[the 'stache]

Originally Posted by itjclarke

The Thrill was by far my favorite player as a kid. Being a left handed first baseman, I tried to emulate everything he did (except didn't bat left handed), including the eye black, blowing bubbles mid-play, pointing to my teammates after hits, and perfecting facial expressions including the one sided smile and that strange ridiculous but awesome game face frown. Love that guy!

That's really interesting, Ian. Something else we have in common. I always loved Will Clark. He eventually made his way down to Texas, and played with the Rangers for most of the second half of his career. I saw him a few times at the Ballpark in Arlington. He just mashed the ball. I always put him and Robin Yount in the same category. I felt they were both throwback players. Just the way they approached the game. Never showy, never flashy. They just went out there every single day, did their jobs exceedingly well, and at the end of the day, you always felt you got more than 100% from them.

Clark had one of the sweetest swings I've ever seen, too. That front leg of his would just kick out perfectly straight. Then his hips would start to rotate, and then he'd get that full extension of his arms, and the bat head would just whip through the strike zone. So fluid. It's as if God made him to play baseball. If you'd ask me to name two of the most beautiful swings I've ever seen, I'd put Ken Griffey Jr. and Will Clark right at the top. And Clark was so good at just taking what the pitcher was giving him. He could just rip it into the seats in right field, or just pop it to the opposite field in left. He never got fooled.

There were 170 hitters between 1980 and 2000 to have 5,000 or more at bats. Of those, only 17 had a higher OPS than Will Clark's .880. He hit with power, and he got on base. Very underrated player, if you ask me.