On this date in 1969 the Astros and Expos announced a trade that would send Rusty Staub to the brand new Montreal Expos in exchange for Donn Clendenon and Jesus Alou. Clendenon never played for the Astros.
A little background, though. For eight seasons, Clendenon
had been a stalwart in the Pirates lineup since getting nine games in 1961 and then batting mostly in the #3-spot. He only
played in 80 games in 1962, but hit .302/.376/.477 and coming in 2nd
for the NL Rookie of the Year, behind the Cubs’ Ken Hubbs. Hubbs, who was also
the first rookie to ever win a Gold Glove that year, received 19 of the 20 1st
Place votes despite hitting .260/.299/.346 in 160 games. Clendenon was the only
other player to receive a vote. From 1963 to 1968 Clendenon played in 893
games, hitting .278/.329/.441, leading the league in strikeouts twice.
Four days before the 1968 season started Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. When Clendenon was attending
Morehouse University in Atlanta, Dr. King – a Morehouse alum and a friend of
the Clendenon family - served as a “big brother” to Clendenon, helping him
adjust to life at Morehouse and inviting Clendenon and other freshmen to his
house for dinner.
The 1968 Pirates had eleven black players on their Opening
Day roster, and news of Dr. King’s assassination hit the team hard, not least
of all Clendenon. The team held two meetings to plan a response, resulting in
an effort to cancel the final Spring Training game on Sunday as well as
postpone Monday’s Opening Day game and Tuesday, April 9.
“We feel we cannot play these games out of respect for Dr.
King, since we have the largest representation of Negroes in baseball on the
Pirates,” Clendenon told The Sporting News
Pirates GM Joe Brown cancelled the Spring Training game, but
the first two games of the 1968 season were scheduled at the Astrodome, and the
Astros – as the home team – had to agree to cancel the season opener. The
Astros hesitated, which upset the Pirates players. They voted to not play the
first two games.
Brown intervened and offered a compromise of postponing
Monday’s and Tuesday’s games but playing one of those games on Wednesday, April
10, originally scheduled as a travel day. The players, influenced by Clendenon,
agreed.
Clendenon would hit .257/.309/.399 in 1968, the Year of the
Pitcher. Considering the National League as a whole hit .243/.300/.341, it wasn’t
a bad year. But he also struck out 163 times, leading to fans booing him
repeatedly. The Pirates left the 32-year old unprotected in the Expansion
Draft, and the Montreal Expos selected Clendenon with their 11th
pick.
As the Hardball Times notes, the Expos really only wanted
Clendenon in order to trade him, which they did on January 22, 1969, sending
Clendenon and Jesus Alou to Houston for outfielder Rusty Staub. Staub, who had
spent his entire career with the Colt .45s/Astros, hit .333 in 1967, led the
league with 44 doubles, and earned the first of five consecutive All-Star
awards. But in 1968 Staub took a step back, hitting .291/.373/.387.
The Astros would attempt to replace the 24-year old Staub
with Clendenon’s power. They would also receive outfielder Jesus Alou, a
26-year old contact hitter who had struck out in only 23 of his 419 Plate Appearances
in the 1968 season, but posted a 78 OPS+ in the Year of the Pitcher.
Clendenon attended a press conference, favorably noting the
distance between Houston and his home in Atlanta. However, on February 28, five
weeks before the start of the 1969 season, Clendenon announced his retirement
from baseball and work as an executive for Scripto, Inc., a pen manufacturer.
Why? Hardball Times says he wasn’t happy in part with his
contract and salary level; but he also did not want to play for Astros manager
Harry Walker, “who had a bad reputation for dealing with black players.” Jimmy
Wynn and Joe Morgan both wrote in their autobiographies that Walker was a
racist. Morgan said Walker a “stupid people person,” and Wynn
said he was either “the meanest man in the world or the most clueless
baseball manager in baseball history.” Wynn would go on to say, “I had learned
how to protect my soul from people who would despise me simply because of my
skin color, but I had not yet learned how to keep my mind safe from people who
wanted to make me over in their own image.” Having already played for Walker in
Pittsburgh, Clendenon didn’t want a second stint.
In the past, a retiring player would void the trade, which is exactly the Astros desperately wanted. But the Expos had already started to
market Staub, who had already learned how to speak French and whose red hair
led to his nickname as “Le Grand Orange.”
Clendenon was summoned to meet with newly-elected commissioner
Bowie Kuhn, Houston owner Roy Hofheinz, and Montreal owner Charles Bronfman. Arthur
Harris, the president of Scripto was there, as well, but was not allowed to
speak. Harris later told Clendenon that Hofheinz threatened to buy Scripto and
then fire both Harris and Clendenon.
Kuhn ultimately allowed Staub to report to Montreal and Alou
to report to Houston, but he told the Astros and Expos to restructure the deal
without Clendenon. On April 8 the Expos sent two pitchers – Jack Billingham and
Skip Guinn – and $100,000 to Houston to complete the deal.
Hall of Famer Monte Irvin, who was working for Kuhn at the
time, met with Clendenon at his family restaurant and helped change his mind
about retirement, which included a $14,000 raise from the Expos.
But Clendenon had not reported to Spring Training and showed
up for the 1969 season out of shape. He had only played in 38 games by the
middle of June when Clendenon, hitting .240/.272/.395, was sent to the Mets,
who were eight games behind the Cubs and struggling on offense.
A revitalized Clendenon took over the first base job for
manager Gil Hodges, and he would hit .252/.321/.455, hitting 12 home runs in
his final 72 games as the Miracle Mets chased down the Cubs and won the
Pennant. Hodges sat Clendenon against the righty-heavy Braves and started him
against the Orioles in the World Series. Clendenon hit three home runs on his
way to help the Mets upset the Orioles and win the World Series MVP.
Jesus Alou would go on to play the next four seasons in
Houston, hitting .280/.310/.363, drawing his customary low-strikeout (67)
low-walk (56) rates in 1520 plate appearances. He would finish his career in
1978 and 1979 back with the Astros before retiring following the 1979 season.
In three seasons with the Astros, Jack Billingham went 29-32
with a 3.75 ERA/1.30 WHIP. After going 10-16 in 1971, the Astros shipped
Billingham along with Joe Morgan, Cesar Geronimo, Denis Menke, and Ed
Armbrister to Cincinnati for three players in what has
been called the worst
trade in Astros history.
Skip Guinn only threw 31.2IP for the Astros in 1969 and
1971, spending the entire 1970 season in Double-A Oklahoma City. He never
played in the majors again.
Clendenon’s actions showed other players that they had more leverage
than previously thought, and a direct line can be drawn from Clendenon to Curt
Flood’s refusal to report to Philadelphia, setting off one of the greatest
court battles in baseball history and leading to free agency.
Sources/Essential Reading:
Hardball TimesSABR Bio Project
NY Times Obituary
This post has been updated to remove all traces of me being a ninny and trying to say the Pirates won the World Series in 1961. They won it in 1960, not 1961.
This post has been updated to remove all traces of me being a ninny and trying to say the Pirates won the World Series in 1961. They won it in 1960, not 1961.
