Whitey Herzog called Jack Clark “the greatest fastball hitter of our era.” He became a born-again Christian in 1977 and was part of the notorious “God Squad” of the Giants. Here is an excerpt about Clark with the Cardinals from my book, The God Squad: The Born-Again San Francisco Giants of 1978.
Before joining the Cardinals in 1985, he spent his first ten seasons in the majors with the San Francisco Giants. Clark may not have been able to propel the Giants to the postseason, but in two of his three seasons with the Cardinals, 1985 and 1987, the team reached the World Series.
“I don’t think there’s much doubt what he did for us,” Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog said in 1990, three years after Clark left the Cards. “We haven’t been back to the World Series since, have we?”
But if any felt that becoming a Jesus follower made players passive and gave them the option to excuse every failure as “God’s will,” Giants fans (bred to be eternal Dodger-haters) will be pleased to hear how Clark felt about hitting his most famous home run, a three-run shot off the Dodgers’ Tom Niedenfuer to clinch the National League pennant for the Cardinals in the top of the ninth inning of Game 6 of the 1985 National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium.
In the seventh inning, with the score tied and Ozzie Smith on third base, Clark struck out against Niedenfuer. Mike Marshall hit a home run in the eighth inning to give the Dodgers a 5–4 lead.
In the top of the ninth, the Cardinals were down to their last out when Clark came up with Willie McGee on third base and Ozzie Smith on second. Instead of issuing an intentional walk, Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda decided to pitch to Clark. The former Giant smashed Niedenfuer’s first pitch into the left-field stands. “It was a good pitch to hit—a fastball, down—and I knew it was gone the minute I hit it,” Clark told UPI sportswriter Aurelio Rojas.
“I knew first base was open, but I thought they’d come after me because that’s what they always did when I was with the Giants because they never respected us,” Clark told blogger Jason Peake. “I was having a great series and thought I could hit anything. I was on everything. And I didn’t like the Dodgers. I wanted them to go down. They came after me on the first pitch, and I was ready for it. It was a pretty big moment for me, my teammates, Whitey Herzog, and the Cardinal fans . . . and also for the Giants’ fans.”
As Rojas noted: “The victory washed away unhappy memories both distant and recent for Clark. ‘Around the bases, I thought about all the bad times,’ said the Cardinals’ first baseman, who went through many losing seasons with the San Francisco Giants before being traded to St. Louis in the off-season.
“‘As I neared home plate and saw all my teammates there, it dawned on me, “We’re going to the World Series, we’re going to the World Series” . . . I made the big out before and allowed Marshall to put them ahead,’ said Clark, a born-again Christian. ‘But I got a chance to redeem myself.’”
Clark told Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “There was a lot of payback for many reasons. For all those years in Candlestick Park. Not only was it bad enough just having to play there, but the Dodgers kept whipping up on us every year. I had one mission. To seek and destroy everyone on that team, from Fernando Valenzuela to Orel Hershiser. I wanted it all.”
Hummel wrote, “The rage in Clark almost was uncontrollable when he faced the Dodgers.”
“I tried to hit it out of the stadium,” Clark told him. “I didn’t just want a home run. I wanted to have it be shot out of a cannon.”
If being born again put out Clark’s competitive fire, the Dodgers would sure like an explanation.
Matt Sieger has a master’s degree in magazine journalism from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications and a B.A. from Cornell University. Now retired, he was formerly a sports reporter and columnist for the Cortland (NY) Standard and The Vacaville (CA) Reporter daily newspapers.
