On March 26, 2026, Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy, during a pregame interview at American Family Field, unexpectedly produced a two-foot-long tortoise — later identified as his pet tortoise, Bobby Jr. — from beneath the interview table. The tortoise was identified, by Mr. Murphy, in the subsequent 35-second segment as the Brewers' newest mascot. National sports media, wire services, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel all carried the story.

On the morning of April 14, 2026, 19 days later, Helen Little League Board President Judy Unger, reviewing a feed of sports stories over coffee at her kitchen table, thought the Brewers' tortoise appointment was "the most delightful thing I had read this month." By 9:00 a.m. she had called the Helen Little League secretary, Pauline Diefendorf, and suggested the Little League "consider a similar gesture, at our scale."

By 7:00 p.m. the same day, the Helen Little League Board — all five members, convened in the back room of Mountain Pizza at 608 Main Street — had voted 5-0 to appoint "an appropriately comparable animal" as the League's first "Assistant Field Manager."

The appointed animal, per the minutes, is Clive.

Clive

Clive is a male African sulcata tortoise (Centrochelys sulcata), weight approximately 38 pounds as of his most recent veterinary weigh-in, age 23. He has been owned, since his 2007 hatching and subsequent acquisition from a reptile specialty store in suburban Atlanta, by Mrs. Pegeen Turlock, 68, a retired Helen Elementary music teacher who lives alone with Clive in a 1958 ranch home at 802 Edelweiss Strasse. Clive resides, in warm weather, in a 400-square- foot fenced portion of Mrs. Turlock's backyard. In cold weather he resides in the heated basement.

Clive is not a member of the Helen Little League. Clive is not, per Mrs. Turlock, a member of any baseball-adjacent organization of any kind. Clive's only known sporting activity, per Mrs. Turlock, is "occasionally moving toward a vegetable."

Mrs. Turlock was not contacted by the Helen Little League Board at any point prior to Clive's appointment. She learned of the appointment Wednesday afternoon, when this reporter arrived at her front door with a copy of the Board's meeting minutes.

Mrs. Turlock, reading the minutes, said: "I have never attended a Helen Little League game in my life." Asked whether she intended to decline the appointment on Clive's behalf, she said: "I will need to think about that."

The Field Manager's position

Herbert Turnbull, 62, the Helen Little League's Field Manager for the 2026 season, was interviewed Wednesday at the League's practice field at Unicoi Park. Mr. Turnbull had learned of Clive's appointment via a 10:47 a.m. Tuesday email from Board President Unger.

Mr. Turnbull said he understood the Board's appointment authority included the establishment of adjunct-personnel positions under Little League International Bylaw § IV.3.c. He did not contest the legal soundness of the appointment. He was not, however, inclined to delegate any field-management responsibilities to the Assistant Field Manager.

"The Assistant Field Manager's duties are, per the minutes, at the discretion of the Field Manager," Mr. Turnbull said. "It is my discretion that the Assistant Field Manager will be responsible for nothing."

Asked whether he intended to have Clive present on the field during games, Mr. Turnbull said: "I have no plans to have Clive on the field. Clive is, per Mrs. Turlock, generally not on surfaces other than his own enclosure and occasionally the kitchen linoleum."

He added: "I wish Clive well in the position."

The season

The Helen Little League opens its 2026 season on Saturday, April 25. The League's roster, per its published directory, consists of 64 players, aged 7 through 12, across four teams. None of the teams is named for a tortoise. The League has, however, per the April 14 minutes, added to its Little League International annual registration a footnote indicating that the League's adjunct personnel include "one Assistant Field Manager (Centrochelys sulcata, non-human)."

The footnote has not, as of Thursday, been acknowledged by Little League International.

Clive, as of Thursday afternoon, remained in Mrs. Turlock's back yard. He was observed, during a 20-minute period of observation by this reporter, to move approximately 18 inches in a northwesterly direction. He did not, during that period, issue any instructions.