Snarky Clark

I share my cards in this space and it has come down to this card for this evening.  I was waiting for a night when my dander was up a little bit to talk about Jack Clark: He's an ass. 

This analysis really comes from two different incidents during Clark's career as a baseball player and now as a radio host outside of St. Louis.  Let's starting with him as a player.  The Cardinals traded for Jack Clark before the 1985 season to be the token power hitter in the middle of Whitey Herzog's track team.  Clark played for the Cardinals for three seasons, but turned down the team's generous contract offer after the 1987 season to sign with the Yankees.  St. Louis fans were not happy, but the bumpy road was just beginning for Clark.  After leaving St. Louis he:

-signed with the Yankees, but demanded a trade to avoid playing for Lou Pinella

-was traded to the Padres and picked fights with Tony Gwynn, called out his manager, and basically called Padres fans the dumbest fans in all of baseball

-signed with the Red Sox after calling the American League boring.  In the words of Jack: "I hate that damn League" 

-as his career was winding down he declared bankruptcy in 1992 because he was paying on 18 different cars at once

The there was the radio incident.  Clark was working at a radio station in St. Louis with Kevin Slaten (also a piece of work-Google him) when he decided to talk a little bit about Albert Pujols, who had just signed with the Angels.  Clark said of Pujols "I know for a fact he was using PEDs."  Albert sued the radio station.  Albert sued Jack Clark.  Then Clark walked it back down and retracted his statement to avoid losing whatever money he still has left in life.  

So, after reading the beginning of my blog post, you might wonder why I would buy a Jack Clark autograph?  Let's look at the card first:

It's a 2013 Topps Archives card featuring Clark as a Cardinal, so obviously there is the whole Cardinals autograph thing going on here.  For as big of an idiot as Clark has been over the course of his playing career, and after his playing career, he really did make some great memories for Cardinals fans during his brief three year stay in the Lou.  Probably the best moment was when he was he hit the series clinching home run against the Dodgers in the 1985 National League Championship Series.  

So, while I am not really a fan of Jack Clark the person, Jack Clark the baseball player was a pretty good player.  He just should have put his foot in his mouth a few more times in his life.