Will Clark was a great baseball player. He had a career .303/.384/.494 line. He was patient at the plate, solid in the field, and a six-time All Star. Clark tore up the league, in fact. He had a great deal of success against every team in the National League except for the Chicago Cubs. Cub pitching mystified Clark throughout his career, as he managed a feeble .212/.309/.297 line against Cub pitchers during his career. Until the 1989 postseason, that is, when he etched his legacy as one of the Top 79 Cub Killers of My Time. But we’ll give that scar another few minutes of healing before we tear it open again.

William Nuschler Clark Jr. was signed by the San Francisco Giants as the second overall pick of the 1985 draft. Clark was coming off a year at Mississippi State University during which he was named an All American and won the Golden Spikes Award. It didn’t take Clark long to play his way onto the Giants. In 1986, at the age of 22, he was the Giants’ everyday first baseman. He rewarded his team with 11 home runs and 41 RBIs while putting up a .287/.343/.444 and finishing fifth in the NL Rookie of the Year voting.

Clark gave the Giants eight solid seasons from 1986 to 1993 before moving on to Texas and then Baltimore before finishing his career in St. Louis with fellow Cub killer Rick Ankiel.

And that’s enough of kissing Will Clark’s ass. Nuschler? Really? His middle name is Nuschler? That’s almost as lame as being nicknamed “The Thrill,” which he was.

In Chicago, the Cubs had a young, pure left-handed first baseman who followed a surprisingly similar career path as Clark. Mark Grace was signed in 1985 by the Cubs, though in the 24th round. Like Clark, Grace was a patient hitter with gap power and a solid glove. Like Clark, Grace was immediately thrown into the fire, taking over as the Cubs’ everyday first baseman in his first season in the Major Leagues. Like Clark, Grace put together a spectacular rookie season, posting a .296/.371/.403 line and finishing second in the NL Rookie of the Year voting in 1988.

So when the Cubs faced off against the Giants in the 1989 NLCS, it was the 25-year old Grace squaring off against the 25-year-old Clark. That made it hurt all the worse when Grace’s absurd .647/.682/1.118(!) line was overshadowed by Clark’s .650/.682/1.200 performance. That third number for both hitters is slugging percentage, folks. Not OPS. The two young first basemen both showed up to play, outhitting everyone else on their respective teams by a large margin. On the strength of Clark’s 6 extra-base hits including 2 home runs and 8 RBIs, the Giants were able to dispatch Grace’s Cubs in five games.

Grace, however, wasn’t a cheating son of a bitch. In the third inning of Game 1, with the Giants holding a 3-2 lead at Wrigley Field, Clark homered off Cub pitcher Greg Maddux to give the Giants a 2-run cushion. In the fourth inning of that same game, Clark came up again with bases loaded. Wikipedia tells what transpired next:

Prior to Clark’s at bat, Cubs’ catcher Joe Girardi went to the mound to discuss with Maddux how to pitch to Clark. From the on-deck circle, Clark watched the conversation and read Maddux’s lips saying “fastball high, inside.” The first pitch was a fastball high and inside which Clark sent into the right field bleachers. Following this, pitchers began to cover their mouths with their gloves when having conversations on the pitchers mound.

So, you can read lips, Will?

Why You Should Hate Him: Pay attention. Game One of the 1989 NLCS. Including the two home runs Clark hit off Maddux, he went 4-4 in the game with 6 RBIs and an otherworldly 3.750 OPS. That game set the tone for the rest of the series as the Giants pounded Maddux, the Cubs’ ace, for 8 earned runs as they went on to blow out the Cubs 11-3. That was Maddux’s only postseason series with the Cubs and, thanks to Clark, he limped out with a 13.50 ERA. Thanks a shitload, Will.

Did You Know? If you’re so inclined, you can check out the lamest tribute website of all time, Thrill22. You can see all of Clark’s old baseball cards and Starting Lineup figures, as well as the most bizarre Will Clark figurine I’ve ever seen.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 21st, 2007 at 9:23 pm and is filed under Lists, The Top 79.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.