Morten Avery "Specs" Clark (December 19, 1889 – November 17, 1943) was an American

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 tea ...

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists who ...

in the pre-

Negro leagues The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

. He was born December 19, 1889, in Bristol, Tennessee, and played professional baseball for the

Birmingham Giants The Birmingham Giants were a Negro league baseball team, based in Birmingham, Alabama, from 1904 through 1909. They were the first black professional baseball team in the city. C. I. Taylor managed and played for the Giants. His brothers Candy Ji ...

in 1908. He would play a large part of his career for the

Indianapolis ABCs The Indianapolis ABCs were a Negro league baseball team that played both as an independent club and as a charter member of the first Negro National League (NNL). They claimed the western championship of black baseball in 1915 and 1916, and fini ...

. Clark died in Los Angeles on November 17, 1943, and is buried at the National Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. His World War I draft registration card showed him single, as of 1917."United States, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KZ2M-GQQ : accessed 29 Jan 2013), Morten A. Clark
/ref> Almost a decade after his death, Clark received votes listing him on the 1952 ''

Pittsburgh Courier The ''Pittsburgh Courier'' was an African-American weekly newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1907 until October 22, 1966. By the 1930s, the ''Courier'' was one of the leading black newspapers in the United States. It was acqu ...

'' player-voted poll of the Negro Leagues' best players ever."1952 Pittsburgh Courier Poll of Greatest Black Players"
/ref> (Some papers have him listed as "Martin" Clark.)

References

External links

an
Baseball-Reference Black Baseball stats
an
Seamheads
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Morten Baseball players from Tennessee Baltimore Black Sox players Birmingham Giants players Brooklyn Royal Giants players Indianapolis ABCs players Lincoln Giants players Lincoln Stars (baseball) players Philadelphia Giants players Schenectady Mohawk Giants players Washington Potomacs players 1889 births 1943 deaths 20th-century African-American people