1992 ALL-STAR GAME : Foremost at First : Different Approaches Yield Similar Results for All-Stars McGriff, Clark

They were surrounded by chaos. Friends were trading punches with one another. Their bosses were wrestling on the ground. Pandemonium was everywhere.

Standing next to the batting screen, perhaps 80 feet away from the brawl at Candlestick Park, were Fred McGriff and Will Clark. Their shirts ripped open, and bodies aching, the two stood together with their arms around each others’ shoulders.

It was the first time, perhaps, they realized the respect they had for each other.

“I think we all kind of did a double-take on that one,” San Francisco Giant pitcher Bud Black said. “Everybody’s going at it in the middle of the field, and then we look up, and there’s Will calming down Fred.

“That kind of stopped it for everybody right there.”

It was shocking enough that chilly night of three weeks ago to see McGriff--the quiet one--charge the mound after being hit by a Trevor Wilson pitch. It was the most emotion anyone has seen from McGriff on a baseball field.

But to see Clark--the loud one--ram his body into McGriff and take him away from the melee was almost bizarre. It was as if their personalities got mixed up in a baseball remake of “The Fly.”

“It was like something came over me,” Clark said. “I saw Fred in the middle of that mess, and I knew I needed to get him out of there. The next thing I knew I was tackling him, and putting on a bear hug.

“I said, ‘Fred, I’m not letting go of your ass, anyway, so you might as well listen to me. We’ve got a whole season to play. I don’t want to lose you. We need you around in this game.’ ”

It didn’t matter that the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres are divisional rivals in the National League West. It didn’t matter that the teams have come to hate each other the past few years.

Clark was not going to stand by and allow McGriff to get hurt in a senseless brawl.

Said McGriff: “I’ll never forget what he did that night. That showed me a lot of class.

“We hardly know each other, but I think that night showed just what we think of each other.”

Who knows, perhaps one day Padre All-Star Fred McGriff and Giant All-Star Will Clark will become the best of friends.

Their personalities are as different as Ross Perot and Bill Clinton. Their styles are as different as Arsenio Hall and Jay Leno. Their tastes are as different as Eddie Murphy and Bill Cosby.

Yet, they share a unique distinction in baseball.

They are the two finest first basemen in the National League.

The emergence of McGriff, who spent the first 10 years of his professional career in the American League, has sparked a debate in the league that can be heard in every city. There’s no Reebok advertisement attached to this baby.

Fred vs. Will.

To be settled over time.

“I think right now,” said Don Baylor, St. Louis Cardinal hitting coach, “the sentiment is for Fred. He hits the ball as hard as anybody in either league. You stand around the batting cage, and you have that ringing in your ear when Fred hits the ball. I can keep my eyes closed and tell when he’s up. You hear a bink, bink, bink . . . and then a pow.

“I don’t think there’s anyone in this league who’s more underrated. But you watch, once he’s on a winning club, everyone will realize what kind of player he is. If he hits a home run or even a double at the All-Star game, the whole world will know who he is.”

Said Clark: “That’s what gets me. My God, this guy might be a Hall of Fame player, and it’s like people don’t know who he is.”

Although McGriff is the only player in the major leagues to have hit 30 home runs in each of the past four seasons, this is his first All-Star game.

He can walk down the streets in San Diego unrecognized. He can take his family out to eat at any restaurant in town, and the only autograph he signs is when the check arrives.

When McGriff attended the World Series in Atlanta last fall, he found himself sitting only a couple of seats away from St. Louis Cardinal Manager Joe Torre. McGriff was badgered all game with kids handing him baseballs--they wanted him to pass them along to Torre.

No one had the slightest clue of McGriff’s identity.

“He’s just so quiet and unassuming,” Padre right fielder Tony Gwynn said. “I swear, when we were at the press conference the other day when we made the All-Star team, that was the most I ever heard him talk.”

Clark wishes he could be so fortunate. He can’t step outside and get into his truck without being mobbed by fans. He shuts off his hotel phone in each visiting city, requesting the operator to take messages.

Of course, being a handsome 28-year-old bachelor who makes nearly $4 million a year invites attention.

He changes his phone number about a half-dozen times during the winter in New Orleans. His parents have to change theirs three or four times. Clark’s home number is said to be the most closely guarded secret in the organization.

“When you’re in California, it’s hard to know what women are interested in you, or just your status,” Clark said, “because everybody’s into the stars and all that crap. That’s why I love going back home.

“I call it going back to sanity.”

Clark spends his off-season hunting and fishing in the bayou. In January, he takes out videotapes of his at-bats and analyzes each one.

