• Card series: Pioneer Portraits I: 1850-1874
• City: Philadelphia
• Team: Athletics (NABBP)
• League: National Association (NAPBBP)

John Edgar Clapp (1851-1904) played for 8 teams and managed 6 over a 12 year span, beginning in the National Association with the Middletown Mansfields in 1872 and ending with the NY Gothams in ’83. Primarily a catcher, Clapp had a career BA of .283. With a lifetime 2,523 ABs, he struck out only 51 times.

• Was the first player-manager in major league history (1872)
• Jay Jaffe’s JAWS system ranks John as the 88th best catcher in MLB history, just after Bubbles Hargrave and before Ed McFarland
• Earned the nickname “Honest John” after reporting a bookie’s attempted bribe to local police
• The 1881 bribe, in current dollars, amounted to @$119,000
• Fittingly, this Honest John entered police work after retirement from the game and died on the job in his hometown of Ithaca, NY