Clyde Kluttz
| Clyde Kluttz | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Catcher | |||
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Born: December 17, 1917 Rockwell, North Carolina | |||
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Died: May 12, 1979 (aged 61) Salisbury, North Carolina | |||
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| MLB debut | |||
| April 20, 1942, for the Boston Braves | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| September 27, 1952, for the Washington Senators | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .268 | ||
| Home runs | 19 | ||
| Runs batted in | 212 | ||
| Teams | |||
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Clyde Franklin Kluttz (December 12, 1917 – May 12, 1979) was an American professional baseball player, executive, and scout. In Major League Baseball, Kluttz was a catcher for the Boston Braves (1942–45), New York Giants (1945–46), St. Louis Cardinals (1946), Pittsburgh Pirates (1947–48), St. Louis Browns (1951) and Washington Senators (1951–52). He threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 feet (1.8 m) tall and weighed 193 pounds (88 kg).
Born in nearby Rockwell, he was a longtime resident of Salisbury, North Carolina, where he attended Catawba College. In August and September 1952 with Washington, his teammate (and fellow catcher) was George Bradshaw, also a Salisbury native (2010 population: 33,663). Kluttz appeared in 52 regular season games as a member of the 1946 world champion Cardinals—and was the starting catcher on October 3 for the flag-clinching Game 2 of the postseason playoff against the Brooklyn Dodgers[1]—but he did not play in the 1946 World Series.
In nine Major League seasons, Kluttz played in 656 games, and had 1,903 at-bats, 172 runs, 510 hits, 90 doubles, 8 triples, 19 home runs, 212 RBI, 5 stolen bases, 132 walks, .268 batting average, .318 on-base percentage, .354 slugging percentage, 673 total bases and 30 sacrifice hits.
Kluttz was a longtime scout after his playing days ended, working with the Kansas City Athletics and New York Yankees. He was credited with signing Baseball Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter, a fellow North Carolinian, for the Athletics in 1964, and, 11 years later, while serving as the Yankees' scouting director (1974–75), he played a key role in convincing free agent Hunter to join the Yankees.[2] Kluttz soon departed to become director of player development of the Baltimore Orioles, serving from 1976 until his 1979 death, in Salisbury, at age 61 from kidney and heart ailments.[3][4]
References
- ↑ 1946-10-3 box score from Retrosheet
- ↑ Catfish Hunter obituary, The Los Angeles Times, September 10, 1999
- ↑ "Clyde Kluttz: Baseball America Executive Database". Baseball America. Retrieved 2009-08-16.
- ↑ The Associated Press, May 13, 1979
Sources
- Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference