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Will in-depth numbers support Clark’s cause?
- Updated: November 29, 2016
SAN FRANCISCO — Maybe, just maybe, time has provided enough opportunity for perspective and analysis that will give Will Clark a legitimate chance of gaining election to baseball’s Hall of Fame.
Clark is among 10 former players, managers and executives who will be considered and subjected to a vote Sunday by a panel of 16 experts known as the Today’s Game Era Committee. This group of Hall of Famers, esteemed baseball officials and longtime members of the media will convene at National Harbor, Md., site of baseball’s Winter Meetings. Nominees must receive 75 percent of the vote to earn induction to the game’s shrine.
Clark excelled for the Giants after they drafted him No. 2 overall out of Mississippi State in 1985. His career path initially appeared destined to end at the steps of Cooperstown. Unfurling his impossibly graceful left-handed swing, Clark homered off formidable fastballer Nolan Ryan in his first Major League at-bat in 1986, then sustained a stretch from 1987-91 in which he ranked as one of the game’s premier offensive forces.
“When I played with him, I thought I was playing with a Hall of Famer,” said Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow, a former member of San Francisco’s starting rotation and a teammate of Clark’s from 1986-89.
Clark faded from prominence from 1992-97, when he averaged 14 home runs and 74 RBIs per season. After making the All-Star team for five consecutive years (1988-92), Clark earned that distinction once in his final eight seasons and never in his last six.
Clark therefore received scant consideration when he became eligible for election to the Hall of Fame. The former first baseman received 23 votes among the 520 members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America who cast ballots for the Hall’s Class of 2006. His 4.4 percent of the vote fell short of the 5 percent necessary to remain on the ballot.
But Clark’s receiving a fresh look through the Today’s Game Era Committee, which evaluates individuals whose primary contributions to baseball occurred after 1988. Ex-players joining Clark on the ballot are Harold Baines, Albert Belle, Orel Hershiser and Mark McGwire. Other nominees are managers Davey Johnson and Lou Piniella, former Commissioner Bud Selig, and club executives John Schuerholz and George Steinbrenner.
“The Thrill” would feel more than thrilled if he can capitalize on this second chance.
“That would be a big-time feather in the cap if that happens,” said Clark, 52. “But if it doesn’t, that’s OK. Because I didn’t play this sport to get into the Hall of Fame. I played this sport because of the challenge and competition. If it happens, I’ll be the most ecstatic person ever, I can tell you …
