Horner’s Challenge : With Clark Going East, Cardinals Hoping Their Power Hasn’t Gone South

His name: Luigi Nakajima. Half Italian, half Japanese and totally dedicated to his job as Bob Horner’s interpreter with the Yakult Swallows of Japan’s Central League last year.

“He went everywhere with me, the hotel, restaurants, name it,” Horner said the other day. “He sat next to me on the bench. He’d call time and come out on the field when the manager wanted a special play.”

Nakajima still works for the Swallows. Horner, though, is now employed by the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals and needs no one to explain what is expected of him.

After spending a summer in Japan because of the owners’ free-agent freeze-out during the winter of 1986-87, Horner has returned as a free agent, the Cardinals’ replacement for first baseman and cleanup hitter Jack Clark, Augie Busch’s only Clydesdale in a lineup of quarter horses.

Clark signed with the New York Yankees as a free agent. Talk about St. Louis blues.

“I was skiing in Colorado and fell right off the mountain,” Manager Whitey Herzog said the other day. “Not the lift, the mountain.”

Some will expect Horner to do more than replace Clark as a name on the lineup card. He will be expected to replace his 35 home runs and 106 runs batted in. Nakajima would tell him that translates to pressure.

Horner, however, said he doesn’t see or sense the burden.

“My job in Atlanta was to hit fourth and drive in runs,” he said. And he averaged 24 homers and 73 RBIs in 9 seasons with the Braves. “You can change teams, leagues and countries, the job is still the same.”

In the spring, when optimism is at its highest, the Cardinals are trying to dilute the significance of Clark’s departure. No big deal, they seem to be saying.

“We’ve replaced one guy who drives in runs with another guy who drives in runs,” General Manager Dal Maxvill, the former shortstop, said.

“If Bob plays 140 games, he’ll hit 25 homers and drive in 100 runs just like Jack would have. Jack averaged about 107 games a year in his three years with us. We expect Bob to do a little better than that.

“We wish Jack well, but he had a career year last year and he’s not going to hit 35 home runs in New York. I hope they don’t expect him to.”

And Herzog, initially deflated by the loss of Clark and critical of the possible signing of Horner, sat at his desk and said:

“Hell, Horner has nine years in the big leagues and a .279 career average. He doesn’t have to have a career year to do a job for us if everyone else does theirs.

“I mean, everyone talks about Bob Horner, but the whole key to our team is having Vince (Coleman) and Ozzie (Smith) get on base like they did last year, and getting more out of (Jim) Lindeman and (Tony) Pena.”

Left fielder Coleman batted .289 and stole 109 bases. Shortstop Smith, the defensive wizard, had his best offensive season, batting .303 with 75 RBIs. Lindeman, replacing the traded Andy Van Slyke in right field, batted .208. Catcher Pena, obtained from Pittsburgh in the Van Slyke deal, batted .214.

Said Herzog: “Horner is more of a contact hitter (than Clark). He’s the type guy who’ll go with the pitch. A contact hitter with our team is going to drive in runs. (Tom) Herr and (Willie) McGee have proven that.

“You can put almost anyone in that fourth spot and he’ll get 100 RBIs if those other guys are getting on base as frequently as they should be.

“I guarantee that if Horner hits .279 and stays healthy, he’ll drive in 100 runs, whether he hits 2 home runs or 20.

“I mean, the only real difference between Jack Clark and Bob Horner is about a thousand miles.”

Some might say that the differences between New York and St. Louis are greater than the mileage. Clark, late in the negotiations with the Cardinals, said he wanted to play in a bigger market, better weather and be closer to his home, still regarded as San Francisco.

“I read that and thought for sure he was going to the Dodgers because he’s always hit like hell in L.A.,” Herzog said. “New York is definitely a bigger market than St. Louis, but I’m not sure it has better weather or is closer to his home.

“He’s a hell of a person and player, but we’ll have to see how he does in that atmosphere. We’ll have to see how he copes with George (Steinbrenner) and Billy (Martin).”

Clark has portrayed the Cardinals as having bungled the negotiations by waiting too long to make a significant offer, playing up his injuries and generally demeaning the process by suggesting, at one point, that if he really wanted to leave he could pack up and go to Cleveland.

“Jack says a lot of things when he gets going, but I don’t know where that came from because I don’t ever remember mentioning Cleveland,” Maxvill said.

“I just had a feeling early on that he wanted to leave because we weren’t having our calls returned and we weren’t discussing a lot of things that could have been easily resolved.

“Maybe he always wanted to play in New York. Maybe he always wanted to play for Billy Martin. Maybe his agent (Tom Reich) wanted to deliver a big-name free agent to George Steinbrenner.

“We offered Jack more money than he signed for, and he still left. I don’t know what more we could have done.”

Clark signed a two-year contract for $1.5 million a year with the chance to earn $2 million a year depending on the number of games he plays.

The Cardinals reportedly made two offers. One would have provided Clark a $250,000 signing bonus and a guaranteed salary of $1,750,000. The other would have provided the same signing bonus, a $1.6-million salary and $300,000 in incentive provisions based on the number of games played.

Clark made his decision Jan. 6.

The stunned Herzog reacted by saying that the Cardinals had lost their only power threat, were no longer a pennant contender, would be lucky to play .500 ball and that “everybody in our division is thinking, looking at it on paper, that they’re a better ballclub than us right now.”

Asked, a few days later, about the possible signing of Horner, Herzog wasn’t any more enthusiastic, saying that Horner couldn’t run or field and had never been a consistent hitter away from his Atlanta Stadium launching pad.

