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Donn Alvin Clendenon
Pittsburgh Pirates
First Base
Born: July 15, 1935, Neosho, MO
Signed: Signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as an amateur free agent before 1957 season
Major League Teams: Pittsburgh Pirates 1961-1968; Montreal Expos 1969; New York Mets 1969-1971; St. Louis Cardinals 1972
Died: September 17, 2005, Sioux Falls, SD (age 70)
Donn Clendenon played in parts of 12 seasons in the major leagues, but he's best remembered for hitting three home runs in 1969 World Series and winning World Series MVP honors as his Miracle Mets defeated the highly favorited Orioles in five games. Clendenon finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting in 1962, behind Ken Hubbs, when he batted .302 for the Pirates in 80 games. He'd settle in as the every day first baseman for the Pirates, striking out a lot, but hitting for power and driving in an average of 83 runs between 1963 and 1968. He reached his career highs in home runs (28) and RBIs (98) in 1966. With top prospect Al Oliver ready to take over at first base for the Pirates, the team decided to leave Clendenon unprotected in the 1968 expansion draft.
Building the Set
March 6, 2022 from The Philly Show (Sports Cards Plus - Cooper City, FL) - Card #556
This is the 72nd of 102 cards acquired for our set from the Baseball Card Sports Memorabilia Show, affectionately known as The Philly Show, held in the basement of the Valley Forge Casino Resort in King of Prussia in early March. We went nuts and left the show needing only 12 more cards to complete our 1965 Topps set, and I wrote about the show in detail over at The Phillies Room. After our 51 card haul from Uncle Dick's, and with more card spending budget still in place, I set out to find another dealer with a binder of 1965 Topps cards with reasonable prices. I had purchased cards from Sports Cards Plus before, finding the last few cards needed for our 1971 Topps set from this dealer back in December 2019.
Settling in, we found 37 cards needed for our set with an average price per card working out to around $6. This lot, including this Clendenon card, consisted mostly of semi-stars and team cards. After paying for this mini haul, we were officially 13 cards away from a complete set, with one more purchase coming to end the day.
The Card / Pirates Team Set
Clendenon is giving the Topps photographer a classic "first baseman waiting for the catch" pose here. The back of the card features a cartoon celebrating the 28 home runs hit with the Savannah Pirates in 1960.
1965 Season
Clendenon appeared in all but one of the Pirates' 163 games, making 156 starts at first base. He batted .301, which was second on the team behind Roberto Clemente's (#160) .329 average. Clendenon hit 14 home runs and had 96 RBIs, again second on the team behind Willie Stargell's (#377) 107. This was his first season playing under new Pirates' manager Walker, with whom he'd later clash.
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First Mainstream Card: 1962 Topps #86
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (11): 1962-1972
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 2002 Fleer Fall Classic #83
110 - Clendenon non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 8/11/22.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
Wikipedia
Previous Card: #324 Bobby Locke - Los Angeles Angels
Previous Card: #324 Bobby Locke - Los Angeles Angels
Next Card: #326 Dwight Siebler - Minnesota Twins
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