Home Run Kings - James Peterson & Jeff Clement

“Energy drinks and Excedrin”

From Little League to the bigs, baseball is in full-swing. And few guys can swing it like our Moonlighters this week. Winterset’s James Peterson and Marshalltown’s Jeff Clement were national newsmakers in the summer of 2002 as they chased the national high school homerun record. Peterson and Clement could absolutely rake in high school. Neither ever hit lower than about .450 and they were hitting double digit home runs. The Peterson and Clement race of 2002 was just on the heels of the Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire MLB home run race of the 1998 season. The national media followed their story through the summer 2002 season and all eyes were on Iowa’s summer high school baseball season. These two Iowa baseball legends share stories about their playing days and their more recent roles as baseball dads.

“I hated to walk”

James Peterson and Jeff Clement played spring and fall ball together and were both well aware of the record books. By the time Peterson and Clement became upperclassmen in the 2001 and 2002 seasons they were well known for their ability to swing the stick. In fact, Clement is first and Peterson is third in the all-time single-season walks record. Peterson felt like there would be stretches of two games where he wasn’t seeing a single pitch to swing at. While both guys were aware of the record books but were much more focused on their team goals. Clement’s Marshalltown Bobcats were seeking their state title after coming up just short in his junior and sophomore seasons. Peterson and the Winterset Huskies finally made the state tournament his senior year after coming up short of the tournament in his first few years.

”There was a hanging curveball that I shoulda hit”

Both guys entered the state tournament in their senior season with 73 home runs. Peterson and the Huskies bowed out in the first round and his career ended at 73. Clement hit two bombs in the first round against Bettendorf and finished his prep career as the national leader. After incredible high school runs, they had national attention and had many options for their college careers. Clement turned down a draft pick by the Twins and headed west to USC for his college career. Peterson decommitted from D1 Wichita State and signed with Indian Hills with his eyes on getting drafted after his freshman season. 

Clement came out of the gate hot for the Trojans and earned a co-freshman national player of the year honor and was named a freshman All American. By the time he was done in LA, he was the top catcher in college baseball winning the Johnny Bench Award, and a top draft pick by the Seattle Mariners. Clement had a lot of success in his pro career and bounced around the majors and AAA for almost a decade before retiring in 2014. 

Peterson was signed by the Dodgers after his freshman year at Indian Hills and battled through injuries pretty much from the moment he signed. In fact, he took a year and a half off just to let his body heal. Once he was feeling close to 100%, he had to call the Dodgers to get back into the system who told him he needed permission from the commissioner’s office before he could get back on the field. With that blessing out of the way, he hit a bomb in one of his first at-bats. Peterson played in the Dodgers system for three years before hanging up his spikes.

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