Clyde Kluttz

Clyde Franklin Kluttz (December 12, 1917 – May 12, 1979) was an American professional baseball player, scout and front-office executive. 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. His 17-year playing career began in 1938. 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]