David Eugene Clyde (born April 22, 1955 in Kansas City, Kansas) is a former left-handed Major League Baseball pitcher who played all or part of five seasons for the Texas Rangers (1973 to 1975) and Cleveland Indians (1978 to 1979). His once promising baseball career ended at age 26 because of arm injuries.

Clyde had a stellar high school baseball career at Westchester High School in Houston where he finished with a record of 18-0 as a senior and only three earned runs in 148 innings pitched. He was the first person selected in the 1973 MLB Draft. He received a $125,000 signing bonus, the highest bonus ever given to a draft pick at the time.

He was quickly promoted to the majors and was the youngest player to play in an MLB game that year. Clyde won his first ever Major League start and pitched in eighteen games (all starts) that season, finishing with a record of 4-8, with a 5.01 ERA.

Whitey Herzog, Clyde's manager in 1973, said in his 1986 autobiography White Rat, he regrets going along with Rangers owner Bob Short's desire to rush Clyde to the big leagues. According to Herzog, he was often forced to leave the young pitcher in the game way longer than he should have, because fans wanted to see the 18-year-old "phenom" pitch. This led to Clyde's arm burning out an early age. Herzog also said he regrets letting older players supply Clyde with beer and liquor, as Clyde later developed an alleged problem with alcohol that affected his pitching performance. Herzog said that Clyde was hung over many times to the point that he should not have been pitching, but he was pressured by the front office to pitch him anyway.

With a strong desire to not contribute to Clyde's downfall further, Herzog left the Rangers after only one year as manager, moving on to the California Angels in 1974. His regret over his part in Clyde's downfall also led Herzog to take a strong stance against drug and alcohol abuse on his teams. When he first became general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, he traded or released many players who refused to clean up their alcohol and drug habits. Over the next few years, he traded (or had later general manager Dal Maxvill trade) several fan-favorite players--Keith Hernandez, Lonnie Smith, and Joaquin Andujar--who had allegedly been using cocaine (although Herzog and Maxvill didn't disclose these problems to the media when making the trades).

In the 1974 season, Clyde played in 28 games (21 starts) and finished with 3-9 record, and a 4.38 ERA. He started one game in the 1975 season (a loss) before developing arm trouble and being demoted to the minor leagues. He stayed in the minors for three seasons before being traded (with Willie Horton) to the Cleveland Indians for Tom Buskey and John Lowenstein prior to the 1978 season.

Many of Clyde's troubles are attributed to the rush to get him into the majors before he was ready. This was due, in part, to Texas owner Bob Short wanting to sell tickets. Clyde's first start resulted in a sellout crowd and a win, but that was his career's high point.

Clyde started for the Indians for most of that year, playing in 28 games (starting 25) and finished with a record of 8-11, with a 4.28 ERA and 83 strikeouts. Clyde also finished fourth in the American League with 11 wild pitches. He pitched in 9 games (8 starts) with the Indians during the 1979 season (3-4, 5.91 ERA) before being demoted to the minors. He was traded back to the Rangers after the 1979 season, but was released prior to the 1980 season.

Clyde tried to restart his career with the Houston Astros for the 1981 season, but never played a game with them.

The phrase "I hope they don't pull a David Clyde with him," when referring to a professional sports team taking a very young player (often just out of high school) and rushing him to the major leagues before he is ready, has become a part of baseball's lexicon. [http://archive.recordonline.com/archive/2003/06/29/basecolu.htm]

Clyde recently retired from the lumber business.