Donn Clendenon

Donn Alvin Clendenon (July 15, 1935 – September 17, 2005) was an American professional baseball player who played as a first baseman in Major League Baseball from 1961 to 1972. Over his career he appeared for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Montreal Expos, New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals.

Clendenon was born in Neosho, Missouri. Six months after his birth, his father, Claude, a mathematics and psychology professor and chairman of the mathematics department at Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma, died of leukemia. His mother, Helen, demanded high academic achievement from her son. When Clendenon was six, she married former Negro league player Nish Williams, who set out to make his stepson into a baseball player. Williams coached on nearly every team Clendenon played for, including his college team at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

Clendenon won the World Series Most Valuable Player Award for the 1969 World Series, hitting three home runs to help lead the "Miracle Mets" to an upset victory over the Baltimore Orioles.