McGriff goes home to Tampa, Fla., and relaxes with his family. He plays golf during the week and catches the Tampa Bay Buccaneer games on the weekend. He recently bought a VCR, too, but only to work on his golf swing.

The two are so different, but so alike in their talents.

In the past 4 1/2 years, since McGriff became an everyday player, he is batting .286 with 154 homers and 437 RBIs. Clark is batting .304 with 110 homers and 472 RBIs.

Yet Clark is a five-time All-Star. He has finished in the top five in the MVP voting in four of the past five years. He is a Gold Glove winner.

“If you ask me,” said Al Rosen, Giants president, “he’s the best player in baseball.”

Certainly, no one in baseball has more of a winning aura than Clark. Last season was the first time in his life he played for a team that finished the season with a losing record. This goes back to 1980 when he was the only sophomore to start for Jesuit High when the team won the state title. He led his team to the American Legion World Series that summer.

It was just the beginning. He went onto the 1984 Olympics, the ’85 College World Series, two National League playoff series and the ’89 World Series.

“There’s nothing like winning, nothing like it in the world,” Clark said. “It’s funny, my first five years in the big leagues we won. It’s so hard to pull back those memories.

“But last year when everything went so bad, it’s like I remember everything about that season. It brings you back to earth in a hurry.”

Clark ascended in San Francisco as the man who would take them to the promised land. It took him only 65 games in the minors to reach the Giants. It took only one swing of his bat to get the National League’s attention, homering off Nolan Ryan in his first major league at-bat.

“He’s just got that air about him, that special quality,” Giant Manager Roger Craig said. “If he’s taking batting practice, and there’s one fan in the stands, he wants to impress him.

“It’s as if he’s always on stage, and as long people pay their money to see him play, he wants to perform.”

Clark takes each at-bat as a personal affront. He believes he can hit any pitcher alive, and when he doesn’t, he vows vengeance.

“I take each at-bat extremely personal,” Clark said. “But I’ve mellowed a little bit. If I don’t get him the first time, I know there will be others.”

It’s a cockiness that has left him hated by the opposition. They can’t stand his shrill voice from the bench, screaming at the pitcher or anything else that catches his eye. And the better he’s hitting, the louder the screaming.

Still, Clark is quick to point out that he won’t show up anyone. He doesn’t stroll around the bases like Barry Bonds. He doesn’t slap his helmet like Deion Sanders. He hits homers and starts running.

“The only time I ever showed a guy up was a few years ago against Pascual Perez when he was with Montreal,” Clark said. “He was doing the whole works at the time, pumping his fist, throwing the ball between his legs to first. In my at-bat, he had me 0-and-2 and then threw one at me.

“I said, ‘OK, buddy, your turn will come.’

“It’s still 0-0 in the bottom of the seventh when I come up again, and I just turned on his slider. It went into the seats, and I just stood there and watched it until it hit the stands.

“I watched him the whole time when I was running around the base. I don’t even remember touching the bases that day. It was beautiful.”

While Clark has been in the national spotlight since the day he came to the Giants, McGriff has been hidden in obscurity. He was signed by the New York Yankees out of high school and buried in their farm system. John Mayberry was playing first base for the Yankees. Steve Balboni was at triple-A. Don Mattingly was in double-A.

Pat Gillick, Toronto Blue Jays general manager, was tipped off by scout Epy Guererro that McGriff might be a prospect. While making a trade with the Yankees in which Toronto received pitcher Mike Morgan and outfielder Dave Collins, he asked if McGriff could be included.

No problem. They received pitcher Dale Murray and catcher Tom Dodd.

George Steinbrenner calls it the worst trade in the history of the franchise.

McGriff platooned his first year in 1987 with Cecil Fielder. The following year he was the everyday first baseman. Fielder was eating sushi in Japan by 1989, and the two have stayed close since.

“I remember when he went over there,” McGriff said, “I bet him that I’d hit more home runs. I had 20 home runs at the time, he had maybe 15 or 16.

“In Japan, they were giving away crazy awards to their players. I mean, they’d give away these free trips to Hawaii for the player of the month. Cecil must have had five of them.

“So I told Cecil, if I win the bet, you have to give me a free trip to Hawaii. I never promised him anything because I thought I’d win for sure.

“So he ends up popping 38. I got 36. We’re still arguing what I owe him.”

McGriff, always surrounded by All-Stars such as George Bell, Lloyd Moseby and Jesse Barfield, said he never had to perform under pressure in Toronto. The others were under fire. McGriff was simply another bat.

It was a time when Clark and McGriff knew that one another existed, but don’t even remember seeing the other on TV. They never met and never had any burning desire to do so.

