Donn Clendenon

From BR Bullpen

Donn Alvin Clendenon

Bats Right, Throws Right
Weight 210 lb.
School Morehouse College
Debut September 22, 1961
Final Game August 5, 1972
Born July 15, 1935 in Neosho, MO USA
Died September 17, 2005 in Sioux Falls, SD USA

[edit] Biographical Information

First baseman Donn Clendenon was a solid player for the Pittsburgh Pirates for nearly a decade. Later, while with the New York Mets in 1969, he hit three home runs in the 1969 World Series and was named World Series MVP.

Donn had no plans to play baseball as a child, preferring basketball and football. He opted for baseball because his stepfather Nish Williams (who had raised him after his biological father died when he was six months old) was a former Negro League catcher and manager who loved the game. Williams arranged for Clendenon to face Satchel Paige and Sad Sam Jones as a youth.

After finishing second in his high school class, he earned 12 letters in sports at Morehouse College. He got a job teaching in Atlanta and considered offers from the NFL's Cleveland Browns and NBA's New York Knicks and Harlem Globetrotters. Branch Rickey offered Clendenon a $500 signing bonus and he accepted it, picking the game his stepfather loved over ones where Donn could have earned more immediately.

Clendenon was signed as an amateur free agent by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1957. He played for the Pirates from 1961 through 1968. Selected by the Montreal Expos in the 1969 NL Expansion Draft, Clendenon immediately found himself embroiled in controversy. Traded to the Houston Astros in January 1969, he refused to report to his new team and the Expos had to send other compensation to Houston. Later in the season, Clendenon did accept a trade to the New York Mets. This trade brought the Mets much needed power and was one of the key events in their successful pennant run.

Clendenon would play only two more seasons in New York before closing out his career with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Clendenon, who played virtually all his career during the second deadball era, had a decent average of .274.

He is the only major leaguer to come from Morehouse College through 2006.

After retiring from baseball, he earned a law degree. He died on September 17, 2005 at age 70 after a long fight with leukemia.