This 1-2 Punch Much Like Aaron-Mathews

Dusty Baker has spent a great deal of his baseball life talking tandems.

Though he grew up clear across the country, Baker appreciated the long shadows cast by Mantle and Maris in 1961. And, as an up-and-coming National League star a while back, Baker got to witness, up close and personal, the dominance of Mays and McCovey.

With that sort of perspective, Baker often finds himself trying to compare the duo he presently coaches -- Will Clark and Kevin Mitchell -- to the greatest tandem he’s seen.

And that’s easy for the San Francisco Giants’ hitting instructor. In fact, it doesn’t even require more than a second’s thought.

“Aaron and Eddie Mathews,” Baker said.

Every time Baker links those names to that of Clark and Mitchell, a smile of immense satisfaction crosses his face. And well it should. Because Baker is putting Clark and Mitchell -- the Pacific Sock Exchange -- in the same company with Hall of Famers, batting champions, and, in Hank Aaron, the all-time home run king.

But no one openly argues. And how could they, after the 1989 season put together by the Giants’ big hitters? How could they as long as the memory of the power unleashed by that pair in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series Wednesday night lingers?

In that game, Clark, alone, riddled the Chicago Cubs pitching with enough offense to founder an entire staff. Clark doubled and homered twice off the Cubs’ 19-game winner, Greg Maddux, in his first three trips to the plate. That display, which included a Gargantuan grand slam home run in the fourth, produced six RBI. That was more than enough to give the Giants an easy jumping-off point in their 11-3 victory at Wrigley Field.

The Giants first baseman wound up 4-for-4 and entered Game 2 against Mike Bielecki Thursday just one hit shy of a playoff record for consecutive hits. Clark was two hits shy of the playoff record for number of hits in two consecutive games.

Compared to Clark, left fielder Mitchell had a slow night Wednesday. But not one hitter in the Cubs’ lineup would have rejected Mitchell’s numbers: 2-for-5, his second hit a three-run home run.

To Baker, efforts such as these, and thoughts of what the future holds, justify his comparisons to Aaron and Mathews.

“In both cases, one’s left-handed and one’s right-handed, one’s an infielder, one’s an outfielder, one’s black, one’s white,” Baker said. “Both follow each other in the order because Eddie batted fourth and Henry batted third. And they all played hard.”

Most of the above points have everything to do with baseball. One, Baker says, has everything to do with life. Mitchell is a black man from an urban nightmare known as downtown San Diego. Clark is from middle-class New Orleans. If ever there was a case of opposites attracting, it’s this pair. With Clark as the only single player on the Giants when Mitchell was acquired by San Francisco in 1987, the two became fast friends.

Despite different roads taken in early life, they share one common trait, Baker said. “Mitch comes from a more physical atmosphere and Will is a very pleasant fellow - off the field,” Baker said, “but neither one has a very pleasant nature on the field. They’re all business out there.”

How history measures Clark and Mitchell at the end of their careers will help determine if they join Aaron and Mathews in Cooperstown. But, as for the here and now, no doubt Clark and Mitchell have captured the nation’s attention because of their power and finesse.

Mitchell pounded 47 home runs and 125 RBI this season. Will “The Thrill” Clark further entrenched himself as the left-handed hitter who sets the standard when it comes to a pure swing laden with power. Clark hit .333, second only to San Diego’s Tony Gwynn. He came within four hits of 200 and still managed to bang out 23 home runs and drive in 111 runs.

Clark and Mitchell combined for 354 hits, 70 home runs, 236 RBI and an incredible 666 totalbases.

So, what was unleashed upon Chicago’s pitching staff should not have been unexpected. Even before he took the mound, Maddux described his strategy in facing the two as something akin to damage control. He didn’t talk of getting out Clark and Mitchell -- the Nos. 3 and 4 batters in the lineup. Rather, he said it was important to keep the first two batters, Brett Butler and Robby Thompson off base as to limit Clark and Mitchell to solo home runs at best.

That did not work, leading the Cubs pitcher to an unwilling role in the Giants’ power play. And what power.

Mitchell, swinging from the right side of the plate, deposited his home run on Waveland Avenue behind the left-field bleachers in Wrigley. Clark, swinging from the left, hit the grand slam on an arc an artillery gunner would be proud of, propelling the home run well beyond the right-field bleachers, onto Sheffield Avenue.

“The wind could have been blowing in, I don’t care how many miles per hour,” Cubs manager Don Zimmer said. “He (Clark) busted it.”

Clark, delightfully full of himself even before that deluge, was no less so after. Asked if it were the best game he ever had, Clark said, “no, I wouldn’t say that. But perhaps it’s my most timely game ever.”

Mitchell, who gets as big a thrill out of “The Thrill” as anyone also seemed to agree. “That is just normal for him,” Mitchell said. “I see him play every day and he always amazes me.”

Others, too. “He had,” said Zimmer, “a good week in a day.”

So, for a night, other Giants enjoyed the privilege of hitching a ride. Much the way the old Giants did with Mays and McCovey. But, at least for Dusty Baker, every swing, every bold step in quest of greatness, reminds him of only one legendary pair. And Aaron and Mathews, well, that’s not too bad a pair to pattern careers after at all.