On this date ... 1997

You must be referring to some Jack Clark that I never saw play. The only one I remember was a second-tier power hitter, whose reputation never quite matched what he did on the field. He couldn't field worth shit (unlike Don Mattingly who was a pretty slick first baseman), so bounced from position to position, when not a DH in the AL. And he wasn't nearly the polished hitter that Mattingly was -- who drove balls into the gap. Clark didn't hit for nearly the average of Mattingly (Mattingly before his back fell apart was .320 to .350, including a batting championship; Clark was .260 to .280). Clark struck out twice as much as Mattingly. Mattingly drove in 100 + runs four out of five years. Clark did it twice in his 18 year career. Mattingly was even more of a consistent home run hitter than Clark when he was healthy early on, and Mattingly wasn't a home run hitter, he was a gap (doubles) hitter, while all Clark was known for was being a power hitter.

Clark also bounced from team to team because he was a one-dimensional "slugger" who wasn't worth that much. He had one really good year with St. Louis, and the Yankees as they were doing in the late 80s, gave a guy with only one great year under his belt superstar money. But at no time in Clark's career was he nearly the player Mattingly was for a 5 year stretch.

The ONLY thing that Jack Clark has on Don Mattingly is a bit more longevity.

As for Mattingly being overrated because he was in NY, that was a time when the Yankees weren't particularly in vogue. Mattingly wasn't overrated. He put up a stretch from that first year when he won the batting title with a .343 average to the next year when he led the league in RBIs with 145 to the following year when he had 238 hits to the year after that when he homered in 8 consecutive games and set a record with 6 grand slams. You really are going to put anything Jack Clark ever did close to that? Clark's one career year wasn't even close to typical Mattingly. There is also good reason why Mattingly got all those MVP votes during that stretch, while Clark was never consistently regarded that way.

If you want to argue that Mattingly fell apart too soon and he didn't have enough longevity, fine. But to suggest he gets the Hall of Fame consideration because of Yankees bias is someone who is so clouded by the thought of Yankees bias that he doesn't realize how great Mattingly was for a short stretch; and certainly in a class well beyond Jack Clark.

 

Wow. I read Jack Clark and I was incredulous. I feel like an idiot. But I am glad it wasn't Jack Clark and I just didn't read carefully. I was really wondering what the hell I was missing.

 

You kind of have to separate Don Mattingly for that 5 years from Don Mattingly who hung around, but couldn't drive the ball anymore. Those last few years make him more ordinary than he was if you are willing to concede that if he hadn't gotten hurt, and more of the same had continued, he was on his way to being an all-time great.

 

It's not like Mattingly hit that ripe old age of 28 and the aging process is what robbed him of the ability to drive a baseball with a bat.