TODAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

Born: March 13, 1964 in New Orleans, LA. After starring in college and on the 1984 U.S. Olympic team, Mississippi State Bulldogs, where he won the Golden Spikes.

Will Clark made an immediate impression as a professional ballplayer. He hit a home run in his first swing in the minor leagues and later in his first swing for the Giants at the big league level (against Nolan Ryan).

“My whole family traveled from New Orleans to see me play in my first game for the Giants. Our opener was in Houston and I remember it well. Our leadoff guy Dan Gladden grounded out in the top of the first inning, and I stepped up to the plate. Nolan Ryan threw me a chest-high fastball and I hit it into the center-field bleachers 420 feet away. Later they told me that I was the 53rd player to hit a home run in his very first game. I was just really looking for a pitch I could drive somewhere. I knew I hit it well, but I wasn’t sure if it would go out or not. By the time I hit second base, I was floating. It was a trip around the bases that I will never forget!”

Clark was a fierce competitor known for his glare and intensity. His focus paid off – he was one of the best clutch hitters in the game, driving in at least 90 runs in each of his first five full seasons in the majors. In the 1989 NLCS, he banged out nine hits in seven games and hit .360.

“We had a great team that won our second NL West Division title in three years, and only the Chicago Cubs stood in our way if we wanted to get in the World Series. I had a lousy regular season against Chicago (.271 batting average without a home run) and didn’t do well against Greg Maddux (2-for-11) their best pitcher and their starter for Game One of the NLCS. On top of it, I hated Wrigley Field, because I had problems picking up pitches there with the ivy in the background. In Game One, I got us started in the first inning with a run-scoring double off Maddux. Then I hit a solo home run in the third inning, followed by a grand slam in the fourth, and sending Maddux to the showers. We beat them 11-3 and that gave us some momentum. My six RBIs set a single-game playoff record for National League playoff games. (Clark tied NLCS records for most hits, runs scored, and most times reaching base safely in a single game.) The Cubs manager, Don Zimmer, told the reporters that I had a heck of a week in that one game. I ended up hitting .650 in those five games and then we were on to play the Oakland Bash Brothers in the World Series.”

Two years later he topped that performance when he absolutely destroyed Cubs’ pitching in the NLCS for a .650 average (13 hits in five games), including six extra-base hits and eight RBI. In all, “The Thrill” batted .333 in seven post-season series, with five homers and 16 RBI. After a few off-seasons in which he battled nagging injuries, Clark began an odyssey which brought him to Texas (five seasons and four at .300), Baltimore (twice more over .300 in part-time duty), and finally St. Louis.

Acquired by the Cardinals in the midst of a pennant race to replace injured first baseman Mark McGwire, Clark returned to his dramatic ways – homering in his first at-bat for his new team.

Clark is a six-time MLB All-Star, two-time Silver Slugger winner, 1991 Gold Glove winner at first base, and MVP of the 1989 National League Championship Series. Clark has been inducted into the National University Baseball Hall of Fame, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, and the Gulf Sports Hall of Fame.

As told to Ed Attanasio, This Great Game

On Earning his Nickname:
“Bob Brenly started calling me ‘The Thrill,’ during my rookie season in 1986 and the media loved it, so it stuck. I got off to a really good start and people kept calling me ‘The Thrill’ so I went with it. Some people don’t like their nicknames and at first it was a little weird calling me that, but I got used to it. When I played in college, the press called Rafael Palmeiro and me ‘Thunder and Lightning’ so I have had a few nicknames over the years.”

Todays highlights and Historic Days!

March 13, 1886 — Frank Baker is born in Trappe, Maryland. A third baseman and left-handed hitter, Baker will guide the Philadelphia Athletics to three World Series championships. He will be nicknamed “Home Run” during the 1911 World Series, in which he will hit a go-ahead home run off Rube Marquard in Game Two and a 9th-inning game-tying home run off Christy Mathewson in Game Three. Baker will lead the American League in home runs for four consecutive seasons, twice leading the league in RBI, and bat .363 in six Series. Baker will earn Hall of Fame honors in 1955.

March 13, 1917 - After hearing that Gabby Street had caught a ball dropped off the Washington Monument in 1908, Brooklyn manager Wilbert Robinson brags that he could catch a ball dropped from an airplane at spring training, even though he is in his mid-50s and well above his playing weight.
As the event takes place, Robinson circles unsteadily under the descending spheroid. Instead of a baseball, a grapefruit was secretly substituted and it explodes on impact with his glove. "Help me, Lads, I'm covered with my own blood!" - Once he feels the ooze, Robinson screams, until he tastes the juice. Aviatrix Ruth Law dropped the grapefruit as outfielder Casey Stengel assumed culpability for the switch.
He later concedes that he probably would have been killed if a real baseball had been dropped from the plane. Aviatrix Ruth Law dropped the grapefruit as outfielder Casey Stengel assumed culpability for the switch.

March 13, 1943 -- The major leagues approve a new official ball manufactured by the Spalding Company for the upcoming season. Instead of the usual combination of cork and rubber, the inside of the ball is made up of recycled cork and balata, materials not needed in the war effort. Officials insist the ball will have the resiliency of the 1939 ball, but the players will express dismay that they cannot drive the new ball and point out the dearth of runs and homers in 1942 even with the old ball.

March 13, 1953 -- Boston Braves owner Lou Perini announces he will seek permission from the National League to move his franchise from Boston to Milwaukee. The day will become known as "Black Friday" in Beantown.

