Giants Still Have the Will : Clark Is Gone, but Not the Desire to Shoot for New Heights This Season

The pain is gone. The memory of the body blow that was the loss to the Dodgers on the final day of the 1993 season is now a motivation.

The San Francisco Giants are determined to take it a step farther--their stunning and surprising 103 victories one fewer than needed.

The Atlanta Braves are gone, too, realigned from West to East in the National League. Who’s going to miss the team that came from 10 back in July to win 104 and the division title? Who’s going to miss the Braves? Get real.

“Dusty and I are going to be sleeping better,” Bob Quinn, the Giants’ general manager, said of Manager Dusty Baker.

“I mean, I could stick my head in the sand and ignore the obvious, but who would I be fooling? Am I pleased? Darn right.”

Will Clark is gone, too. He will be missed more than the Braves, but what does that say?

The Giants, supplemented by the signing of free-agent pitchers Mark Portugal and Steve Frye and looking for veteran Todd Benzinger or power prospect J.R. Phillips to play first base, think they are stronger than in 1993, when Clark drove in a modest 73 runs for the second consecutive season while hampered by a knee injury.

Is this a cold and impersonal business, or what?

“This isn’t meant as disrespect to Will, but I don’t think (his departure) means as much as people are making it out to,” third baseman

Matt Williams said.

“I hope he does well (with the Texas Rangers), but we’re putting a two-time batting champion and MVP (Willie McGee) into his (third) spot in the batting order, and either Todd or J.R. will be fine in the field.

“Playing every day and hitting behind Barry (Bonds), there’s no reason they shouldn’t have the opportunity to drive in at least 73. We’ll be just fine.”

Said Bonds: “One guy doesn’t make a team. Lose a bunch of guys like we kept doing in Pittsburgh, that’s a team, but lose one, almost anyone, that’s not.”

In the remarkable renaissance of ‘93, the Giants lost starting pitchers Bud Black and Trevor Wilson for almost the entire season, and every infielder except shortstop Royce Clayton went on the disabled list at different times.

Of the infielders, however, only Clark, a Bay Area institution for eight years, emerged in long-term limbo.

The Giants gave a six-year, $30.75-million contract to Williams, and a three-year, $11.625-million contract to second baseman Robby Thompson.

They also signed Portugal, a former Houston Astro right-hander, for three years at $11 million, and gave Frye, the ex-Angel southpaw, $1.85 million for two.

Clark was offered $15 million for three, but was guaranteed almost twice that--the total hinges on the value of an annuity--in a five-year deal with the Rangers.

“Based on what we had seen, we were not prepared to commit to five,” Quinn said.

“I don’t want to denigrate Will’s skills, but the media has written about it and others have talked about it.

“The decision would have been much more difficult four or five years ago.

“I feel badly that he’s not with us, but I don’t feel badly about the way we went about it. There’s only so much money in the well, and we’ve got a kid (Phillips) who deserves a shot.”

The Giants think some of the thrill was gone even before The Thrill left.

They aren’t sure who will replace the animated Clark, but was that worth $30 million weighed against what Baker was hearing “from quality pitchers on other teams” being not as fearful about pitching to Clark anymore?

Baker said that once before this spring and raised Clark’s ire. He said it again only when asked about it.

“I didn’t make it up,” he said. “I’m not the one saying it. Will knows how I feel about him. I wish him the best. I hope we play him in the World Series.

“It’s not really fair even talking about him when he’s not here, and the truth is I haven’t heard anyone on the team do it unless they’re asked. I haven’t heard one guy bring his name up.”

Clark’s shadow, however, will touch whoever succeeds him. Can Benzinger or Phillips handle that pressure? Can they play every day? Can McGee, who batted .301 but drove in only 46 runs, do enough to justify batting third? Baker, who has heard these questions in other contexts, knows “it’s the nature of the game when you lose a great player.”

“It happened to me in Atlanta,” he said. “I was supposed to be the next Henry Aaron. Well, there is no next Aaron, next Clark. You have to convince yourself of that before you can convince others.”

Benzinger and Phillips have to deal with it. They have to follow Clark in the lineup and Bonds in the batting order. That’s another dose of pressure with pitchers tempted to pitch around Bonds, who doesn’t seem to need anyone behind him. He has enough motivations, such as the unfulfilled quest for a World Series ring and appearance, a bet with Jose Canseco that he can duplicate Canseco’s 40 home runs and 40 steals in a season, and the bid for a fourth most valuable player award.

Bonds arrived this spring to find a note taped to his locker that read: “You ain’t . . . till you win 4.” He laughed in recollection and said:

“The guys here don’t think I can do it and that makes it fun for me. You need things to keep you motivated. This team at least knows what makes me tick, keeps me going.”

There were concerns that Bonds and Clark couldn’t coexist, but they did. There is no evidence Bonds forced the Giants’ hand with Clark. His $43.75-million contract might have helped empty the well, but there was enough for Thompson, Williams, Frye, Portugal and others.

“I don’t know what happened, but I don’t think Will gave the Giants a real chance to sign him,” Bonds said. “He was a good part of the team, but we have to go on with a team that still has a very good chance to win.

“Will was a friend, but just a friend, not a best friend like Bobby Bonilla when he left Pittsburgh, and there’s a difference.”

Clark is gone, but Bonds and friends comprise the nucleus of a team that was first in the league in hitting, first in fielding and fifth in pitching.

A year ago, in the aftermath of the decision to remain in San Francisco, Baker had to be the answer man, there were so many questions. Now he wonders about first base, a fifth starter, a backup here and there.

Frye helps take the bullpen load off setup man Mike Jackson, who led the majors with 81 appearances, and closer Rod Beck, who made 76 and had 48 saves in 52 attempts.

Portugal, who was 18-4 and won his last 12 decisions, joins John Burkett and Bill Swift to give the Giants a Big Three that won one more game, Quinn enjoys noting, than Atlanta’s touted Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Steve Avery.

However, Portugal might also miss pitching against the Giants--he is 11-3 against them in his career--and might miss pitching regularly in the Astrodome, where he was 10-1 last year and 30-9 after joining Houston in ’89.

A balanced schedule, the Giants point out in their haste to cover glee over the Braves’ departure from the West, will force them to play Atlanta as many times as they play each of the three remaining teams in the West--the Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies--but San Francisco is virtually a unanimous choice to win the division.

“I’m sure Tom Lasorda is going to insist we play the schedule,” Quinn said.

Said third baseman Williams: “We have a better team than last year on paper. We’re capable of doing what we did last year, but we have to do it on the field. People say we’re a lock, but that’s not true. We still have to do the job.

“I mean, it was a disappointment not to win last year, but we had a great season. We learned a lot going that far and not winning. It should act as a motivating tool and did. Guys came to camp hungry and in shape.”

Baker concurred.

“I had an empty feeling that didn’t wear off until after the World Series,” he said. “It hurt to have worked so hard, played so well, and not go to the dance, but it renewed our motivation.”

The 103 victories were the most in league history for a first-year manager. If Baker was one of the questions facing the Giants a year ago, he provided an emphatic answer. If the team had moved to Florida, Baker might not have gotten the job.

He has much to be grateful for, he said, and added that his rookie success underscored the “value of doing homework, being prepared and trusting your own instincts even if it means going against the book.

“They gave me all they had,” Baker said of his players. “One reason Atlanta may have lost to Philadelphia (in the league playoff) was that they were out of gas from each of us trying to hold the other off. In essence, we had a very good year but finished second.

“You can’t be complacent finishing second or that’s as far as you’ll ever go.”

The team that finished first has gone to another division, but nothing is automatic, not even the re-signing of Will Clark.