Clinton Astor Conatser (July 24, 1921 – August 23, 2019) was an American professional
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
player. An
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 c ...
, Conatser played 1 seasons for the
Boston Braves of
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 (AL), ...
and was a member of the
1948 Braves, the last
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
-based team to win a
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...
pennant.
Born in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, Conatser stood tall, weighed , and threw and batted right-handed. His professional career began in 1939, and he bounced around in the
farm systems of the
Cleveland Indians
The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...
and
Detroit Tigers before being drafted by the Braves from the
Seattle Rainiers
The Seattle Rainiers, originally named the Seattle Indians and also known as the Seattle Angels, were a Minor League Baseball team in Seattle, Washington, that played in the Pacific Coast League from 1903 to 1906 and 1919 to 1968. They were initi ...
of the
Pacific Coast League after the 1947 season. He was a member of the Braves for the entire 1948 campaign as a platoon outfielder,
batting Batting may refer to:
* Batting (baseball), the act of attempting to hit a ball thrown by the pitcher with a baseball bat, in order to score runs
* Batting (cricket), the act of defending one's wicket with the cricket bat while attempting to score ...
.277 in 77 games with three
home runs and 23
runs batted in
A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the ba ...
. He pinch hit a single in four
at bats
In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...
in the
1948 World Series
The 1948 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball for the 1948 season. The 45th edition of the World Series, it matched the American League (AL) champion Cleveland Indians and the National League (NL) champion Boston Br ...
, which Boston lost to the Indians in six games. Conatser added three more home runs in
1949 and batted .263, but was demoted to the Braves'
Milwaukee Brewers Triple-A affiliate in July. All told, he batted .271 in 143 Major League games with six homers and 39 RBI.
Conatser spent the remainder of his playing career at the Triple-A level, retiring after the 1952 Pacific Coast League season. He died on August 23, 2019 in
Laguna Hills, California
Laguna Hills (; ''Laguna'', Spanish for "Lagoon") is a city in south Orange County, California, United States. Its name refers to its proximity to Laguna Canyon and the much older Laguna Beach. Other newer cities nearby— Laguna Niguel and L ...
.
References
External links
1921 births
2019 deaths
Baseball players from Los Angeles
Boston Braves players
Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players
Cedar Rapids Raiders players
Charleston Senators players
Dallas Rebels players
Fargo-Moorhead Twins players
Flint Gems players
Hollywood Stars players
Johnstown Johnnies players
Logan Indians players
Major League Baseball outfielders
Milwaukee Brewers (minor league) players
Portland Beavers players
St. Paul Saints (AA) players
Seattle Rainiers players
John C. Fremont High School alumni
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