Jack Clark Knows How to Hold a Grudge

Things went pretty well for Jack Clark during his three years as a St. Louis Cardinal in the mid-1980s. He hit 66 homers and the Cardinals went to the World Series in 1985 and 1987. Sure, they dropped each of those series in seven games and the '86 Cardinals finished 28 1/2 games behind the Mets, but you'd think 20-plus years of perspective might make any leftover pain go away.

You'd think wrong.

Clark still harbors a honey of a grudge against that Mets club and aired his grievances well ahead of the Festivus season.

He took to the radio on Tuesday to denounce that Mets team in general, but took particular aim at the one member of the club who made it to Cooperstown who he met at All-Star Games.

"I was never a big Gary Carter fan anyhow, never wanted anything to do with him. You could tell he couldn't stand it, whoever was talking to someone else to the media because he wanted to be the one that the whole game was about. Which was pretty sickening and disgusting to everybody else, so we just wanted to get out of there and get on the field so we didn't have to see him with his white shoes on, being sad. He's in the Hall of Fame but talked his way more into the Hall of Fame than deserving it."

He also accused the Mets of corking their bats by renewing an accusation against Howard Johnson. In 1987, Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog actually had one of Hojo's bats investigated. It came back negative, but Clark's not one to let science or facts get in the way of a good, sour rant about things that no one else remembers.

"That just goes to show those guys were trying to cheat and, you know, it didn't end up working for them anyhow. So if his was corked, I'm sure a few other guys' over there were corked, also."

There may have been members of that Mets team who were corking their bats, and if they were it certainly worked for them in 1986. Knowing what we do about their other activities, though, that's a pretty mild transgression against society.

Given the shift in divisions, it's hard to remember that the Mets and Cardinals had a pretty hot rivalry there in the mid-'80s. Clark's residual anger still seems to lack any kind of perspective, but it's always nice to revisit the olden days of baseball.