Their only opportunity for meeting was in 1989. The Blue Jays were in the American League playoffs against the Oakland Athletics. The Giants were playing the Chicago Cubs.

The national spotlight focused upon them, Clark had the finest five-game playoff series in history. He batted .650 with eight RBIs, and his game-winning hit against Mitch Williams in Game 5 will forever be treasured in Giant folklore.

Clark immediately gained the reputation of being one of the finest clutch hitters in the game, but McGriff’s image suffered. The Blue Jays were trounced by Oakland in five games, and McGriff finished the series with a .143 batting average and no extra-base hits.

The Blue Jays quietly wondered about McGriff’s intensity. When the opportunity occurred during the 1991 winter meetings to obtain Padre outfielder Joe Carter and second baseman Roberto Alomar, they leaped at the chance. They sent McGriff and shortstop Tony Fernandez to the Padres with little reservation.

“It was like I had to start all over again,” McGriff said. “New friends. New teammates. New pitchers. It was a long, long year.”

The worst aspect of the season was last July. The All-Star game was in Toronto, and McGriff desperately wanted to return. Although he had 16 homers and 53 RBIs at the break, he was shunned again.

“I didn’t tell anybody, but that one hurt the worst,” McGriff said. “It hurt seeing Joe Carter and Alomar there while Tony (Fernandez) and I were sitting home. We wanted the fans to remember they gave up something for us too.”

Said Fernandez: “I was down about it, but Fred was almost devastated. You could tell it really bothered him.”

McGriff finished the season batting .278 with 31 homers and 106 RBIs, but it hardly was enough. He found himself sitting home in October watching the Blue Jays in the playoffs.

“This year, maybe more than any other,” McGriff said, “I wanted to prove people wrong. I wanted to show them I’m an all-around player. I had something to prove.”

Although McGriff is not perceived as a leader, it was McGriff who immediately befriended Padre newcomer Gary Sheffield. He not only volunteered to drive together to the ballpark each day, but found Sheffield a house next door to his own.

McGriff is not perceived as a clutch hitter, but he is batting .324 this season with runners in scoring position.

He’s supposed to have difficulty hitting left-handed pitchers, but is thriving against them this season, batting .394.

“The thing you hear most often about him is his temperament,” said All-Star coach Jimy Williams, who managed McGriff in Toronto. “People want him to yell and swear and throw fits when he strikes out or has a bad game.

“That’s not Fred. To me, that tells me a guy has confidence in himself. It’s like, ‘I’ll get him next time.’ ”

Said McGriff: “People think I should be more emotional and outgoing, but can I help it the way I was raised? I’m still very intense when I’m out there playing. I want to win just as badly as everybody else.

“I’m not going to change just because some people may want me to change.”

In fact, if you ask Baylor, considered one of the best clubhouse leaders in the game, McGriff does not fall short of Clark.

“To me the definition of a leader is when you’re down two runs,” Baylor said, “and the guy says, ‘Follow me.’ And then hits a three-run homer. That’s a leader. The other guy will hit a three-run homer, and then say, ‘Follow me.’

“There’s great leaders, and there’s guys who just talk a lot. No one told him to take care of Sheffield, but look what he’s done. When I talked to Fred earlier in the year, he said, ‘I’m taking care of him. Everything’s under control.’

“Believe me, this guy’s for real.”

It was only two years ago that Clark won the All-Star nomination by 1.5 million votes. Three years ago, he received more votes than any National League player in the game.

Today, for the first time in five years, Clark comes into the All-Star game as the backup. McGriff, with great help from the Toronto fans, edged Clark by 16,000 votes to win the starting job.

Clark says the fans made the right choice. After all, McGriff is hitting .317 with 18 homers and 55 RBIs. He also is the only player in baseball who has hit three homers of at least 442 feet this season. Clark is batting .318 with 10 homers and 41 RBIs.

“We’re kind of in the same boat,” Clark said. “Pitchers have been pitching around us all year, and it’s a challenge every day just to get pitched to.

“We talk about that when we see each other, particularly when one of us is on base. I usually end up doing most of the talking, though. With Fred, you’ve got to start the conversation first, and then he’ll start talking to you.

“You know something, I’m really starting to like that guy.”

All-Star Workout Day

TODAY’S SCHEDULE 7 a.m.--Parking lot gates open 11 a.m.--San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium gates open 11:35 a.m.--Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball batting practice 12:30 p.m.--Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball introduction 12:55 p.m.--Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball old-timers’ game 1:50 p.m.--National League All-Star team workout 3:05 p.m.--Home Run Derby 3:40 p.m.--American League All-Star team workout