Birth of a clown

Today marks what would have been birthday No. 104 for long-ago minor league pitcher Max Patkin, the pride of West Philadelphia High School whose second career as the last “Clown Prince of Baseball” starts on a whim in 1946 during the Cleveland Indians’ exhibition game against the Harrisburg Senators, their Class B affiliate.

“I might have been the only athlete at West Philadelphia High to flunk gym,” Patkin once says.

Patkin spends 47 years as an on-field clown, traveling 7 million miles and working more than 4,500 straight games before a badly sprained ankle in 1993 effectively ends his career at age 73.

“I work under a great handicap,” Patkin says, “I have no talent.”

Patkin's life and career are brilliantly captured in music by the incomparable Chuck Brodsky.

Check out the tribute at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bthZu1tLWE