944  Military Service
1945  Military Service
1946  Meridian            .325 107 415  75 135 26  7  0  41 44 29 22
      Southeastern
1947  Meridian-Pensacola  .309 133 531 102 164 23 17  4  69 42 32 23
      Southeastern
1948  Golden Coors         n/a
      Denver, Colorado
1949  Golden Coors (1)     n/a
      Denver, Colorado
1950  Elks, Elk City (2)   n/a
      Oklahoma
1951  Elks, Elk City (3)   n/a
      Oklahoma
1952  Clovis              .356 139 564 138 201 40  8  5 111 76 27 27
      West Texas-New Mexico
1953  Port Arthur         .313  31 132  29  41 11  2  0  22 10  4  6
      Gulf Coast
1953  Springfield Tigers  .366  34 142  33  52 11  4  0  22
      Western Minnesota
1954  Ponca City          .288  53 212  41  61  8  4  2  23 26  9  2
      Western Association
1954  Moose Jaw/Saskatoon .291     110      32
      Western Canada
1955  Saskatoon           .360  62 250  49  90 19  7  1  51 25 13  6
      Western Canada
1956  Saskatoon           .349  66 258  38  90 12  9  6  52 27  9  8
      Western Canada
1957  Saskatoon           .306  53 206  46  63  9  0  4  33 31 11  6
      Western Canada
1958  Moose Jaw           .364  43 165  45  60 13  2  6  43 20  9  5
      Western Canada
1959  Regina              .309  47 220  37  68 11  5  1  36 20 16 11
      Canadian-American
1960  Lloydminster        .398  50 176  36  70 15  2  1  28 14  8  1
      Western Canada
1961  Lloyd/Edmonton (4)  .351      57  12  20      
      Western Canada

(1) U.S. finalists in the National Baseball Congress tournament.
Pemberton led the tournament in hits. Voted to the All-Tournament
team.
(2) Pemberton went 3-4 to lead the Elks to the Oklahoma title. Voted
to the All-State team.
(3) The leading hitter in the state tournament as the Elks won again.
Voted to the All-State team. 
(4) Lethbridge Herald, July 14, 1961

Pemberton suited up for five teams in Canada from 1954 to 1961 -- Moose Jaw, Saskatoon, Regina, Lloydminster and, for a brief time at the end of the shortened '61 season, with Edmonton. He had stints as manager with four of the clubs.  

In 1958, Pemberton made a triumphant return to Saskatoon, where he had played for four seasons.  As playing-manager of Moose Jaw, Pemberton went 4-5 with two homers, a double and a single as the Mallards won 9-6. (Saskatoon Star Phoenix, June 27, 1958)

He was at the centre of a major rhubarb in Regina in 1955 when he took on the owner of the Regina team.

"A free-for-all nearly broke out among the players in the fifth inning of the first game when Gem third baseman Cliff Pemberton and Denny Evenson, sponsor of the Braves, came to blows.

Evenson, stationed in front of the bleachers just off the playing field back of third base, was heckling Pemberton when Regina came to bat in the bottom of the fifth. Pemberton left the playing field and got involved in a fist fight with Evenson.  Players from both sides rushed to the scene and it was some minutes before umpire Scoop Hunter was able to restore order. The umpire ejected Evenson and Pemberton from the park." (Saskatoon Star-Phoenix July 7, 1955)

Pemberton was suspended for one game and fined $15.  Evenson was fined $30.

He played in the 1955 Global World Series in Milwaukee and, to no surprise, walked off with the batting title. Pemberton hit .471.  He recalled, 

"They gave me a big cup, must have been three feet high.  I had no idea how to get it home ... it was up on the mantle ... one day my daughter bumped it ... it fell into a hundred pieces."   

The batting championship AND a triple play.  Yes, Pemberton also was a key on defense.  In the fifth inning of the game between Canada and Japan and the Canadians leading 4-2, Japanese centrefielder Atsushi Otsu came to the plate with runners on first and second and none out.  Pemberton caught the liner to third, fired to Johnny Ford at second who tagged Teruso Isihara.  Ford's throw to Jim Ryan at first was in time to catch Soichi Arakawa before he could get back to the bag. 

Roy Taylor, a veteran of prairie baseball, says, "Pemberton was probably the best hitter I ever saw in Canada. He'd just flatten the ball.  He'd hit the ball so hard you just weren't fast enough to get in front of it."

In the off-season, Pemberton would return to his beloved Oklahoma to continue teaching, a career which spanned 43 years. 

The 1961 season was the end of baseball for Red. He started the season as the playing-manager of the Meridians but, in late June, a fractured hand put him on the sidelines.  He wasn't inactive for long, getting back on the field as an umpire. While his stint as an official drew high praise, he was soon back in uniform as playing-manager of the Edmonton Eskimos.  The Esks would soon fold and Pemberton packed his bags for his last trip home from Canada.

Later there was seniors' softball ('til he was 75) -- in Oklahoma and California -- and 14 world championships. 

As late as 1997, Pemberton continued to collect honours.  Under the headline "Local track athletes medal", the August, 1997 Daily Ardmoreite carried the news, "Cliff Pemberton, competing in the master men age 75-79 division won the silver medal in the shot put with a throw of 22-9".

Pemberton died in September, 2000.   Baseball America noted the passing:

Cliff Pemberton, a speedy minor league second baseman and outfielder for seven seasons spread across 14 years, died Sept. 4 in Ardmore, Okla. He was 80.

