Donn Clendenon, RIP
There's a radio report just confirmed by the internet, that Donn Clendenon has died.
For those of us old enough to remember, Donn Clendenon was the last piece of the 1969 Miracle Mets World Series Championship team.
This was a team that was horribly uncompetitive from its creation 1n 1962 through 1968. Then in 1969, helped by a the great, young power pitcher Tom Seaver and and other mostly young players, they were vastly improved. But when they signed Clendenon
they had a dangerous hitter, an older guy, a home run threat in those pre-steroids days that helped them overcome the cocky, overconfident Chicago Cubs for the division, and to then go on to beat the supposedly superior Baltiomore Orioles in the World Series.
I remember going to a night ballgame at Shea Stadium in 1969. I will always remember catching a foul ball off the bat of Donn Clendenon that had been thrown by the great Cubs pitcher Ferguson Jenkins.
The 1969 World Series win by the recently hapless Mets was an huge event in New York and in America. I remember the wild celebrations in my Bay Ridge Brooklyn neighborhood, with fireworks deep into the night, a scene replicated were replicated all through the city and beyond.
It would not have happened without Donn Clendenon. Now he Agee, and Tug McGraw are all gone. It's not fair. God bless, Don Clendenon.
