Clark Appreciates Winning Feeling : Cardinal Didn’t Experience Much of It in San Francisco

Other than the Padre defense, the most destructive force Thursday at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium was St. Louis first baseman Jack Clark.

The Cardinals trailed the Padres, 6-1, when Clark happened to be batting with two outs in the seventh inning. He then hit a three-run homer that pulled St. Louis back into the game.

From there, the Cardinals let the Padre defense take over in the ninth. However, without Clark’s three-run homer in the seventh, the Cardinals’ five runs in the ninth would only have been enough to tie the game.

The Padre defense may have looked pathetic to the 24,164 fans, but it brought back memories for Clark. His former San Francisco Giant teams regularly lost games in a similar fashion.

“I know that feeling,” Clark said. “It’s nice to be on this side for a change. We win games in a lot of different ways. Who knows what it might be? It might be our speed, a shutout or our defense.”

In the aftermath, Clark was happy that he has left his bad memories in San Francisco and placed his heart in St. Louis.

“Tough times are still in San Francisco,” Clark said. “I’m glad I don’t have that feeling of trying to come in fourth or fifth place and have statistics be the only important thing. I’d rather be doing a little less here and keep winning.”

Clark is actually producing a little more and complaining a lot less than he used to did. While with the Giants, Clark would get off to slow starts and moan about how his team wasn’t winning. By the time Clark would go on his traditional June hot streaks, the Giants normally were all but eliminated from the NL West race.

In 1985, Clark has been hot most of the season and he hasn’t complained at all. But what is there to complain about?

Clark, who hit 31 homers in 1977, has 19 this season and is on pace for his second 30-plus home run season, barring a strike. Dick Allen was the last Cardinal to surpass 30 home runs when he hit 34 in 1970.

When the Cardinals won the 1982 World Series, George Hendrick led the team with 19 home runs. His production slipped to 18 in 1983 and nine in 1984, prompting his trade to Pittsburgh and the acquisition of the 29-year-old Clark.

“George used to hit his 20 to 25 home runs,” Manager Whitey Herzog said. “But he didn’t last year, and he didn’t the year before.”

Except for a season-ending knee injury on June 26, 1984, Clark did pretty well the last two years. He had 11 homers and 44 RBIs in 57 games last year before going down. In 1983, he had 20 homers and 66 RBIs.

The Cardinals gave up four players to get Clark--pitcher Dave LaPoint and infielders David Green, Jose Uribe and Gary Rajsich.

“Any time you get a player of Jack Clark’s ability in a lineup where he won’t be depended on to do everything, it’s going to help him,” Cardinal shortstop Ozzie Smith said. “Jack is happy here. Hopefully, he’ll be here a long time. If he is, we’ll have an exciting baseball team.”

Exciting baseball for Cardinal fans has primarily meant the speed of Vince Coleman, who leads the majors with 68 stolen bases.

“Jack contributes as much as Coleman,” Herzog said. “A lot of things go together on this team, but I’d hate like hell not to have Jack.”

Said Clark: “When I was traded, it made me feel important for the first time. The Cardinals were saying, ‘you’ll have a big part and you’re pretty good.’ I’m in the time of my career to put together my best years. The timing was right for me.”

It was also right for the Cardinals.