“We were all disappointed with Jack leaving, and I could have told Whitey that I had Babe Ruth as a replacement and he would have reacted the same way,” Maxvill said of Herzog’s response to reporters. “The only actual concern he expressed to me about Horner was in reference to the rumors that we were going to give him a three-year contract, which was never my intention.”

Horner signed a one-year contract for a guaranteed $950,000. There are incentive provisions that can bring the total to $1.4 million if he plays in 140 games. He reportedly made $2 million in salary and endorsements with the Swallows and rejected their three-year offer to return, though it reportedly would have paid him between $6 million and $10 million.

“It would have paid me a whole bunch more (than he will get from the Cardinals), but I felt that if I spent any more time in Japan, my chances of getting back to the U.S. wouldn’t have been good,” Horner said.

“I was the same as any kid. I spent my whole life dreaming of playing in the big leagues and I was fortunate to do it right out of college. I wanted to get back to that.

“I was already one year removed. Another year and I felt that I could kiss my career in the U.S. goodby.”

Before signing, however, Horner called Herzog to have him explain his comments.

“Jack Clark was arguably the best hitter in baseball,” Horner said while pumping an exercise bike after a recent exhibition game. “Anybody would have been upset losing him. I might have said the same things in Whitey’s situation, but I didn’t want to sign a contract if he didn’t want me here. It’s tough enough playing this game without the manager in your corner. I was obviously satisfied with what he said and what the Cardinals offered.”

Said Herzog: “Some of it was overreaction. Some of it was taken out of context. All I was really saying was that Horner has hit 72% of his home runs in Atlanta, and that there aren’t many guys who hit home runs consistently in Busch Stadium. Clark (who set a Busch Stadium record by hitting 17 there last year) is one. Pete Guerrero is one. Mike Schmidt, maybe.

“It takes a special kind of power. The Cardinals have never finished higher than ninth in home runs since moving there (from Sportsman’s Park).”

The Cardinals averaged 5.3 runs when Clark was in the lineup last year and 3.6 when he wasn’t. He appeared in only 131 games and not at all after Sept. 9, when he injured his right ankle. A hand injury restricted him to 65 games in 1986. A rib injury restricted him to 126 games in 1985.

Horner, similarly injury prone with the Braves, has a .288 career average in Busch Stadium and 5 home runs in 139 at-bats, 1 in every 28 at-bats, compared to his impressive overall ratio of 1 every 17 at-bats.

“It’s a great baseball town and a great place to play,” Horner said of St. Louis. “I’ve always seen the ball well there and enjoyed hitting there. It’s big, but that creates other opportunities. A double in the gap can be as important as a home run.”

Horner hit .327 with 31 homers in 93 games with the Swallows. He signed in early April of ‘87, having missed spring training.

“I was sitting around, not getting any calls,” he said. “I couldn’t re-sign with the Braves until May 1, even if they had taken me back.

“There was a realistic chance I wasn’t going to play at all, and I felt that was the worst thing I could do. I played, made new friends and had a great experience, though it was difficult at times, even overwhelming.

“I mean, the first time I got off the plane in Tokyo, it was unreal. There were 200 photographers and reporters, and it didn’t let up. They followed me everywhere I went throughout the season. The whole country knew who I was. It was instant recognition.”

Nakajima eased the language problems, but Horner said he still felt isolated at times. Day old baseball scores from the United States. Day old replays at the Hard Rock Cafe.

“I learned a lot about myself and feel I’m better off because of it,” he said. “I have no regrets and nothing but good things to say about the Japanese people. They’re warm, polite and willing to do anything to make sure you’re taken care of.

“How many families get the chance to spend three months in a foreign country and be treated as well as we were?”

There might have been another plus to it as well. Accustomed to the fastballs of physically strong U.S. pitchers, Horner had to adjust to an array of off-speed pitches.

“I’m more of a patient hitter now, and that can help me in this situation because we have so much speed, and I’m going to have to be dealing with pitchers taking extra time and throwing to first base,” he said.

“At least, I didn’t miss a full season. I benefited in a lot of ways. I don’t feel even a step behind.”

Patience may also help Horner deal with the inevitable pressure of trying to replace Clark. So will two familiar Cardinal strengths:

--Speed. St. Louis will be trying to steal 200 or more bases for the seventh straight season, one shy of the major league record.

“We have to run,” Herzog said. “We won’t even hit 100 home runs, that’s the one sure thing. We hit 96 last year, and 35 of those went to New York.”

--Pitching. The Cardinals are deep and talented, with the recent addition of Jose DeLeon enhancing the rotation of John Tudor, Danny Cox, Joe McGrane and Greg Mathews. Herzog said it is the best staff he has ever had.

“We should be able to do a lot of things better because our pitching was so shattered (by injuries last year),” Herzog said.

“Everybody in New York talks about the Mets finishing second because Gooden missed so many starts, but how many did Tudor and Cox miss?

“The way we hit for the first 110 games, if we’d had our pitching we might have led by 20 games.”

With a healthy Clark, the Cardinals were averaging more than five runs a game. Clark is gone, replaced by Horner. And Luigi Nakajima would recognize that Herzog has changed both his tune and tone since that transpired.

“Everybody asks me how we’re going to beat the Mets,” the manager said. “Why don’t they ask me how they’re going to beat us? Haven’t we won two of the last three years?

“I mean, they’ve got a very good baseball team, but there’s more than one good team in this division, and we’re one of them.”