Donn Clendenon

Clendenon arrived during the 1969 pennant race and gave the Mets a right-handed power bat built for October. He did not need a long runway to become part of the story: three World Series home runs made him the club’s first championship MVP.

Clendenon arrived from Montreal in the middle of the 1969 pennant race, bringing the kind of right-handed power the Mets did not have enough of. He was already a veteran, and the trade was not treated like the arrival of a superstar. That changed once the Mets reached October. Clendenon fit into the lineup, handled first base, and gave a pitching-heavy team another bat opponents could not simply pitch around.

The 1969 World Series turned him into a Mets legend. He homered in Games 2, 4, and 5 against Baltimore, becoming the first player to hit three home runs in a five-game World Series and winning the MVP Award. His Game 5 homer came right after the famous Cleon Jones shoe-polish play, pulling the Mets back into a game they eventually won. Clendenon kept supplying the swings that made the miracle possible.

He stayed productive after the parade, driving in 97 runs in 1970 and setting a Mets record with seven RBI in one game. The Mets finished third in both 1970 and 1971, and younger first-base options eventually pushed him out of the picture. That ending can make his Mets career look brief, but it misses the point. Clendenon arrived when the pennant was still a dream and left behind the biggest October power performance the young franchise had seen.