John J. Clements (July 24, 1864 – May 23, 1941) was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player. He played 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 catc ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

for 17 seasons. Despite being left-handed, Clements caught 1,076 games, almost four times as many as any other left-handed player in major league history and was the last left-hander to catch on a regular basis. He is credited with being the first catcher to wear a chest protector. __TOC__

Baseball career

Born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Clements began his major league career in 1884 in the Union Association. He played as a catcher/

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

for the Philadelphia Keystones until the team folded in August. Clements then went to the National League, signing with the Philadelphia Quakers to finish the year. Clements spent the next 13 seasons with the Quakers (who became the Phillies in 1890), and became the team's regular catcher in 1888. He also served as a player-manager during part of the 1890 season when manager Harry Wright suffered temporary

blindness Visual or vision impairment (VI or VIP) is the partial or total inability of visual perception. In the absence of treatment such as corrective eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment, visual impairment may cause the individual difficul ...

. During the 1890s, he established himself as one of the National League's top hitters, finishing among the top 4 in batting average on 3 occasions. Clements also hit for power, finishing second in the NL with 17 home runs in 1893 and finishing third in the NL with 13 in 1895. Also in 1895, he finished with a .394 batting average, the highest single-season average by a catcher in major league history. After the 1897 season, Clements was traded to the St. Louis Browns. He played one season for the Browns, during which he became the first player (of either handedness) to catch 1,000 games in his career. Before the 1899 season, Clements was assigned to the Cleveland Spiders. The move took place after Spiders owners Frank and Stanley Robison purchased the Browns and re-distributed players among the two franchises. Clements appeared in only 4 games for the Spiders before being released. He played his final Major League season in 1900, playing in 16 games for the Boston Beaneaters. At the time of his retirement, he held the single-season and career records for home runs by a catcher. Both of his records were broken by Gabby Hartnett in the 1920s; the single-season record fell in 1925, while the career record fell in 1928. Clements is also the only 19th-century baseball player of prominence to retire with more home runs than triples. In 1160 games over 17 seasons, Clements posted a .287 batting average (1231-for-4295) with 619 runs, 226 doubles, 60 triples, 77 home runs, 687 RBI, 341 bases on balls, .348 on-base percentage and .421 slugging percentage. He died of an illness in Norristown, Pennsylvania, in 1941, at age 76. He is buried at Arlington Cemetery in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. In his '' Historical Baseball Abstract'',

Bill James George William James (born October 5, 1949) is an American baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books about baseball history and statistics. His a ...

ranked Clements as the 58th greatest catcher in baseball history.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Clements, Jack 1864 births 1941 deaths Burials at Arlington Cemetery (Pennsylvania) Major League Baseball catchers Baseball players from Philadelphia Philadelphia Keystones players Philadelphia Quakers players Philadelphia Phillies players Philadelphia Phillies managers St. Louis Browns (NL) players Cleveland Spiders players Boston Beaneaters players Providence Clamdiggers (baseball) players Providence Grays (minor league) players Major League Baseball player-managers 19th-century baseball players 19th-century American sportsmen

Baseball career

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References

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