Clyde “Pat” Springer has been a prominent and dedicated sports figure in Hagerstown and Washington County for a good part of the 20th Century. A dedication became a lifelong love of sports early in life when he excelled in baseball and basketball as a young schoolboy.

He later gained fame in the local amateur baseball ranks as a fastball pitcher for the Hagerstown Athletics and the Paramount Cubbies. In the Washington County Baseball League, he was a player-manager for the Blue Sox and Old Export teams.

He signed a professional baseball contract with Jeannette, Pa., a Pittsburgh Pirates farm club in the Middle-Atlantic League, but his pro career was cut short by an arm injury.

In a local industrial sports league, Pat participated in softball with the Statton Furniture team and was one of the most consistent hitters on the club. He was president of the Washington County Baseball League in 1952, and also coached and sponsored teams in the Hagerstown PONY League.

A big supporter of amateur sports, Pat and his brothers organized the South End Athletic Association, which sponsored baseball, basketball and football teams in inner-city and Hagerstown YMCA leagues.

A believer in hit-and-run baseball, the bunt, fair play, discipline and sportsmanship, Pat Springer never wavered in his love for the game. For him, the goodness of life is exemplified in the great game of baseball.