Pemberton led the Northeast Arkansas League with 10 triples in his first pro season in 1941, before joining the Navy during World War II.  In his second year back from the service in 1947, he led the Southeastern League with 17 triples while playing for two clubs.

He then retired for four years before coming back to lead the West Texas-New Mexico League with 27 stolen bases for Clovis.

(Don Fleming, The Sports Mill, Edmonton Journal, June 15, 1959)

The clown prince, Clifford Pemberton goes on and on, which makes it good for the Can-Am.

One of the top drawing cards around the circuit, the irrepressible Pemberton has cast his lot with the jazzed-up Regina Senators this time around as Wayne Tucker's lieutenant.

Matter of fact, Cliff moves up to the head of the class for tonight's opener of Eskimos' homecoming series, because Tucker has been called home to Utah by a fatality in the family.

"It looks like a rough year," observed Pemberton when he herded his charges into the Mac last night. "Not that we won't have a good club, because we will," he hastened to add. "It's that schedule I'm talking about. We don't get a single day off for the first two weeks. That's really socking it to you at the start, with the cool weather and all. Rough on the arms and muscles.

"And Wayne tells me that we have to travel 2,000 more miles than anyone else in the league. I haven't checked his figures, but I'm a believer. So far it sure feels like it.

"Heck, after playing Saturday night in Regina, we travelled all night by bus to get to Lloydminster. Kudron, our starter, is a real good junker, but he was so tired, he just didn't have a thing. "Then it was Darrell Read's turn. We've been using him in relief regularly, because he can get the ball over. he did plenty of that against the Combines. Only stickler was trying to throw the ball through to the catcher."

 "But against these Eskimos now . . . I tell my guy, Bob Theiss, to throw his best pitch, then get on his horse and back up third."

Pemberton, who had an impressive run with the Montreal Royals of the International when his current teammates were in rompers, is patrolling third base as he appears with his third club in this prairie league.

"That's the old man's corner, and that's okay with me,: he slow-drawled, Texas-like . . . which figures because he is a native Texan, even though he teaches school in Tulsa, Okla., in the off-season. "You either get 'em or you don't. It's a one shot deal. There's no moving around, which suits me just fine."

(Larry Wood, Calgary Herald, May 19, 1961)

What the Calgary Boys' Baseball Association needs is a chief dictator; a knight in shining armor who is an expert at the sport he's dealing with, a favorite with the youngsters, a proven teacher, and most of all, a relentless promoter.

If you're thinking a gent with these qualifications is hard to find these days, you'd be right.  Ands the CBBA would definitely have to part with a few bills to acquire such an individual.

But the organization is now too large for efficient operation on a part time, unpaid help basis.  With the right man, I think the payoff would be handsome and, in the long run, the Calgary ball picture would expand and improve.

The fellow I'm thinking of would come fairly cheap considering the job he's capable of doing.  He's one of the bright spots in an otherwise gloomy set of memories left by Calgary's most recent excursion into semi-pro baseball company.  The man is Cliff Pemberton.

In case you came in late, Pemberton is manager of the Lloydminster Meridians of the ever-changing Western Canada Baseball League.  Regular patrons of Buffalo Stadium last season can't help but remember this little guy who oozes more color than a Bapco factory.  It's no secret Calgary manager Vic Stasiuk looked forward to scheduled dates with Pemberton's crew.  When the captain of the good ship Meridian dropped anchor at Buffalo, it was Stasiuk's best opportunity to lure fans past the ticket window.

Pemberton was unique in that he was so much superior to his counterparts in Saskatoon, Lethbridge and Calgary.  His players showed a marked improvement as the season wore on and the credit for it has to go to him.  By mid-season his aggregation was a redoubtable one, and by far the class of the circuit.

Yet, despite his club's winning ways, Pemberton didn't mind sacrificing a few runs for the sake of color and excitement if they were lacking.  These are two commodities the game of baseball desperately needs to keep the fans headed in the direction of the park.

"Sure the main object of any game is to win," Cliff opined last year during a pre-game bull session.  "But you've got to cater to the paying customers too, or you may not have a chance to win next time because you can't field a team."

It struck me at the time that the man was hitting on the big reason for the apparent failure of semi-pro ball in Calgary.

Pemberton is a learned baseball man but he also has the ability to teach.  He has been knocking around the WCBL for three or four years now, spending his summers playing the game he loves, with a group of young fellows he can instruct.  His teaching ability isn't restricted to baseball either.  He is an educator in his home town, Tulsa, Okla., and the ball season is only his vacation time. 

During stopovers in Calgary last season, he was rarely out of character.  When word got around the Meridians were in town, many a young local ball enthusiast would hightail it for Buffalo the afternoon before a game, and always find Pemberton there, ready to offer a few tips and partake in an infield drill.

I'm told the CBBA has already thrashed out the possibility of a paid administrator.  The move would life much of the burden off a few of the officials who are now putting more than their share of voluntary time and effort into the program.

It wouldn't be a matter of outbidding the Lloydminster club for his services.  He is known to have shown great interest in the Calgary ball program during his visits.  With a moderate salary -- enough to handle travelling and living expenses for the summer -- it's likely he'd jump at such an offer.

Next season, if the financial picture allows, and such a move is considered, Pemberton would be the logical choice.