Donn Clendenon
| Donn Clendenon | |
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 Clendenon 1969 in the jersey of the Montreal Expos
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| First baseman | |
| Born: July 15, 1935 Neosho , Missouri , United States 
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| Died on: September 17, 2005 Sioux Falls , South Dakota |
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| Suggested: Right | Threw: Right |
| Debut in Major League Baseball | |
| September 22, 1961 with the Pittsburgh Pirates | |
| Last MLB assignment | |
| August 5, 1972 with the St. Louis Cardinals | |
| MLB statistics (until end of career) |
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| Batting average | , 274 |
| Home runs | 159 |
| RBI | 682 |
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| Awards | |
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Donn Alvin Clendenon (born July 15, 1935 in Neosho , Missouri , † September 17, 2005 in Sioux Falls , South Dakota ) was an American baseball player in Major League Baseball . Clendenon is particularly remembered as the MVP of the World Series in the sensational victory of the New York Mets in 1969 .
Major League career
Clendenon signed his first professional contract in 1957 with the Pittsburgh Pirates and was used in various minor league teams in the franchise until 1961 . Clendenon made his major league debut late in the 1961 season on September 22nd in a 6-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies .
Donn Clendenon then drew attention to himself in the 1962 season, when he finished second after a strong performance in the MLB Rookie of the Year election . In 80 games of the season he scored 80 RBIs and 39 runs , 37 of them home runs .
Up to and including 1968, Clendenon remained loyal to the Pirates and came to a total of 982 games for Pittsburgh, where he got over 100 home runs and he was able to book 488 RBIs. The Pirates themselves could never qualify for the postseason at that time .
At the Expansion Draft in 1968, the newly admitted Montreal Expos Clendenon selected, but they tried to give him back to the Houston Astros in January 1969 . But Clendenon refused to move to Houston and was eventually traded to New York in June 1969.
In the Mets jersey, Clendenon was then part of the “Amazin 'Mets” or “Miracle Mets”, which surprisingly won the 1969 World Series . In the National League Championship Series , in which the Mets previously qualified for the World Series, Clendenon was not used at all, but then played a decisive role in four of the five games for the title. Against the Baltimore Orioles , he got five valid strokes at 14 at bats, which corresponds to a batting average of 35.7%. These included three home runs, including two solo home runs and one two-run home run. At that time he was the sole record holder for defeated home runs in a series that was decided after five games. This record was only set by Ryan Howard in the 2008 World Series , who even managed the three home runs in just one game. After the Mets won the series 4-1, Clendenon was voted MVP of the World Series .
In the following seasons 1970 and 1971 Clendenon continued to play at a good level for the Mets. The team itself, however, could not take any momentum from the success in 1969 and only landed third in their division in both years.
On October 28, 1971, the Mets released Donn Clendenon into free agent status, from which he signed a contract with the St. Louis Cardinals in December 1971 . There he came to 61 missions in the 1972 season at the age of 36, but with a batting average of just over 19% could not build on his performance of the previous years. On August 7, 1972, the Cardinals dismissed him and he ended his career after playing 1,362 games in the MLB.
Private life
After Clendenon's father passed away early, his mother married former Negro League player Nish Williams when Donn was just six years old. At this point in time, the so-called “Color Line” had not yet been broken, that is, blacks were still denied access to the major leagues. While Clendenon's mother wished her son would become a doctor, Donn wanted to become a lawyer himself. But his stepfather urged him to play baseball and try to make it to the pro.
After his active professional career, Clendenon nevertheless fulfilled his wish to enter law. He received a Juris Doctor degree from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh in 1978 and then practiced in Dayton , Ohio .
At the age of 50 years Clendenon was cocaine dependent and is needed for addiction undergo. As part of the treatment, he was also diagnosed with leukemia , from which his father had died young. He then moved to Sioux Falls in South Dakota to continue living there in a new environment, with new colleagues and a new social environment.
Clendenon dealt with the Mets victory in 1969, his path as a lawyer, his cocaine addiction and his illness in his 1999 book "Miracle in New York".
Donn Clendenon died of leukemia around twenty years after his diagnosis in 2005. He was 70 years old and married with two sons and a daughter.
literature
- Donn Clendenon: Miracle in New York Penmarch Publishing, 1999, ISBN 978-1575791678 .
Web links
- Player information and statistics from MLB or ESPN or Baseball Reference or Fangraphs or The Baseball Cube (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Player information and player statistics Donn Clendenon. baseball-reference.com, accessed on May 6, 2016 .
- ↑ Ryan Lawrence: Isn't it time to appreciate Ryan Howard's career? Phillie Voice, April 9, 2016, accessed May 6, 2016 .
- ^ Rob Silverman: Heroes of 69: Donn Clendenon - The Final Piece Of The Puzzle. baseball-reference.com, September 2, 2009, accessed May 6, 2016 .
- ^ A b Richard Goldstein: Donn Clendenon, 70, MVP for the 1969 'Miracle Mets,' Dies. New York Times , September 19, 2015, accessed May 6, 2016 .
| personal data | |
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| SURNAME | Clendenon, Thursday |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Clendenon, Donn Alvin (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American baseball player |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 15, 1935 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Neosho , Missouri |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 17, 2005 |
| Place of death | Sioux Falls , South Dakota |