Clark Takes Rip At Collusion, Padres’ Slump : Baseball: On a night his homer is wasted in 4-2 loss to Cardinals, he vows to ‘get even’ with owners.

Padre first baseman Jack Clark said Thursday that he and his agent Tom Reich are in the process of filing a separate lawsuit against Major League Baseball for alleged collusive activities against him from 1985-1987.

“I’ll have my day in court,” Clark said, “and I guarantee you that somebody will pay. That’ll be my day. I won’t be sharing it with a group of other guys.

“I don’t get mad; I get even.”

Clark was part of the Collusion III ruling this week in which baseball owners were found guilty of deliberately not signing 76 free agents to depress salaries. Yet, Clark said that he also should have been part of the Collusion I and Collusion II cases, and filed separate grievances in all three years.

When asked if he expected to receive monetary damages or free agency, Clark said: “I think I’ll get both.”

Clark, whose homer in the Padres’ 4-2 defeat to the St. Louis Cardinals was his first at Busch Stadium since leaving at the end of the 1987 season, said if not for collusion he would have remained a Cardinal forever.

“I miss it here, I really do,” Clark said. “If the market was the way it was before, I’d still be here.

“I’ve had to go through a lot since this all started. They’ve wasted two years of my career because of this, and it tees me off whenever I think about it.”

“So when things like that get stripped from you like that, you hold a grudge. That’s why it’s good to see these teams get busted in the collusion cases.

“I’m sure the owners are getting their heads together right now not to get caught again. That’s why we’ve got to get together, because you know they’re going to try. They’ll do something. It’ll come around again, the owners will hold down the years and money, and then make it look like we’re greedy.”

Clark’s bitterness toward baseball’s owners, and the Cardinals in particular, stems from when he became a free agent after the 1987 season and no other team would bid for him. The Cardinals refused to give him a raise, offering him a two-year, $2.6 million contract.

“They bad-mouthed me and told me to take it or leave it,” Clark said. “I said, ‘Leave it.’ They said, ‘Well, you’ve got two options then. Go drive a truck or go play for Cleveland.’ ”

After Clark contacted each team, Yankee principal owner George Steinbrenner finally agreed to break the status quo by signing Clark to a three-year, $6 million contract.

“And we had to grovel for that,” Clark said.

Now, Clark finds himself in the final year of his contract, wondering just what will happen next. He’s eligible for arbitration, not free agency, but expects to be ruled a second-look free agent in October when the collusion damages are assesed.

“I’m going to try to test the system,” Clark said, “and for once would like to believe that’ll it be fair to both sides. I’d like them to come to me. I’m not going to go begging and pleading for a job like last time.”

“I deserve that right.”

Clark, 34, said his preference is to remain in San Diego, but he is keeping his options open. He desires a multi-year contract, which he thought he would receive in December during the Kroc regime, but when the club was sold in June, he was told that a decision on his future would have to wait.

“With the new ruling, and everything that’s come up,” Clark said, “the position and timing have changed a little bit. I’d be more than happy to talk to them any time, because I’ve been waiting.”

The Padres, however, are still undecided on Clark’s future with the club. It’s believed that the Padres likely will delay a decision until the end of the season, but if the right trade possibility came along, sources said, Clark could be traded.

And if the decision is left to Manager Greg Riddoch?

Clark will be wearing brown pinstripes in 1991.

“I like Jack Clark,” Riddoch said. “He’s the type of guy who can get you one run, two runs, three runs real quick.

“I think his bat speed is still there, and I think he can help us.”

Clark, who missed 27 games because of an inflamed disc in his lower back and a fractured cheekbone, hit his fourth homer in his past nine games in the eighth inning Friday. He is tied with Joe Carter for the team lead with 14 homers, despite having 168 fewer at-bats than Carter.

Certainly, the Padres could use any offense they can find at this point. They have scored three or fewer runs in six consecutive games--and 17 of the last 21.

It got so bad at one point Friday that Cardinal starter John Tudor had as many hits (two) through six innings as the entire Padre team.

“We’re in full-speed reverse,” Clark said. “We’ll be lucky to stay out of last place. We talk about the team ahead of us, catching the Dodgers, hell, we need to worry about teams catching us.

“It’s like the big thing for us now is to stay out of last place. It’s like that’s our goal. That’s how bad it’s become.

“We’ve run into the wall full-speed. And we’ve run into it with our eyes wide-open.”

Take a peek, if you dare:

The Padres (38-51) have now lost five straight games, 18 of the past 21, and 21 of 25. They now are 19 games behind the runaway Cincinnati Reds, and only four teams in all of baseball have a worse winning percentage.

No wonder Padre starter Ed Whitson--who has had a total of six runs scored for him while in the game during his seven defeats-- said, “Sorry boys, I’m lost for words, I’m just afraid I’ll blow up.”

Instead, it was Clark again who was left doing most of the talking.

“I’ve experienced a lot of things in my career,” he said, “but this is completely different than anything I’ve ever experienced. The wheels are coming off, and I tell you, it’s pretty ugly to watch.”

But yet, Clark said if he had his druthers, he would stay in San Diego because surely it can’t keep staying like this.

“But every time something looks like the perfect fit,” he said, “something gets screwed up. It works every time.

“We’ll just have to wait and see what happens. The one thing I’ve never been able to experience is free agency, and that’s the thing I’ve earned the right to get to.

“Who knows, maybe I’ll come back here (St. Louis). It’d be an interesting fit, wouldn’t it? The only reason I wouldn’t come back is because Whitey (Herzog) isn’t here. Who knows, if I would have been here, maybe Whitey still would be here.

“It was an ugly scene. Hopefully, they learned from it, and I learned from it.”

And maybe, just maybe this time, Clark will be receiving more than a single offer.

“You know,” he said, “it’s like this has been a nightmare. Sometimes you want to slap yourself in the face and say this isn’t happening.

“Hell if I can figure out this damn game.”

Padre Notes

The Padres have decided to junk the experiment of playing Roberto Alomar at shortstop this season, Manager Greg Riddoch said, but still might move Alomar to shortstop during the 1991 spring training. “He’s just got too much on his mind right now,” Riddoch said. “We want him to get his confidence up. We want him to get back to being a good second baseman again, before we do anything else.” . . . Alomar returned to the lineup Friday after a two-day benching, and was back at second base. Padre third base coach Sandy Alomar had lunch with his son Friday, and talked with him about focusing his concentration. “I just want him to get his confidence back,” Sandy Alomar said. “His big thing is that he’s not objecting to playing shortstop, but he wants to try it in spring training, not now. I’m pretty sure you’ll see a different Robbie Alomar the second half of the season.”

The Padres have decided to scratch Andy Benes from his scheduled start Sunday against the Cardinals and instead will start Derek Lilliquist. Benes has a sore left shoulder from the melee July 12 in Pittsburgh when Pirate third baseman Bobby Bonilla tugged at his left arm. . . . The Padres will play the third game of their four-game series against the Cardinals at 5:05 (PDT) today, with the Padres’ Eric Show (1-7) scheduled to face Bob Tewksbury (4-2).