Verne James Clemons (September 8, 1891 - May 5, 1959) was a

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professiona ...

player. He played all or part of seven seasons in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

, primarily as a

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the cat ...

. He made his major league debut for the St. Louis Browns in 1916, then returned to the majors for the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

for six seasons, from 1919 until 1924. In 474 games over seven seasons, Clemons posted a .286 batting average (364-for-1271) with 78 runs, 5

home runs In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

, 140 RBI and 119

bases on balls A base on balls (BB), also known as a walk, occurs in baseball when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls '' balls'', and is in turn awarded first base without the possibility of being called out. The base on balls is defined in Sec ...

. He finished his career with a .983

fielding percentage In baseball statistics, fielding percentage, also known as fielding average, is a measure that reflects the percentage of times a defensive player properly handles a batted or thrown ball. It is calculated by the sum of putouts and assists, di ...

playing every inning in the majors as a catcher.

Sources

Major League Baseball catchers St. Louis Browns players St. Louis Cardinals players Bartlesville Boosters players Wichita Jobbers players Pueblo Indians players Wichita Witches players Louisville Colonels (minor league) players St. Paul Saints (AA) players Baseball players from Iowa 1891 births 1959 deaths {{US-baseball-catcher-1890s-stub