John J. "Jack" Clements (July 24, 1864 – May 23, 1941) 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. 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 cat ...

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 ...

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, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

, Clements began his major league career in 1884 in the

Union Association The Union Association was a league in Major League Baseball which lasted for just the 1884 season. St. Louis won the pennant and joined the National League the following season. Seven of the twelve teams who were in the Association at some poi ...

. 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 cat ...

for the Philadelphia Keystones until the team folded in August. Clements then went to the

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 s ...

, 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 A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the s ...

during part of the 1890 season when manager Harry Wright suffered temporary

blindness Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment, is a medical definition primarily measured based on an individual's better eye visual acuity; in the absence of treatment such as correctable eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment� ...

. 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 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 ...

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 Cleveland Spiders were an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The team competed at the major league level from 1887 to 1899, first for two seasons as a member of the now-defunct American Association (AA), followe ...

. 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 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- most p ...

. 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 Men's doubles, Women's doubles or Mixed doubles are sports having two players per side, including; * Beach volleyball * Doubles badminton * Doubles curling * Footvolley * Doubles pickleball * Doubles squash * Doubles table tennis * Doubles te ...

, 60 triples, 77

, 687 RBI, 341

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 ...

, .348

on-base percentage In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) measures how frequently a batter reaches base. An official Major League Baseball (MLB) statistic since 1984, it is sometimes referred to as on-base average (OBA), as it is rarely presented as a ...

and .421 slugging percentage. He died of an illness in

Norristown, Pennsylvania Norristown is a municipality with home rule status and the county seat of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States, in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. Located along the Schuylkill River, approximately from the Philadelphia city li ...

, in 1941, at age 76. He is buried at

Arlington Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...

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 devoted to baseball history and statistics. ...

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

References

External links

{{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

Baseball career

See also

References

External links