In my blog post last week about New Orleans area baseball players, I mentioned some of the city’s great players who were former Major League All-Stars. With the All-Star Game coming up Tuesday, I am reminded about one of my favorite players, New Orleans native Will Clark, who was a six-time all-star during his 15-year career. Twenty-five years ago, in just his fourth big-league season, Clark’s 1989 campaign was one of his best and it included one of his All-Star appearances.
“Thrill” and “The Natural” were nicknames the popular Clark acquired early in his major league career. These nicknames stuck with him because the left-handed hitting first baseman didn’t disappoint fans after being selected by the San Francisco Giants as the second overall pick in the 1985 Major League Baseball draft. He was in the big-leagues at the beginning of the next season, hitting a home run off Nolan Ryan in his first major league at-bat, and finishing fifth in the voting for National League Rookie of the Year. In 1988, he had progressed to the point of finishing fifth on the ballot for MVP of the league, leading the league in RBI and walks, while finishing third in runs scored.
By 1989, the 25-year-old Clark was a frequent cover boy for sports magazines such as Sports Illustrated, SPORT, and The Sporting News. His popularity was peaking and causing quite a stir in the San Francisco Bay area, along with Giants teammate Kevin Mitchell and the Oakland A’s big boppers, Mark McGuire and Jose Canseco. Collectively, the four players were being labeled the “Bay Bombers” for their slugging prowess. In fact, I remember thinking Clark was on a Hall of Fame track, and consequently I began a quest to collect every one of his baseball cards during the late ‘80s collecting craze.
The Giants had finished fourth in the six-team National League West Division in 1988. The 1989 season was dramatically different and marked a return to glory for the Giants, who had not won a pennant since the Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, and Juan Marichal days of 1962. Mitchell and Clark were as formidable a hitting duo as any in baseball that year, validated by their finishing first and second, respectively, in the National League MVP voting.
Mitchell wound up leading the National League in home runs (47), RBI (125), slugging percentage (.635) and a 1.023 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS). Clark wasn’t too far behind him, with 23 HR, 114 RBI, and OPS (.953). He lead the National League in runs scored (104) and compiled a career-high batting average of .333.
About the only time Clark’s bat was silent in 1989 was during the All-Star Game in Anaheim. Clark went hitless in two at-bats in the National League’s loss in the mid-season classic.
When the Giants defeated the Chicago Cubs in the League Championship Series that year, Clark had one of the most memorable LCS performances in history. He went 13-for-20, with two home runs, eight RBI, and a slugging percentage of 1.200 in five games.
As fate would have it, the San Francisco Giants played Bay rival Oakland A’s in the 1989 World Series, the first cross-city World Series since the Yankees-Dodgers series in 1956. It became known as the infamous “Earthquake Series”, when a 6.9 rated earthquake shook the Bay Area and Candlestick Park prior to Game 3. Clark and the Giants lost their steam and succumbed to the A’s in four consecutive games, which included a 10-day disruption due to the earthquake.
Much to my disappointment, Clark was unable to achieve Hall of Fame status. While he surely had a spectacular career, injuries began to plague him in 1993. He really had only one more full season, 1998, during the remainder of his career, which ended in 2000. However, when Clark was on the field, he was always still a threat at the plate. For his career, his batting average was .303. He hit 284 HR and 1,205 RBI.
Before I wrap up, I have to tell you one of my favorite personal stories involving Will Clark. When my son Lee was considering high school options in New Orleans in the early ‘90s, he had pretty much set his sights on attending Jesuit High School early in the process. His Mom and I had some doubts about whether Lee’s aspiration was a realistic goal, thus we tried to be very careful about setting his expectations. So Mom proceeded to explain to Lee that promising Jesuit candidates generally needed to “know someone” to gain an edge in the competitive selection process, and that we weren’t really connected well enough with Jesuit alumni to enhance his selection.
Already being an avid baseball fan at that age, Lee innocently responded with, “Well, I know Will Clark and he went to Jesuit.” To which Mom gently responded, “But, Lee, the problem is that Will Clark doesn’t know you.” Our family still gets a good laugh about that line. (Footnote: Lee did manage to realize his dream without Clark’s intervention.)
And, oh by way, I collected about 1,200 different Clark baseball cards before I stopped. The countless variations of cardboard players being proliferated by the baseball card manufacturers finally wore me (and my pocketbook) out. Nevertheless, a testament to Clark’s impact on the game is the fact he still shows up regularly in current baseball card sets highlighting former baseball heroes’ careers. The “Thrill” ain’t gone!