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By Jon Paul Hoornstra
Contributing Sports Writer
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Clinton "Tiny" Forge, whose career in professional baseball came full-circle when he was an honored guest at a Major League Baseball game in his native Birmingham, Alabama in 2024, died Sunday. He was 90.
A catcher, Forge played professionally for the Detroit Stars of the Negro League in the 1950s and played against future Hall of Famer Hank Aaron.
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After stepping away from professional baseball, Forge found a second athletic life in golf. In the Birmingham area he became a passionate and competitive amateur golfer, applying the same strategic instincts that had served him behind the plate.
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Forge continued to compete in golf into his eighties, winning the inaugural tournament hosted by Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin in 2021, a testament to both his longevity and his ongoing presence in local sports circles.
Forge was one of a handful of former Negro Leagues players honored at a convention held by the Society For American Baseball Research in Birmingham in June 2022.
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In 2024, former National League MVP Ryan Howard visited his parents' home town to invite six former Negro Leagues players — including Forge — as honored guests to a game between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals at Rickwood Field in Birmingham.
The site of the last Negro Leagues World Series in 1948, Rickwood Field was also the ballpark where Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays got his start as a teenager.
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Forge threw out a ceremonial first pitch before a minor league game between the Birmingham Barons and Montgomery Biscuits, playing as the Birmingham Black Barons and Montgomery Gray Sox, as part of the “MLB at Rickwood Field” events.
According to MLB.com, Forge also visited with Giants and Cardinals players in both teams’ clubhouses, sharing stories and wisdom from his life's journey.
Earlier this year, Forge announced he was launching a youth sports grant to benefit Birmingham children interested in playing baseball and golf.
"A Negro Leagues catcher, Birmingham legend, and living piece of history, Tiny’s impact extended far beyond the games of baseball and golf … it showed up in the lives he touched, the lessons he passed down, and the legacy he leaves behind," Forge's granddaughter, Shayla, wrote in a post to her Instagram account. "I am heartbroken, yet deeply grateful for the years we shared, the moments we had, and the honor of loving a man whose life mattered in every room he entered."
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