Remembering Mets History (1969) Donn Clendenon Debuts After Arriving at the Trade Deadline
Mets GM at the time, Johnny Murphy felt the team were true contenders & he worked hard to negotiate for Donn Clendenon hours before the trade deadline.
At the time the New York Mets were in second place, still nine & a half games behind the Chicago Cubs, but were they were starting to attract some attention. They had excellent young pitchers, arguably the best in the major leagues.
their man in Donn Clendenon. But not without questions as Clendenon was having a controversial year prior to his arrival in New York.
Background: In January 1969, after playing eight years with the Pirates, Clendenon had been left unprotected by Pittsburgh getting selected in the expansion draft, by the Montreal Expos. Three months later in January, he was traded to the Houston Astros for Rusty Staub.
MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn stepped in & told the teams involved to work something out.
With baseball starting expansion outside of the USA in Canada it was important that Rusty Staub remained in Montreal. The Expos had promoted Staub as the face of their new organization. He was soon to be known forever as "Le Grande Orange" to their French Canadian fans.
It took a sit down meeting with former New York Giants Hall of Famer, Monte Irvin, who was working for the Commissioner's Office at the time, to convince Clendenon to come back to play. An additional $14,000 for his troubles, certainly helped.
Clendenon's tactics of retiring instead of accepting the trade, was the first of its kind. In the changing baseball landscape of the late sixties, this was another advantage for the players.
Soon after Ken "The Hawk" Harrelson & Curt Flood would do similar actions refusing trades.
With the Mets offering two young players, the Expos decided to trade him since they were playing for the future. This time Clendenon didn't balk at the idea & had no problem coming to New York.
Big Trade: On June 15th, 1969 Clendenon was traded to the New York Mets for pitcher Steve Renko & infielder Kevin Collins.
Clendenon was happy to play for Manager Gil Hodges the man who he called his idol.
Quotes- Donn Clendenon: " I don't see how a lifetime .280 hitter who has knocked in a lot of runs should be sitting on the bench of an expansion team which is losing."Clendenon gave the Mets power against left-handed pitching, as he would play in a platoon with Ed Kranepool. Clendenon also gave the club depth with more strength coming off the bench.
Trivia: Tom Seaver remembers his wife Nancy spotting Clendenon in the hotel lobby when he joined the team in Philadelphia. "Nancy said- "I know who you are." Donn was wearing an island shirt & a vest, he turned to her then suavely kissed her hand. Nancy Seaver thought Donn was charming. To said "he knew she was my wife & put on a little show."
Quotes- Donn Clendenon: "It's great to be a Met"
After going hitless in his next five games, he hit .353 with four doubles & 14 RBI in his next nine games while driving in runs in five straight games with four multi-RBI games. Donn Clendenon had arrived.
From September 1st to the clinching of the division on September 24th, he hit six HRs with 11 RBIs. In that clinching game he had his second multi-HR game for the Mets.
In the regular season he would hit 12 HRs with 37 RBIs, score 31 runs & put up a .455 slugging % & .777 OPS in 72 games with the Mets.
In retrospect his teammates raved about his presence on the club: Tug McGraw said, "he was probably the key to our whole season". Wayne Garrett called Clendenon the last ingredient the team needed, while Art Shamsky called him the catalyst.
Bud Harrelson said, "We never had a three-run homer type of guy, yet he was humble, never cocky, our MVP.”
