Short Biography by Chris Cloutier
My father, Leo Cloutier (1912-1988), always preferred to be called a newspaper-man rather than a journalist.
A small-town boy and native of Berlin, New Hampshire, growing up in the woods far from town, Leo found it a challenge to get to school every day, but his teachers saw that he had a gift for writing.
When Leo wrote a letter to Connie Mack, then owner of the Philadelphia Athletics, to inquire about a possible position as team mascot, Mr. Mack, recognizing the quality of writing in the letter, wrote back:
"Would advise that you try to develop yourself into a position along the lines of reporting baseball ...."
Leo took the advice.
As a sportscaster and writer, Leo E. Cloutier covered Major League Baseball from 1933 to 1988 in daily and weekly columns for newspapers in New Hampshire, Vermont, Massacheutsetts and Maine. He began as a cub reporter for the Berlin NH Herald (where he got his first assignment interviewing Babe Ruth), then worked at the Berlin Reporter up until World War II, then afterwards for The Manchester Union Leader, where as sports editor he established and directed the annual Baseball Dinner for the next 40 years. At his peak, Leo had a syndicated column in 47 New England Newspapers as well as a syndicated radio show in which he conducted one-on-one interviews with many legends of the sports whirl'.
This website is a tribute to his accomplishments.
MEMORIES OF MY FIRST WORLD SERIES (1936)
By Leo E. Cloutier
(Written in New York, N.Y. October 10, 1981)
I have fond memories of the year 1936, 45 years past, when I visited the famed Polo Grounds in The Big Apple to cover the World Series for the first time.
That occasion also marked our first sojourn to the Big Town....
A Time-line History of the Baseball Dinner
Read about the Baseball greats who were honered each year, as well as Toastmaster and crowd size.
HISTORY
Memorial
BASEBALL'S GREATEST SALESMAN
By Bob Hilliard
The following tribute was written by longtime Sunday
News sports editor Bob Hilliard on the eve of Leo
Cloutier's 40th annual Manchester baseball dinner in 1988 .An insightful
and touching tribute from a longtime former colleague. It is reprinted here.
