Al McLean

Albert Eldon McLean (Elrod,Mac)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 175 lb.
• Debut July 16, 1935
• Final Game July 30, 1935
• Born September 20, 1912 in Chicago, IL USA
• Died September 29, 1990 in Asheboro, NC USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Al McLean was a pitcher for six years (1932-1939) - six in the minors (1932-1936; 1939) and one in the majors (1935), losing two years to inactivity (1937-1938). He broke into Organized Baseball at age 19 with Asheville in the Piedmont League, going 4-4, 4.47 and then pitched for the Louisville Colonels in the American Association (1932-1935), going 3-2 his first year, then 4-6, 5.68 followed by 9-11, 6.14 and 0-2.

Despite his struggles with Louisville, he broke into the big leagues in July with the Washington Senators and pitched four relief outings, his entire big-league career. He returned to the minors with the Albany Senators in the International League (1935), going 1-1; the Harrisburg Senators in the New York-Pennsylvania League (1935), going 2-3 with a 6.71 ERA; Dallas in the Texas League (1936); and the Selma Cloverleafs and Meridian Scrappers in the Southeastern League (1939) (7-12, 4.66); ending his baseball career at age 26 with a record of 30-41.

McLean served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II (BN). He died on September 29, 1990, a little more than a week after his 78th birthday, at the Brian Center in Asheboro, NC and is buried at Guilford Memorial Park in Greensboro, NC.

Sources

Principal sources for Al McLean include newspaper obituaries (OB), government Veteran records (VA,CM,CW), Stars & Stripes (S&S), Sporting Life (SL), The Sporting News (TSN), The Sports Encyclopedia:Baseball 2006 by David Neft & Richard Cohen (N&C), old Who's Who in Baseballs (none) (WW), old Baseball Registers (none) (BR) , old Daguerreotypes by TSN (none) (DAG), Stars&Stripes (S&S), The Baseball Necrology by Bill Lee (BN), Pat Doyle's Professional Ballplayer DataBase (PD), The Baseball Library (BL), Baseball in World War II Europe by Gary Bedingfield (GB) and The American Association: A Baseball History, 1902-1991 by Bill O'Neal; The International League: A Baseball History, 1884-1991 by Bill O'Neal; and The Texas League: A Century of Baseball by Bill O'Neal and independent research by Walter Kephart (WK) and Frank Russo (FR) and others.

Related Sites

• Al McLean at the Baseball Almanac
• Bio at Baseball Page
• and a full Bibliography from SABR's The Baseball Index (TBI)