March 13, 1954 — Milwaukee Braves outfielder Bobby Thomson breaks his ankle while sliding into a base during a spring training game. The 1951 National League playoff hero is replaced by a promising prospect named Hank Aaron. Thomson will be out until July 14th.

March 13, 1960, the Chicago White Sox unveil an important uniform innovation. Much to the chagrin of other owners and most of his players. The White Sox’ road uniforms feature players’ names on the backs of the jerseys, in an exhibition game against Cincinnati in Tampa marking the first time that players’ names will appear on major league uniforms.

The innovation will make it easier for fans watching games on television to identify the players on the field. The idea is yet another creation of colorful White Sox owner Bill Veeck. After the rest of the league's clubs protest the Chicago owner's innovation, the commissioner's office will rule that in addition to displaying traditional numbers, each team will have the option to use monikered uniforms.

March 13, 1969  Willie McCovey ended his holdout Thursday when he signed a two-year contract with the San Francisco Giants, believed to call for $85,000 this season. The slugging first baseman indicated that the second year of the pact was flexible and terms could be revised upward if he has another outstanding season.

Last year, McCovey led the National League with 36 home runs, 105 runs batted in a .545 slugging average while batting .293. Manager Clyde King immediately planned to insert McCovey into the Giants' lineup and declared: "You know what it looks like? It looks like I'm sitting before a great big piece of strawberry shortcake and can't wait to tear into it."

The pact was the second two-year contract for the 31-year-old McCovey. He had asked the Giants for a three-year contract, but the club held firm against that unusual request. In Giants' history, McCovey and Willie Mays are the only players ever to receive even two-year pacts. McCovey's signing left the Giants with only one holdout, star pitcher Juan Marichal, who is seeking a substantial raise from the $100,000 he got last year when he won 26 games and lost nine.

March 13, 1975 - In Las Vegas, Nevada, the late Roberto Clemente joins Roy Campanella and twelve other sports figures, living and dead, as this year's inductees in the Black Athletes' Hall of Fame.

They wheeled Roy Campanella to the platform in a wheelchair, and he got a standing ovation from the crowd of about 700. “When I was a youngster, I never thought I'd have a chance to play in the big leagues and be inducted into a Black Athlete's Hall of Fame. Now this has come true,” he said. The former Brooklyn Dodger catching great confined to a wheelchair after a tragic auto accident more than 15 years ago was one of 14 new inductees into the Black Athlete's Hall of Fame Thursday night. The predominantly black audience from all parts of the country sat in a spacious, thickly carpeted hotel ballroom at a black tie-optional affair to watch the ceremony interspersed with performances by Aretha Franklin and James Brown.

Posthumous awards were presented to former heavyweight champion Jack Johnson and former Pittsburgh Pirate outfield great Roberto Clemente, as well as Abe Saperstein, founder of the Harlem Globetrotters. Another posthumous award went to John Henry Lloyd called “the Mack Honus Wagner” when he played in the Mack baseball leagues between 1905 and 1931

March 13, 1981, the California Angels sign Rick Burleson to a six-year contract worth $4.2 million, making him the highest-paid shortstop in the major leagues.  Burleson was traded to the Angels from the Boston Red Sox last December. He will be paid an estimated $700,000 a year If he had not agreement on the deal, he would have played out his option year this season on a four-year contract paying him just $125,000 a year. The new deal makes him the 4th highest-paid player in baseball.

“I’m happy that things have worked out and I’ll be here for awhile,’’ said Burleson, a native of Lynwood, Calif., who recently bought a new home near Ana­heim Stadium. “I wouldn’t have wanted nego­tiations to drag into the season. I had to go through that with Boston in 1976 and it isn’t a very - good atmosphere to play in.” The shortstop made it clear he wanted to be the highest-paid shortstop in the game, and the final contract figure was ex­pected to keep at that level for several seasons. He will hit .293 for the Angels before injuries slowed the Rooster down.

March 13, 1981 Lakeland Florida, 28 year Boston Red Sox star slugger Jim Rice gets into a heated confrontation with 61 year old VP of PR Jim Crowley. Rice had parked his yellow Cadillac in Crowley's spot that had been his for 16 years, it was the third year in a row Rice had done this to Crowley. The sign Crowley had installed was missing and was later found in an Orange grove. Crowley confronted Rice at the batting cages, with his teammates around and threatened to flatten Rice's tires. Rice, didn't appreciate that and told Crowley he would bash his windows in with his bat if he did that. The two went chin to chin and Rice grabbed his are and twisted it behind his pack. Crowley suffered an injury to the hand and was bleeding, he was treated by the team's doctor.

March 13, 2006 -- Legendary pitcher Bob Feller, who has been in the Hall of Fame longer than any other living player, says that controversial superstar Barry Bonds should be kept out of the exclusive club.

TRIVIA

TRIVIA: Will Clark was chosen second in the 1985 amateur draft. In that same draft a future Hall of Famer was drafted 4th. Who was he?

IF you think you know the answer and bonus points for how many respond with details and if you are right I will give you a shut out! No Googling!

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 ANSWER TO YESTERDAY’S TRIVIA

YESTERDAY'S TRIVIA: Dale Murphy is known as a Gold Glove 2 Time MVP Centerfielder, compared to some of the all time greats for a several year period. Before he played the outfield what position did he play?

TRIVIA ANSWER: Murphy was a first-round pick in the 1974 amateur draft and made it to the majors at age 20 in 1976 for a cup of coffee as a catcher and again in 77.. He also played first base in 78 and played his final game at catcher in 1979. He moved to the OF in 1980. At first base and catcher, Murphy made 52 errors in 294 games. In the outfield he made 71 in 1,853 games.

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