Light reading: Will Clark Saved the Giants

[Del B Vista]

From a book I'm excited to grab, "The Hall of Nearly Great":

"And I wish someone had grabbed me by the ears when I was a kid, sat me
down, and explained all of this to me. Watch Will Clark, kid. This is
important, dammit. Because I watched him play. I went to scores and
scores of Will Clark games. I watched him on TV hundreds of times. But I
was a little too removed to appreciate him. He meant something to
Giants fans. He was bigger than just an All-Star first baseman. He was
Will Clark, Organizational Metaphor and Important Player. And he was
famous to us."

http://deadspin.com/59268...e-giants-and-i-missed-it

 

[mcdawg22]

1. He makes me understand Ole Miss fans and there love of Eli. Not before and not since, has Mississippi State had one of the top 3 or 4 recognizable players in any sport as it did with Will. I just remember how badass it was playing as him in RBI baseball. The early days of Sunday night baseball calling his swing the best left handed swing in all of baseball. It is just unexplainable how I would hand on every pitch when he was up to bat.
2. He makes me understand Southern fans. I totally understand becoming a fan of a team because of one player. That being said I never became an Oriole fan.
3. Even though I never was great at baseball, Will Clark made me worse. I had quit playing youth baseball by the time I was 10 or 11, but Will did hurt my backyard numbers. Because of Will Clark, I, the least ambidextrous person in history, decided I would have a better swing left handed.
4. Will Clark cost me untold fortunes in baseball cards. "I'll trade you this rookie Junior Griffey for a 89 Topps Clark." Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, Cal Ripken Jr who? Gimme all your Will Clark's. When I think about all the investment opportunity I squandered, it truly boggles the mind. We're talking tens of dollars here.

 

[bulldogcountry1]

I was too young to enjoy to enjoy the Sate years, but I recall somewhere during 1988, my dad said, "That guy played at State.". From then on, I was glued to the tv every time he played for the rest of his career.

Wish he could have stayed healthy. He still finished his career with a .300 average. I haven't been able to really get back into MLB since he retired.

 

[HammerOfTheDogs]

Clark helped re-ignite a franchise (though a lot of it had to do with Roger Craig and a host of other young players), won the NLCS MVP in 1989, and his refusal to use steroids probably shortened his career.

 

[Todd4State]

also probably cost him some numbers as well. He had a beer gut in the mid 90's. He could have kept on playing when he retired though- I think he stopped because of his family? I can't remember. He was a beast for the Cardinals in 2000 though.

 

[Rutherford B Hays]

I knew some of the SF Giants of that era. They told me while they would workout until they puked in the off season, Will Clark never worked out in the off season.

These guys loved Will Clark, but they did wish he would have applied himself in the off season.

 

[Chesusdog]

also probably cost him some numbers as well. He had a beer gut in the mid 90's. He could have kept on playing when he retired though- I think he stopped because of his family? I can't remember. He was a beast for the Cardinals in 2000 though.

Dude is very round these days. Saw him in Baton Rouge a few years back and he's just big. Not just fat, but fat and muscle. And that last half of a season with the Cardinals was magical. He played for an injured McGwire and put up McGwire like numbers in his brief stay.

 

[jackstefano]

I knew some of the SF Giants of that era. They told me while they would workout until they puked in the off season.

No baseball player, ever, could truthfully make this claim.

 

[HammerOfTheDogs]

It's like when some lady saw John Kruk smoking and asked why he did it. "I ain't an athlete, lady, I'm a baseball player." Will Clark was the same way. Nowadays you see these automatons out on the baseball field who work out 52 weeks a year, 6 1/2 days a week. You forget you had guys who played ball and treated it as game- something you gave 100% to on the field, but knew how to enjoy life off it. You think Babe Ruth had off-season workouts?

 

[Robot-Chicken]

where you could have had your heart's desire in Will Clark signed baseball cards.

I think at one point if you lived in Jones County they issued them to us when we started 6th grade.