Chris Wakeland
Tony Clark for personal reasons is one of my favorite
Tigers. Tony is a California boy and
went to college at San Diego State and the University of Arizona where he was a
basketball and baseball standout. He was
the Tigers number 1 draft pick, number 2 overall in 1990. He worked his way up the Tigers farm system
and made his MLB debut in 1995 as a late season call up. He was the starting first baseman against the
Indians at Tiger Stadium batting fifth behind Travis Fryman and Cecil
Fielder. He faced Indians pitcher Albie
Lopez in the second inning and struck out swinging on three pitches. In the fourth he struck out swinging again
but at least he took it to a full count!
In the 7th he grounded out.
In the 9th with the Tiges down 8-4 he led off with a
single. He scored on a Ron Tingley grand
slam that tied the game. In the 10th
the Tiges were again trailing but by a run.
Tony again got a lead off single.
But the Tigers could not bring him home.
The lesson I get from this is Tony was what you wanted when the chips
were down. A stat I like is dividing the
times a player grounds into a double play by the number of RBI’s he gets. This is something I use to rank clutch
hitting. Tony has a .161 ratio which is better
than such greats as Al Kaline, Kirby Puckett and even Dwight Evans. Tony became the Tiges starting first baseman
in 1996. He was soon driving in 100
RBI’s and made the all star squad in 2001 when he was the Tigers lone
representative. Tony’s weakness was a
penchant for striking out. 5 times he
K’d over 100 times in a season. That
being said, he still had an OBP that was almost 80 points higher than his
batting average. But after the 2001
season the Red Sox picked up Tony off of waivers. Ahhh, another great move by former GM Randy
Smith. Tony went on to play another 8
years before retiring in 2009. For his
Career Tony was a .262 hitter with a 162 game average of 26 homers and 86
RBI’s. But the reason I like Tony is
because of a running conversation I had with him. In 1997 Tony was on the radio giving an
interview about what Jackie Robinson meant to him on the 50th
Anniversary of Jackie’s breaking the color barrier. Tony gave a very good interview. He gave very considered opinions and talked
about how he did some reading about black baseball. I loved it.
A smart guy reading and talking a PLAYING baseball! I happened to see him in the clubhouse a few
months later and asked him about the interview.
I asked him what books he read.
He gave me a couple titles. I
then asked him if he had ever read Sol White.
Sol was a black ball player and author who wrote one of the all time
great baseball histories called “History of Colored Base Ball” which was
published in 1907. Tony said he had
never read about him and took down his name.
About a year later, I met up with him again at a Tiger signing. I asked him if he had read Sol White yet. He said no, he had not. I happened to have a copy with me so I gave
it to him. Again, a year later, I saw
him but was with a buddy of mine. I
asked him if he had read Sol White yet.
He looked up at me and said “was that you? Yeah, I read it. It was great”. We talked briefly and then I moved on out of
line. My buddy who was with me just
stared at me and me and said “all these people are oogling Tony Clark and
clamoring to get his autograph and you come here and talk literature with him? Really?”
Ok, maybe I am a bit of an odd baseball fan.
Lance Parrish
Champ Summers
Ben Flowers
Lou North
Heinie Beckendorf
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