After an arm injury curtailed his minor league career, Patkin joined the Navy during World War II. Stationed in Hawaii in, Patkin was pitching for a service team, and Joe DiMaggio homered off the lanky right-hander. In mock anger, Patkin threw his glove down then followed DiMaggio around the bases, much to the delight of the fans—and a career was born. Later in the 1940s, Patkin was hired as a coach by Bill Veeck and the Cleveland Indians. After Veeck sold the team in, Patkin began barnstorming around the country. As a barnstormer, Patkin played minor league stadiums throughout the United States and Canada. He had a face seemingly made of rubber that could make many shapes. He was rail thin and wore a baggy uniform with a question mark on the back in place of a number, and a ballcap that was always askew. While some derided his act as corny, he became a beloved figure in baseball circles, further enhanced by an appearance in the film Bull Durham. Patkin estimated he made more than 4,000 appearances. On July 20,, he played to a crowd of four in Great Falls, Montana as most fans were home watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrinland on the moon. Between and, he did not miss an appearance. The Clown Prince received a promotion in 1988, when Patkin was named King of Baseball at that year's Winter Meetings in Atlanta, and can be seen appearing as himself alongside Kevin Costner and Tim Robbins in the popular baseball movie Bull Durham made in the same year. In May 2020 Patkin was voted into the Shrine of the Eternals by the Baseball Reliquary, a fan driven collective dedicated to fostering an appreciation of baseball culture in all of its forms.
, the folksinger and Baseball balladeer, has written a song, "Gone to Heaven", about Max. It appeared on his 2000 release, Last of the Old Time, and was later collected on his 2002 album, The Baseball Ballads. The bluesman Watermelon Slim wrote and released the song "Max, The Baseball Clown" on his 2008 CD, No Paid Holidays. Homans, who grew up in the minor-league town of Asheville, NC, watched Max Patkin do two shows in successive years in the early 1960s, and wrote a reminiscence of him more than 40 years later.
