Donn Clendenon
| Donn Clendenon | |||
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| First baseman | |||
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Born: July 15, 1935 Neosho, Missouri |
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Died: September 17, 2005 (aged 70) Sioux Falls, South Dakota |
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| MLB debut | |||
| September 22, 1961, for the Pittsburgh Pirates | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| August 5, 1972, for the St. Louis Cardinals | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .274 | ||
| Home runs | 159 | ||
| Runs batted in | 682 | ||
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| Career highlights and awards | |||
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Donn Alvin Clendenon (July 15, 1935 – September 17, 2005) was a Major League Baseball first baseman. He is best remembered as the World Series MVP for the 1969 "Amazin' Mets."
Six months after Clendenon was born in Neosho, Missouri, his father, Claude, died from leukemia. Claude Clendenon was a mathematics and psychology professor and chairman of the mathematics department at Langston University, an all-black school in Langston, Oklahoma. Clendenon's mother, Helen, demanded high academic achievement from her son. When he was only 6 years old, Clendenon's mother married former Negro Leagues baseball player Nish Williams. In addition to academic excellence, Clendenon's new stepfather decided he was going to make his stepson into a baseball player. Williams served as a coach on virtually every baseball team that Clendenon played on, including his college team at Atlanta's Morehouse College, and his semi-pro career with the Atlanta Black Crackers. Along with Williams, Clendenon also received pointers from some of the players Williams knew from the Negro Leagues, including Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe.
Clendenon graduated as a letterman in nine sports at Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta, Georgia, and received a host of scholarship offers. He was prepared to attend UCLA on a scholarship until some coaches from Morehouse College in Atlanta visited his mother, and convinced her that he should attend a school closer to home.
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