Clyde Kluttz

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 (1942–1945), New York Giants (1945–1946), St. Louis Cardinals (1946), Pittsburgh Pirates (1947–1948), St. Louis Browns (1951) and Washington Senators (1951–1952). 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—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 served as scouting director for the Yankees in 1974–1975 and as director of player development of the Baltimore Orioles from 1976 until his 1979 death, in Salisbury, at age 61 from kidney and heart ailments.